The US has nabbed the person behind an underground web site that used AI to assist prospects create pretend, however realistic-looking digital variations of presidency IDs.
A 27-year-old Ukrainian nationwide named Yurii Nazarenko pleaded responsible to fraud expenses for operating the “OnlyFake” web site, the Justice Division (DOJ) introduced immediately. He produced and offered over 10,000 pretend IDs, incomes a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} in cryptocurrency.
“For instance, OnlyFake allowed its prospects to generate pretend US identification paperwork, together with digital variations of driver’s licenses for every of the fifty states, United States passports, United States passport playing cards, and Social Safety playing cards,” the DOJ says.
(Credit score: DOJ)
The positioning helped individuals bypass methods that require digital copies of government-issued IDs to confirm identification. Banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, for instance, require ID to open new accounts; OnlyFake IDs let individuals do this whereas concealing their actual identities to launder cash.
On OnlyFake, patrons might “customise the kind of Digital Pretend ID they needed, together with whether or not the Digital Pretend ID ought to look like a scan of an actual identification doc, or look like {a photograph} of an actual identification doc taken on a floor like a desk,” the DOJ says.
Based on a beforehand sealed indictment, Nazarenko ran OnlyFake since no less than 2021, and the location additionally produced digital passports for 56 different international locations outdoors the US. He was indicted in November 2024 and arrested nearly a yr later.
The indictment suggests investigators had been monitoring the crypto funds; it says Nazarenko transferred cash created from OnlyFake via a number of crypto wallets to hide the place it got here from. In August 2024, in the meantime, OnlyFake buyer assist suggested an undercover legislation enforcement agent on how one can use a pretend ID to bypass crypto trade registration necessities.
In February 2024, 404Media lined OnlyFake and located the location might create “a extremely convincing California driver’s license, full with no matter arbitrary identify, biographical data, tackle, expiration date, and signature we needed.” OnlyFake created a photograph of the pretend driver’s license that appeared to have been snapped with a smartphone digicam, and the ensuing picture efficiently handed verification on the cryptocurrency trade OKX.
(Credit score: Web Archive/OnlyFake)
OnlyFake highlights how generative AI can gas cybercrime; different hackers have been utilizing AI voice cloning and AI-generated movies to impersonate individuals or phish potential victims.
The case towards Nazarenko is among the many first-ever expenses for digital pretend IDs, the DOJ says. He faces as much as 15 years in jail and can forfeit $1.2 million in OnlyFake proceeds.
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About Our Skilled
Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
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I have been a journalist for over 15 years. I acquired my begin as a colleges and cities reporter in Kansas Metropolis and joined PCMag in 2017, the place I cowl satellite tv for pc web companies, cybersecurity, PC {hardware}, and extra. I am at present primarily based in San Francisco, however beforehand spent over 5 years in China, protecting the nation’s know-how sector.
Since 2020, I’ve lined the launch and explosive progress of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service, writing 600+ tales on availability and have launches, but in addition the regulatory battles over the growth of satellite tv for pc constellations, fights with rival suppliers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the hassle to broaden into satellite-based cellular service. I’ve combed via FCC filings for the newest information and pushed to distant corners of California to check Starlink’s mobile service.
I additionally cowl cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this yr, the FTC pressured Avast to pay customers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and promoting their private data to third-party shoppers, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I additionally cowl the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in entrance of a Finest Purchase to get an RTX 3000. I am now following how President Trump’s tariffs will have an effect on the business. I am all the time wanting to be taught extra, so please bounce within the feedback with suggestions and ship me suggestions.
