The following is a machine translation of a press release at politie.nl:
On August 27, the Rotterdam Police Cybercrime Team seized data from the VerifTools website’s servers during a seizure at a data center in Amsterdam. The operation was carried out in collaboration with the FBI, which simultaneously took the platform offline. VerifTools is considered one of the largest platforms for generating images of fake IDs. Users used these to circumvent security checks and disguise their true identities. The website’s entire infrastructure, hosted on the servers, has been secured and copied. This data is being investigated. The Public Prosecution Service does not rule out future arrests.
With a minimum estimated revenue of €1.3 million, VerifTools is considered one of the largest providers. The platform was easily found via multiple URLs. Visitors uploaded a passport photo, entered false information, and then generated an image of a fake ID. This image was downloaded after payment and then used to conceal someone’s true identity. Many companies and organizations use so-called Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, which often only requires an image of an ID. By using VerifTools, this KYC check could be circumvented.
Prison sentence
At the Amsterdam data center, police secured two physical servers and over 21 virtual servers. VerifTools users came from all over the world. When they visit the website now, they see a splash page, a message announcing that the platform is offline. Police will further examine the data on the servers and determine whether the administrator and users can be identified. Forgery, false identification, or counterfeit payment instruments carries a maximum prison sentence of six years.
Read more at Politie.nl