Dutch police apprehended a 32-year-old Dutch national, a resident of Brazil, in connection to an investigation into Genesis Market, a dark web marketplace that sold stolen credentials.
Genesis Market was an invitation-only dark web forum that has been around since before 2018. By 2020 the platform became the most popular online store for account credentials for various services, device fingerprints, and cookies. The marketplace was discoverable through regular web search engines. As with most large-scale criminal forums, invite codes were widely available, even being offered on YouTube videos.
The platform was dismantled in April 2023 following an international law enforcement operation called “Operation Cookie Monster.” Around 120 arrests were made in connection to the case.
The authorities didn’t reveal the identity of the suspect but said that he was one of the top Genesis users.
“We suspect that this man has spent tens of thousands of euros on the market and is therefore the largest Dutch user of the Genesis Market and may even be among the top 10 largest users worldwide. We suspect the man of having duped a lot of people with his actions. There are reports of people who have been robbed for tens of thousands of euros. With the arrest of this suspect, we think we have made a major step in this investigation,” the authorities said.
Earlier this month, reports emerged that the operators behind Genesis Market sold the platform, including a database sans some client information, source code, scripts, and server infrastructure to a new owner.
