Bangladeshi Operator of Fake ID Marketplaces Charged
A 29-year-old Bangladeshi man has been indicted on federal charges for operating online marketplaces that sold fraudulent identity document templates to customers worldwide, U.S. authorities announced.
Zahid Hasan of Dhaka, Bangladesh, faces nine federal counts, including six counts of transferring false identification documents, two counts of false passport use, and one count of social security fraud.
The charges carry potential sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment for document-related counts and five years for social security fraud, with maximum fines of $250,000 per count.
According to the indictment unsealed in Montana, Hasan operated websites called “TechTreek” and “EGiftCardStoreBD” from 2021 through 2025.
The platforms sold digital templates for U.S. passports, Social Security cards, and Montana driver’s licenses at prices ranging from $9.37 to $14.05.
Customers paid in virtual currencies like Bitcoin, which provided transaction anonymity.
The fraudulent documents were designed to create fake accounts at financial institutions, payment processors, social media platforms, and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Over four years, Hasan allegedly earned more than $2.9 million from over 1,400 customers across multiple countries.
The investigation revealed that on May 13, 2025, Hasan accepted Bitcoin payments from a Bozeman, Montana resident and transferred fraudulent document templates to that individual.
This transaction helped investigators trace the operation back to Hasan in Bangladesh.
Federal authorities have seized three domains used in the operation: techtreek.com, egiftcardstorebd.com, and idtempl.com.
Visitors to these sites now see a law enforcement seizure notice indicating that the domains were seized through court-authorized action.
The FBI’s Billings Division and Salt Lake City Cyber Task Force led the investigation, working closely with the FBI’s International Operations Division and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Department’s Counterterrorism and Transnational Crime Unit.
Officials emphasized that the charges are accusations and that Hasan is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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