OnlyFake operator Nazarenko: 10,000 AI fake IDs, $1.2M

Yuriy Nazarenko, 28, ran OnlyFake, a service the Department of Justice says generated at least 10,000 fake IDs and made $1.2 million before he pleaded guilty.

The catalogue was deep and the pricing was cheap. OnlyFake sold fake IDs for "just $15 a pop" and offered AI-generated documents for all 50 US states plus 56 countries, accepting only cryptocurrency, according to 404 Media. Nazarenko ran the site from 2021 into 2024, and the backgrounds the IDs sat on were first photographed by him and his small team. "As neural networks advanced, we started generating them using AI," Nazarenko said.

In his interview with 404 Media, he does not soften the ledger. "I was building something that could be used to harm people, and I was making money from it," he said. "At the time I hid behind 'the client decides how to use it.' That's a convenient thing to tell yourself."

The service was used to bypass Know Your Customer checks, and North Korean IT workers were among the buyers. The FBI made undercover purchases after 404 Media's February 2024 exposure of the site, and Nazarenko pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with identification documents, a charge that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. As part of the plea, he agreed to forfeit $1.2 million.

He is now 28, free after a year in prison, and living in Asia.