Ever worried about someone stealing your cookies? Nee, not the chocolate kind, but browser cookies. Well, a certain Dutchman may have got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and has since been arrested for his crimes.
Dubbed ‘Cookie Monster’, a police investigation involving the FBI and Europol has identified a 32-year-old Dutchman as possibly the largest user of the criminal trading website Genesis Market.
The supposed cybercriminal was arrested in Barendrecht on July 18, reports NU.nl.
Stealing digital information
Genesis Market was a criminal trading website that allowed criminals to take over the digital lives of their victims. Account data, digital fingerprints, web cookies, and credit card information could all be accessed and sold.
READ MORE | Dutch websites blackout after Russian hack attack: retaliation for Dutch support of Ukraine
Cybercriminals could then pose as their victims on social media, order things online, and empty or loot investment portfolios and bank accounts.
The FBI shut the website down on April 4, but not before millions of user profiles were sold, including those of 50,000 people in the Netherlands.
How did so many people get hacked? Malicious software uploaded victims’ private information after the victims downloaded pirated or infected software.
The largest criminal site user
The Dutchman in question is suspected of being the largest Dutch user of the criminal site and possibly even among the top 10 users worldwide.
It’s thought that he could have robbed people of up to tens of thousands of euros. Echt niet leuk!
In April, seventeen Dutch people were arrested for using the Genesis Market and more arrests could still be possible.
Want the latest Dutch news to come zooming through the internet to your inbox? Dat kan! Subscribe to DutchReview’s weekly roundup 📬