There’s a Russian market selling faces for BTC to bypass KYC

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—by Protos Staff

Online Russian vendors are promoting so-called ‘face fraud’ by selling anonymous headshots to fraudsters who want to bypass the know-your-customer (KYC) checks of crypto exchanges and other services.

As reported by 404 Media, sellers are uploading images and videos of random, nameless citizens in exchange for bitcoin. Fraudsters then buy these images and use them on their accounts as a means of attaching a fake identity for KYC purposes.

One site, called Fotodropy Store, lists images attached to a single person for 1,390 Russian rubles ($16). The site offers various demographic options including the option to specify the gender and age of their face model. 

One of the videos was bought from the vendors and blurred by 404 Media.

Many crypto exchanges and other financial services require KYC checks such as uploading an image of your ID. In some cases, they require a selfie of you alongside your ID. 

Protos found one image set offering 100 photos of various male and female citizens from Spain, Peru, and Mexico. This particular set sells for almost $40. A set of 80 images bought by 404 Media showed one person with blank pieces of paper the sizes of passports and driving licenses. 

Many of the individuals on the site are reportedly being exploited with low pay in order to fuel the ease of fraud.

Cybersecurity firm SentiLink told 404 Media, “They go to places like Serbia, they give 20 bucks — even five bucks in some cases — to people there to just take a selfie and video of themselves. Then they offer those sets for sale.”

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The Fotodropy Store even has a checkmark system based on the number of times a set of photos has been purchased. This allows fraudsters to gauge the likelihood of someone’s face passing KYC checks based on the number of times buyers have used the same identity. 

Journalist Joseph Cox, who broke the face fraud story on 404 Media, told Protos that he found the service by following lots of fraud-focused Telegram channels.

According to Cox, the service “doesn’t have a massive amount of users, at least judging by the reviews on crime forums and elsewhere, but they do seem positive.”

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