One of the world’s biggest online criminal marketplaces has been closed down following a crackdown by global law enforcement agencies, including a raid in Grimsby.
Genesis Market sold passwords, login details, IP addresses and other data that made up victims’ digital fingerprints, aften for less than $1.
The information gave fraudsters access to online bank and shopping accounts, social media, personal records and more.
Law enforcement agencies around the world, including the FBI and the UK National Crime Agency, co-ordinated around 200 raids in 17 countries and arrested around 120 people including two men in Grimsby, who the BBC reports are being held on suspicion of fraud and computer misuse.
On Wednesday, anyone logging onto the Genesis website saw a message which read: “Operation Cookie Monster. This website has been seized.”
Genesis Market had 80 million sets of credentials and digital fingerprints up for sale, with the UK National Crime Agency calling it “an enormous enabler of fraud.”
Users now logging into Genesis market see a message saying the website has been seized by the FBI.
Genesis Market is believed to have been launched in 2017 and is notable for its easy-to-use, English-language interface, and for operating on the open web, rather than through some mystreiously coded platform on the dark web.
Login information on sale reportedly included passwords for Facebook, PayPal, Netflix, Amazon, eBay, Uber and Airbnb, and the site could even notify users if the passwords changed.
While users mostly accessed Genesis Market for fraud, the data on sale could also be used for ransomware attacks and mobile phone hacking.
The The NCA believes there were about two million victims of Genesis Market worldwide, with tens of thousands of them in the UK.
