inside the underground site where "neural networks" churn out fake IDs

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Inside the Underground Site Where ‘Neural Networks’ Churn Out Fake IDs

The site, called OnlyFake, threatens to streamline everything from bank fraud to money laundering, and has implications for cybersecurity writ large.

www.404media.co

 

[bnew]

An Instant Fake ID Factory​

·FEB 5, 2024 AT 9:41 AM

The site, called OnlyFake, threatens to streamline everything from bank fraud to money laundering, and has implications for cybersecurity writ large.

IMAGE: 404 MEDIA.

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This piece was produced with support from The Capitol Forum.

An underground website called OnlyFake is claiming to use “neural networks” to generate realistic looking photos of fake IDs for just $15, radically disrupting the marketplace for fake identities and cybersecurity more generally. This technology, which 404 Media has verified produces fake IDs nearly instantly, could streamline everything from bank fraud to laundering stolen funds.

In our own tests, OnlyFake created a highly convincing California driver's license, complete with whatever arbitrary name, biographical information, address, expiration date, and signature we wanted. The photo even gives the appearance that the ID card is laying on a fluffy carpet, as if someone has placed it on the floor and snapped a picture, which many sites require for verification purposes. 404 Media then used another fake ID generated by this site to successfully step through the identity verification process on OKX. OKX is a cryptocurrency exchange that has recently appeared in multiple court records because of its use by criminals.

Rather than painstakingly crafting a fake ID by hand—a highly skilled criminal profession that can take years to master—or waiting for a purchased one to arrive in the mail with the risk of interception, OnlyFake lets essentially anyone generate fake IDs in minutes that may seem real enough to bypass various online verification systems. Or at least fool some people.

“The era of rendering documents using Photoshop is coming to an end,” an announcement posted to OnlyFake’s Telegram account reads. As well as “neural networks,” the service claims to use “generators” which create up to 20,000 documents a day. The service’s owner, who goes by the moniker John Wick, told 404 Media that hundreds of documents can be generated at once using data from an Excel table.

 

[bnew]

https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/tech/onlyfake-website-neural-network-fake-ids/

OnlyFake website used ‘neural network’ to make, sell fake IDs​

• Site was selling fake IDs and other documents for $15
  
• Documents could bypass online verification checks on crypto exchanges
  
• Service went dark after initial media report
  
  

Tyler Wornell

Updated: FEB 7, 2024 / 10:37 PM CST

(Getty Images)

( NewsNation) — An underground website was reportedly using artificial intelligence “neural networks” to generate fake IDs that could make it easier for scammers and other criminals to commit fraud or launder money.

The IDs were being sold for only $15, 404 Media reported. The news outlet ran its own test on the website to generate a fake California driver’s license that at first glance seems legitimate.

Fake licenses and even passports could be useful for people trying to avoid “Know Your Customer” checks on cryptocurrency exchange websites, Cointelegraph reported. If they can get past the verification check, crypto scammers could use the fake documents to create accounts under fake names, protecting their real identities and making them harder to track down.

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According to Cointelegraph, users of the OnlyFake site had posted in Telegram channels about their successes creating accounts on crypto exchanges using the fake documents.

404 Media reported Tuesday that OnlyFake went offline after the news outlet’s initial report a day earlier.

OnlyFake’s pseudonymous owner “John Wick” told 404 Media in the initial report the generator service took a year and a half to build and was created by feeding it a “large collection” of identity documents. That trove of information is what helped craft the algorithm that spits out the new images.

OnlyFake also claims to use a neural network, which is a type of machine learning model.

“They can identify complex patterns in data that classical algorithms may struggle with, tackle highly complex machine learning problems (such as natural language processing and image recognition), and diminish the need for extensive feature engineering and manual efforts,” data scientist Shreya Rao explained on Medium.

Police using AI-powered surveillance cams across the country: Report

Having a model that can process and generate complex information would be useful for generating photo IDs that have layers of text, photos, colors and holograms.

“Each passport, ID, etc., usually has various numbers. Each number has a unique algorithm, which often requires analyzing hundreds or thousands of originals to decipher,” Wick told 404 Media.

Wick emphasized that using the website for the purpose of forging documents is prohibited, though it appears that’s exactly what it’s being used to do.

404 Media reported Tuesday that Wick told site users in a Telegram message: “I want to remind you that we are against any illegal use of images generated from our site. … All generated images on the site are intended for legal use only.”

 

[hashmander]

fukk 404 media.