The Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office - Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) - and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) as well as other federal law enforcement authorities launched a joint operation yesterday against cybercriminals in the so-called "underground economy".
To this end, law enforcement authorities from all federal states conducted a concerted operation to search 62 objects belonging to 58 suspects and seize numerous electronic data carriers.
The defendants are accused of a variety of fraudulent offenses in online trading as well as other preparatory and exploitation acts such as spying on data, falsifying data relevant to evidence, stealing data and money laundering.
Investigations against actors in the “underground economy”
The measures now carried out were preceded by joint investigations by the federal and state cybercrime departments as well as the ZIT against criminal actors on various platforms of the so-called “underground economy” on the Internet. The corresponding investigation procedures were taken over by the locally responsible public prosecutor's offices of the federal states, which carried out the criminal procedural measures on their own responsibility. The measures were coordinated by the BKA and the ZIT.
One of the platforms that was the focus of the investigation was the criminal sales platform “Genesis Market”. In the investigation into “Genesis Market”, the BKA cooperated closely with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the European Police Office (Europol) and other international partners. Among other things, stolen access data for various e-commerce and online payment services were offered for sale via “Genesis Market”. The platform was the largest of its kind and had existed since 2018. It was confiscated and shut down by the US authorities on Tuesday, April 4th, 2023.
Overall, criminal procedural measures were carried out yesterday under the direction of the following general public prosecutor's offices or public prosecutor's offices of the federal states:
| Federal State | Public prosecutor | accused |
| Baden-Württemberg | StA Mannheim & StA Stuttgart | 6 |
| Bavaria | GStA Bamberg -ZCB- | 9 |
| Berlin | StA Berlin | 6 |
| Brandenburg | StA Cottbus | 1 |
| Bremen | StA Bremen | 2 |
| Hamburg | StA Hamburg | 2 |
| Hesse | GStA Frankfurt am Main -ZIT- | 3 |
| Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | StA Rostock | 2 |
| Lower Saxony | StA Göttingen, StA Osnabrück & StA Verden | 3 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | StA Cologne -ZAC NRW- | 13 |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | GStA Koblenz | 3 |
| Saarland | StA Saarbrücken | 1 |
| Saxony | GStA Dresden | 1 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | GStA Naumburg | 1 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | StA Itzehoe | 3 |
| Thuringia | StA Mühlhausen | 2 |
| In total | 58 |
use the service page https://www.haveibeenpwned.com/ to check whether their own accounts have been spied on and offered for sale on “Genesis Market”.
The ZIT and the BKA would like to thank all the law enforcement authorities involved at home and abroad for the excellent cooperation.
Invitation for press representatives
By arrangement, press representatives are available on April 5th, 2023 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. by telephone, video link or on site at the Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden, Marie-Curie-Straße 1, 65189 Wiesbaden
- Mr. Carsten Meywirth (Federal Criminal Police Office, Head of Cybercrime Department)
and from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at ZIT, Zeil 42, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
- Mr. Sebastian Onion (public prosecutor, ZIT press spokesman)
available for original sounds.
Please make an appointment via the BKA press office, Tel.: 0611-55-13083 or the ZIT, Tel.: 0611-3265-8734.
The following security banner was published on the “Genesis Market” sales platform:

Source:
Federal Criminal Police Office
Also read:
Germany: Hacker attacks on authorities nationwide
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