Nexus Claimed to Offer Scans of More Than 153 Million Driver’s Licenses

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Driver’s license scans were offered by the Nexus service on the dark web through a searchable database and a service for purchasing identification documents. Investigative journalist Brian Krebs documented on September 1 that the service claimed to hold more than 153 million driver’s license records from the United States and Canada. However, this figure cannot currently be considered a confirmed number of unique affected individuals.

According to Krebs, Nexus allowed users to search records and obtain scans of identification documents. In a test using an empty search query, the service displayed approximately 11.5 million pages of results, with around 15 records per page. This figure is also only indicative and does not by itself establish the number of distinct individuals or valid documents represented in the database.

Krebs found his own driver’s license in selected samples, as well as documents belonging to other people who agreed to verify the records. In several cases, timestamps associated with the records matched periods when those individuals were traveling, renting a car, or visiting businesses. These findings support the authenticity of at least some of the records presented by Nexus, but they do not establish the complete origin or full scope of the database.

Driver’s license scans and a possible link to IDScan.net

The investigation pointed to a possible connection between the data and IDScan.net. The company operates VeriScan, a cloud platform designed to scan and verify government-issued identification documents. Its technologies also use infrared and ultraviolet imaging.

However, it has not been forensically established, nor publicly confirmed by IDScan.net, that its systems were the source of the data offered through Nexus. The mechanism of any possible unauthorized access is also unknown. Claims by the operators of Nexus that they had been continuously obtaining the data for more than a year have not been independently verified.

Krebs reported that the FBI’s New Orleans field office had opened an inquiry into the apparent incident involving IDScan.net. The FBI has not yet issued its own public statement on the case. The list of potentially affected customers, organizations, and individuals also remains unknown.

Why scans of identification documents are sensitive

A scan of the front and back of a driver’s license may contain the holder’s photograph, address, date of birth, document number, and barcode. If the claimed origin and scale of the database are confirmed, the incident could represent a significant identity theft risk. Authentic-looking images of identification documents can potentially be abused in fraud schemes that rely on a photograph of an ID as proof of identity.

The case also highlights the risks associated with the centralized collection of physical identification documents by identity verification providers. At this stage, however, it cannot be stated that 153 million people have been confirmed as affected, nor that IDScan.net has confirmed the incident.

Nexus disappeared, but the fate of the data is unknown

Nexus became unavailable after Krebs published his article. The website’s disappearance does not confirm that the operators deleted the data or that copies of the database are not available elsewhere.

Further developments will depend on any public statement from IDScan.net, possible confirmation from the FBI, and findings concerning the source of the data. It will also be important to determine the number of unique individuals involved, the categories of information exposed, the possible period of data exposure, and whether the database was distributed beyond Nexus.

Verified and updated: September 3, 2026, 3:23 PM