WA man jailed after global Genesis Market shutdown

A Western Australian man has been sentenced to two years in prison after fraudulently using stolen credentials from dark web marketplace Genesis Market.

Perth District Court
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The 36-year-old was found to have 20,000 stolen credentials from Genesis Market, which was shut down following an FBI-led sting last year. 

At the time of its closure, Genesis Market offered access to more than 1.5 million compromised devices, including logins, browsing history, passwords and other sensitive data.  

According to the Australian Federal Police, which assisted in the international operation, the man had accessed roughly 20,000 compromised credentials from Australian financial institutions’ and government agencies’ websites. 

He also had information stolen from a “major” Australian business in a ransomware attack. 

The WA man was one of 10 Australians to be arrested in the investigation dubbed ‘Operation Zinger’, which was aided by NSW Police Force, Victoria Police, Queensland Police Service and Western Australia Police Force. 

The man pleaded guilty in October 2023 to two counts of possessing or controlling data, intending that data...to commit or facilitate the commission of an offence and two counts of causing a detriment by fraud.  

The maximum penalty for these offences is three years and seven years’ imprisonment, respectively. The WA man received two years, with a non-parole period of 17 months. 

Super theft and traffic infringements  

Prior to his arrest last year, the man used stolen details to siphon $17,500 from a couple’s superannuation and other financial accounts. 

He also used stolen details to assume the identity of another man, the AFP claimed. 

As a result, the man opened several bank accounts using the victim’s details, naming him as the driver of a car that received four traffic infringements and incurring debts for mobile phones that went unpaid. 

In addition to these, the man also pleaded guilty to two charges relating to false information submitted in a passport application for an assumed identity, which was uncovered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 

AFP Detective Inspector Andrea Coleman commented that it could take “years for [cyber crime victims] to regain control of their personal information”. 

“It can damage their credit ratings, impacting their ability to apply for loans or employment,” she said. 

“[The] outcome is a reminder that the darknet is not anonymous and those who use it to profit at the expense of other innocent members of our community will be caught and prosecuted.” 

At the beginning of this year, a 32-year-old Melbourne man was sentenced to 150 hours of community work also for buying stolen data  

Just prior to this, a 25-year-old man from Brisbane was sentenced to more than two years’ imprisonment for buying around 1000 bots containing stolen login information from Genesis Market.