Dutch police, FBI take down fake identity document site VerifTools

Dutch police working in concert with the FCI have seized data from servers in Amsterdam powering the website and blog of VerifTools, a service that generated fake identity documents including passports and drivers licenses.

Two physical servers were confiscated, along with more than 20 virtual servers. The seizure followed simultaneous investigations by multiple intelligence agencies, all of which found ID document images generated on the site were being used to commit identity fraud and other criminal offenses.

A release from Dutch National Police says users of VerifTools provide a passport photo and enter false information, and the platform generates a fake ID they can download. According to The Hacker News, theVerifTools marketplace has been linked to an equivalent of approximately 6.4 million dollars in illicit proceeds. Its minimum estimated revenue is 1.3 million euros, or around 1.5 million dollars.

I get knocked down, but I get up again…

As of August 27, when the Rotterdam Police Cybercrime Team took control of VerifTools’ servers, the platform is no longer online at its original domains. This includes two marketplace domains and one blog. Arrests are possible, and charges could bring a prison sentence of up to six years.

That said, neither the seizure nor the shutdown appear to have stopped the unknown operators, who have posted on Telegram that the service has been relaunched with a .com domain. The splash page warns that “legal usage of the platform is your responsibility.”

Police say they will “further examine the data on the servers and determine whether the administrator and users can be identified.”

The FBI, which has been investigating VerifTools since 2022, says “the removal of this marketplace is a major step in protecting the public from fraud and identity theft crime.”

Article Topics

AI fraud  |  fraud prevention  |  identity document  |  synthetic identity fraud