A Michigan man has been sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release with special conditions for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after purchasing nearly 2,500 stolen login credentials from a malicious dark web marketplace and using them to make fraudulent financial transactions and offering some for sale on other cybercriminal internet sites.
According to court documents, from approximately February 2020 to November 2020, Andrew Shenkosky, 30, devised and executed a scheme while residing in Minnesota to defraud and obtain money through false pretenses.
Shenkosky accomplished his scheme by purchasing and accessing stolen account information from the Genesis Market, an illicit online marketplace that was ultimately taken down by the FBI in or about April 2023.
Genesis Market compiled hundreds of thousands of stolen login credentials, including cell phone numbers, account numbers, email addresses, usernames, and passwords from malware-infected computers of victims across the world, and offered that stolen information for sale on the dark web.
According to court documents, Shenkosky purchased an account on Genesis Market using a cryptocurrency Coinbase account he fraudulently created in the name of one of his victims, using the victim’s driver’s license.
Shenkosky allegedly purchased 2,468 stolen credentials of various victims on Genesis Market. Shenkosky then used the stolen data to, among other things, make an unauthorized withdrawal from one victim’s bank account without their knowledge or authorization and transferred the funds to a PayPal account under his control.
He also attempted to withdraw money from other victims’ accounts, but the transfers were reversed. Shenkosky also offered and attempted to sell one victim’s stolen account data and personal information on a now-defunct cybercriminal forum named Raid Forums.
When imposing the sentence, Judge Joan N. Ericksen noted that financial fraud crimes “go[] beyond actual financial loss” and impact victims’ “core insecurity that affects the way people live their lives.”
“Darknet marketplaces are a borderless powerhouse of criminal activity, allowing criminals like Shenkosky to steal money from unsuspecting victims and laundering the proceeds of their illegal activity,” said Chris Dotson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Minneapolis Field Office. “Make no mistake, this significant sentence reflects the commitment of the FBI and our law enforcement partners to dismantle networks operating with criminal intent, and sends a clear and unambiguous message that we will continue to evolve in the ways we ‘follow the money’ of illegal enterprise, employing all the tools and techniques at our disposal and drawing on our strong partnerships at home and around the globe.”
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI Cybercrime Unit and the FBI Minneapolis and Detroit Field Offices.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar prosecuted the case.