The cybercriminal community has got a serious drawback. German authorities recently announced the arrest of three individuals accused of managing “FakeIDDobby” user accounts on multiple dark web forums. Through these accounts, the defendants offered all kinds of forged identifications, among other spoofed documents.
The Federal Crime Indictment Police Inspection in the town of Halle reported that the defendants mainly sold provisional identification cards for residents of Germany, as well as identifications for countries such as Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy operating on illegal platforms such as WallStreet Market and Empire Market.
The agents in charge of this operation claim that the counterfeiters made profits of more than 45,000 Euros. This operation was launched in the middle of 2019 after Halle police reported detecting FakeIDDobby’s activity on various illegal platforms on deep and dark web.
After months of investigation, the authorities discovered the identities of the three individuals, using this evidence to obtain search warrants against the properties of the suspects. These police orders were executed a week ago when police stormed a house in Magdeburg allegedly used as the criminals’ operations center.
The authorities reported the confiscation of multiple storage devices, as well as machines used for the forgery of documents, including high-definition printers, stamps, various types of paper and chemicals. The main suspects, two 24-year-olds, will face up to 140 counts of forgery of documents, while the third suspect, 23, was released on probation.
In case of being found guilty, each suspect could be sentenced to a minimum of six months and a maximum of ten years in prison.
In this regard, Romy Towe, chief of police in Halle, said: “We detected an increase in the use of digital platforms to commit crimes. Online anonymity is sometimes leveraged by groups of threat actors, so we’ve increased our digital capabilities in terms of operational personnel and technology to stay ahead of the curve.” Local and federal authorities in Germany are expected to announce new measures and campaigns to combat cybercrime in the coming weeks.
For more information on vulnerabilities, exploits, malware variants, cybersecurity risks and information security courses, feel free to access the International Cyber Security Institute (IICS) website.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
