Authorities from the Netherlands and the USA have introduced the dismantling of a bootleg market referred to as VerifTools that peddled fraudulent id paperwork to cybercriminals the world over.
To that finish, two market domains (verif[.]instruments and veriftools[.]internet) and one weblog have been taken down, redirecting website guests to a splash web page stating the motion was undertaken by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pursuant to a warrant issued by a United States District Courtroom. The servers have been seized in Amsterdam.
Nonetheless, a Telegram message posted by operators on August 28, 2025, exhibits that they’ve already launched the service on the area “veriftools[.]com.” The area was created on December 10, 2018, per DomainTools. It is at the moment not identified who the directors of the platform are.
“The operators of VerifTools produced and offered counterfeit driver’s licenses, passports, and different identification paperwork that could possibly be used to bypass id verification techniques and achieve unauthorized entry to on-line accounts,” the U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) stated Thursday.
The DoJ stated the FBI started investigating the service in 2022 after it found a felony operation to leverage stolen identities to entry cryptocurrency accounts. The probe revealed that the unlawful platform was getting used to generate counterfeit identification paperwork for all 50 states of the U.S., in addition to different overseas international locations, for as little as $9.
An equal of roughly $6.4 million of illicit proceeds has been linked to the VerifTools market, the FBI stated.
On the VerifTools web site, the operators argue believable deniability by stating that: “Authorized utilization of the service is your duty. By utilizing the service, you need to pay attention to the native, state, and federal legal guidelines in your jurisdiction and take sole duty in your actions.”
Following the takedown, a Reddit person by the identify Powda_reaper claimed that the positioning house owners messaged them saying “the web site is at the moment down as a consequence of main points” and that they have been bringing the positioning again up by August 29, whereas reassuring them that “Your funds are secure.”
“The web will not be a refuge for criminals. In case you construct or promote instruments that allow offenders impersonate victims, you’re a part of the crime,” stated Appearing U.S. Legal professional Ryan Ellison. “We’ll use each lawful device to disrupt your online business, take the revenue out of it, and convey you to justice. Nobody operation is greater than us collectively.”
The Dutch Nationwide Police, in a coordinated assertion, described VerifTools as one of many largest suppliers of false id paperwork. Along with two bodily servers, greater than 21 digital servers have been confiscated.
The officers additionally famous that the web site’s total infrastructure on the servers has been secured and copied for subsequent evaluation. Within the Netherlands, forgery, false proof of id, and deploying counterfeit cost devices every carry a most jail sentence of six years.
“Many firms and businesses use so-called Know Your Buyer verification (KYC), which frequently requires solely a picture of an ID. By utilizing VerifTools, that KYC management could possibly be bypassed,” the Politie stated. “Criminals gratefully use platforms equivalent to VerifTools, as a result of they will commit their fraud with the created paperwork, equivalent to financial institution helpdesk fraud and phishing.”
