The US authorities have charged a police officer for using the now-defunct Genesis Market dark web marketplace to purchase stolen account details and other personally identifying information (PII).

According to the US Department of Justice, Terrance Michael Ciszek, 33, a police detective in Buffalo, New York, is accused of buying 11 product “packages” on Genesis Market between March and July in 2020 that included 194 sets of stolen account credentials.

Investigators also found that Ciszek, who allegedly used online moniker ‘DrMonster,’ had bitcoin wallet addresses associated with UniCC, a dark web carding website.

The DoJ’s press release also revealed similar charges against other suspect Corey Robert Dodge (aka Cakesbaylor), 41, Buffalo, New York, who between March 2020 and May 2021 allegedly purchased 14 packages on Genesis Market, that included approximately 8,586 stolen account credentials. The stolen credentials included accounts for Paypal, Tracfone, eBay, Amazon, FedEx, Etsy, Walmart, Chase, Venmo, and eTrade.

Both defendants are facing maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Genesis Market, one of the most significant cyber fraud platforms, was dismantled last month as part of an international law enforcement operation dubbed “Cookie Monster.” Genesis Market was an invitation-only dark web forum that has been around since before 2018. By 2020 the platform became the most popular online store for account credentials for various services, device fingerprints, and cookies. The marketplace was discoverable through regular web search engines. As with most large-scale criminal forums, invite codes were widely available, even being offered on YouTube videos.