15 March 2024

Genesis Market gang tries to sell platform after FBI disruption

According to a report dated July 11th, 2023, the criminals behind Genesis Market, a cyber fraud platform, are trying to sell their business after the FBI seized their web domains and placed them on the US Treasury's sanctions list. An advertisement for the sale was spotted on darknet forums. Genesis Market offered a platform for criminals to use stolen data to pose as victims. The authorities arrested nearly 120 people using the platform to commit fraud. The sale would include the database, source codes and server infrastructure, which means that if the purchase goes ahead, other similar platforms could appear in the future.

The sale of the full range of tools used to run the Genesis Market platform could allow other groups, even less organised or less experienced ones, to create their own cyber fraud platform, or even to allow others to access these tools free of charge or to rent them as software as a service. The proliferation of this type of platform means that law enforcement agencies will have to carry out more dismantling operations, take more legal action and commit more costly resources. It also means more tools for cybercrime, and therefore an increase in cybercrime.