Fake passports are trading hands on the dark web at ‘terrifying’ speed, according to cybersecurity experts.
The forged documents are listed complete with price and shipping information by “sellers” who operate in eBay-style forums.
A seller of fake passports, delivered in the form of digital scans, claimed they were “100% genuine,” with 499 available.
The price per item is listed as $53.08 (£43.92) or 0.28675786 in the cryptocurrency XMR. Other personal documents sold online by criminals include driver’s licenses, Netflix emails and passwords, bank cards with ‘known balances’ and a ‘full UK personal identity data set’.
The criminal enterprises on the dark web – a layer of the internet where connections are usually encrypted and anonymized – were discovered by a virtual private network North VPN.
Adrianus Warmenhoven, cybersecurity expert at the provider, said: ‘The availability of fake passports and the speed with which they can be obtained is frightening.
This is a classic example of profitable criminals on the dark web committing crimes that weren’t even committed on a large scale and using technology to turn them into massive online industries.
“Law enforcement is having a hard time keeping up and as a result, whatever the buyer’s motivation, fake passports can be obtained in just minutes.”
Two listings on a dark web marketplace advertise ‘fullz’ – fraudulent language, meaning the items come with a full package of fraudulent or stolen information. One advertises ‘fresh UK Fullz’ which includes a passport and National Insurance number which the seller says are ‘all genuine’.
The ID pack is slightly more expensive than a single passport scan, costs $99.53 (£82.36), and can also be purchased in cryptocurrency.
Others include ‘physical fake’ driver’s licenses and UK passports
Scans are linked to online identity verification for other documents and payment systems such as for Paypal and gambling sites.
William Taaffe, chief operating officer at Lockdown Cyber Security, spoke at the Midlands Fraud Forum’s annual conference last week about how fraudsters use technology to target, scam and extort.
Mr Taaffe told Metro.co.uk: ‘The ease of obtaining fake passports, documentation and certificates is an alarming global development.
These documents are used to facilitate a variety of criminal acts, as a mechanism to commit identity theft, obtain illegal employment under false pretenses and for money laundering purposes when accessing cryptocurrency exchanges, the primary payment mechanism of ransomware.
“Organizations need to review their due diligence strategies and processes to expose these cases of fraud.”
The trade would pose a significant international security threat related to the activities of the Haqqani Network, a terror group that acts as a power broker in the Taliban government.
dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Project against extremismsaid: ‘Fraudal identity documents and passports continue to pose a serious security challenge.
‘These facilitate the movement of people, vehicles, money and equipment across borders and through inspection points. As such, they are invaluable to both criminal and terrorist networks and pose a serious security risk to the UK. Criminals and terrorists use fraudulent passports to bypass border controls, allowing them to travel around or even leave and re-enter the UK undetected and undetected.
False passports also allow criminals and terrorists to live completely hidden under false identities and fraudulently get a job or open a bank account. It is vital that the trade in stolen passports is stopped to protect British citizens from those who want to enter the country with shady intentions.”
dr. Schindler took advantage of the ascendancy of the Haqqani — one of the entities controlled by the New York-based think tank — after Western allies withdrew from Afghanistan last August.
“Of particular importance in this regard is the control of senior members of the Haqqani network over the Ministry of Interior in Afghanistan and the national passport office,” said Dr. Schindler.
This allows the Haqqanis, who manage the relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaida, to issue biometrically secured Afghan passports to anyone under any identity they wish.
‘An additional challenge is the lack of international standards for so-called ‘breeder documents’, such as birth, marriage and death certificates.
“These basic documents are necessary to establish a person’s true identity. While passports meet international standards issued by the Civil Aviation Organization and are increasingly secured electronically and biometrically and are therefore difficult to forge, obtaining a fraudulent passport by presenting forged “breeders’ documents” is difficult if not impossible to obtain. verify, a second way to hide a criminal or terrorist identity.”
In 2018, the Home Office outlined a range of measures the UK government was taking to tackle online criminals, including allocating more than £9 million to the UK’s ‘specialist capabilities’.
The funding was intended to build on the ongoing work of the National Crime Agency’s Dark Web Intelligence Unit and the other relevant security and intelligence agencies. A new national training program for the police and the wider criminal justice system, sponsored by the National Council of Police Chiefs, was also launched with the aim of equipping the officers to catch those operating in the clandestine online sphere.
Amber Rudd, then Home Secretary, said the aim was “to disrupt and bring to justice those who use the dark web as a marketplace for the trade in illegal goods and services, including drugs, firearms and malware.” .
In March, French and Spanish police, supported by Europol, dismantled an organized crime group involved in distributing false travel documents.
Using the dark web, postal services and encrypted messaging apps, the gang created fakes used by criminals in Europe involved in smuggling people into the UK, Ireland and the US.
A spokesman for Her Majesty’s Passport Office said: ‘The production of false passports is a crime and those who attempt to cheat the system will face the full consequences of the law.
The current blue passport is the most technologically advanced and secure British passport ever. The combination of physical and electronic security features makes it one of the most trusted documents in the world and extremely difficult to forge.”
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