FBI Investigates Dark Web Identity Theft Service Selling Driver License Data

FBI Investigates Dark Web Identity Theft Service Selling Driver License Data

A new identity theft service operating on the dark web has been identified as a significant threat to personal privacy across North America. The service, known as Nexus, offers digital scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses from residents of the United States and Canada.

Scale of the Database

• The platform claims to hold over 153 million driver license records
• It also contains more than 10 million identification cards
• More than 3 million travel documents and/or international IDs are included
• At least 579,000 medical cards are part of the collection

FBI Inquiry Launched

The New Orleans field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation officially launched an inquiry into the origins of these identity documents on August 31.

Service Details

According to sources within the industry, the service collects biometric data from a major identity verification company headquartered in Louisiana. Users report that the platform provides scanned copies of sensitive documents along with metadata such as timestamps and location information.

Personal Impact

One individual discovered their own driver’s license among the available records, which was initially offered as a complimentary sample during the service’s early promotional phase on the Exploit forum. The timestamp associated with their document points to a trip to the Midwest United States in June 2025.

Investigation Findings

“We have been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into our private database,” the service stated in its introductory post on the dark web forum.

Over the past 24 hours, the number of accessible driver license records in Nexus increased by nearly 400,000, indicating ongoing harvesting activities. Researchers from KrebsOnSecurity traced connections between the stolen documents and legitimate government personnel who shared identification while traveling.

While the service denies wrongdoing, authorities are focusing on how these records could be exploited for fraudulent purposes. The investigation aims to trace the origin of the data and understand the scale of potential misuse.

Com informações de: KrebsOnSecurity