World's biggest online 'fraudster’s paradise' shut down in international sting - but millions of people’s details stolen

5 April 2023, 13:08 | Updated: 5 April 2023, 16:40

By Fraser Knight.

@Fraser_Knight

One of the world’s biggest online shops where fraudsters trade stolen personal information has been shut down after a massive international sting operation.

FBI and Dutch police with law enforcement from 18 countries including the UK’s National Crime Agency took the ‘Genesis Market’ offline last night.

The site was replaced by an FBI logo reading: “This website has been seized.”

The site had 80 million sets of personal data for sale, affecting two million victims.

People who fear their details might have been put on sale on the site can go here to check

The data available included online banking details, Facebook accounts, Amazon, Paypal and Netflix account information - as well as so-called ‘digital fingerprints’ that allowed criminals to bypass online security checks by pretending to be the victim.

120 arrests have been made as part of the global investigation – 24 of them so far in the UK.

Notorious criminal marketplace selling victim identities taken down in international operation

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The site was selling the credentials, sometimes for as little as 56p, with tens of thousands of victims in the UK.

Other account details for sale are Twitter, Amazon and AirBnB profiles, as well as email and banking accounts.

Prices would range depending on the size of a digital fingerprint they could provide.

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24 people in the UK have been arrested by the National Crime Agency, as part of multinational joint operation.

Robert Jones from the National Crime Agency (NCA) told LBC: “We know that most of the users behind this will have used the information they bought for fraudulent activity; to steal money, goods and services.

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“There’s a very low barrier to access cyber crime at the moment and we’re trying to raise that. Through an open web search you were able to access this website which had a wiki and a step by step guide on how to commit fraud.

“Behind every cyber criminal or fraudster is the technical infrastructure that provides them with the tools to execute their attacks. Genesis Market was one of the most significant platforms on the criminal market. Its removal will be a huge blow to criminals across the globe.”

The NCA says hundreds of people in the UK were using the site, which traded in BitCoin.

It was an invite-only site, asking for an $80 payment up front which was deposited into their account to buy credentials.

But amazingly, as well as existing on the dark web, Genesis Marketplace was also readily available on the surface net - it was the third suggestion on Google when searched before the site was shut down.

The NCA says it’s concerned Genesis may have been used as a gateway into more serious fraud, with the giving step-by-step instructions on how to make use of the information for sale.

It would allow users to masquerade as someone else to buy items from online retailers, get into school and work computer systems and transfer money from bank accounts.

David Horn, who is a cyber security expert and director at CyberWhite digital security consultants in Sunderland, told LBC: “It could be Facebook, Twitter, your bank account, Amazon, even Netflix. And once they’ve got that information they can do anything with it.

“In isolation if you’re losing $20 here or £50 there maybe it isn’t such a big deal but it really is because that money is going into a funnel to fund organised crime and terrorism activities, so we need to be diligent.”

The National Crime Agency says investigations are still continuing as they target more users of Genesis alongside its owners.

As part of that, they say more people in the UK will be arrested and urged anyone who has bought credentials not to use them, if they want to avoid a harsh punishment.

Robert Jones said: “For years they’ve been working with the credentials of victims who don’t know they’ve been compromised. But they don’t know anymore if we’ve got their credentials.

“If you’re a cyber criminal you could be expecting a knock at the door over the next few weeks if you’ve been using Genesis.

A dedicated webpage has been set up for people to check if their account has been compromised and renewed advice has been issued on how to keep passwords safe".