[Another application of increasingly sophisticated but easy-to-use technology to create convincing simulations of reality – this time official identification documents – is described in this short story from Design TAXI. Coverage from readwrite concludes this way:

“This appears to be another leg of the cat-and-mouse race between big tech and bad actors caused by the rapid advances in AI, and a very concerning one given the implications for security systems. Microsoft can attest to the vulnerability of technology after its property was used to create explicit deepfake images of Taylor Swift. This race will be an enduring marathon instead of a quick sprint because once one deepfake scam is toppled, another is very likely to emerge.”

For more details and images, see stories from 404 Media, PetaPixel and Cointelegraph. –Matthew]

[Image: Identification documents (social security, driver license and credit cards) in hand of thief, isolated on white. Credit: Snyfer | Dreamstime.com]

‘OnlyFake’ Site Spits Out Faux IDs That Can Pass Verification Checks

By Mikelle Leow
February 6, 2024

Gone are the days of shopping on the dark web for a fake card. In a quiet corner of the internet, a website named OnlyFake is churning out counterfeit driver’s licenses and passports with an unsettling level of realism.

“The era of rendering documents using Photoshop is coming to an end,” the service shared via its Telegram account.

Its process is painfully simple: choose a state, input your desired details, and upload a photo. The shadowy operation, discovered through a 404 Media investigation, then creates a passable fake for as low as US$15 per identity. This can then be used to bypass online verification checks on various websites.

For those hesitant to use their own likeness, OnlyFake offers a gallery of faces to allow anonymity. These aren’t AI-generated but are presumably of real people whose images are repurposed without their consent, adding another layer of ethical murkiness to the process.

In its experiment, 404 Media managed to generate a “highly convincing” California driver’s license that honored its inputted name, address, expiration date, and signature. The system even edited the photo’s background and other details so the card would appear to be “laying on a fluffy carpet,” as though it’d been placed on the floor to be photographed, which is among the authentication criteria of many websites.

OnlyFake’s ambitions aren’t limited by borders. The website boasts a portfolio of fabricated documents spanning driver’s licenses and passports from countries as varied as the US, Canada, Austria, and Switzerland. More troubling is the revelation that these fakes aren’t just for show. As per the publication’s probe, a counterfeit British passport from OnlyFake reportedly sailed through the Know Your Customer (KYC) checks of cryptocurrency exchange OKX, a platform often used by criminals.

This assembly line of deceit is powered by an artificial intelligence system, utilizing neural networks and generators to produce identification that mimics reality to a startling degree.

OnlyFake claims the ability to pump out up to 20,000 documents daily, a staggering figure that underscores the potential scale of digital forgery. Instead of coughing up exorbitant amounts and waiting around for a trained professional to closely mimic an ID, dubious figures would just need as little as US$15 and a few minutes to spare.