Key Takeaways
- In the US, a complete identity package sells for $35 – less than a scanned driver’s license
- A forged physical passport costs $1,500 – about 43x the price of a scanned one
- Your personal email is worth about $1; your work email is worth $26.50
- Volume sets the price: over 70% of stolen card listings come from North America
The Story Behind the Numbers
In the United States, a criminal can buy your complete identity for $35. A scan of your driver’s license alone costs $50.
That is not a mistake. Researchers analyzed roughly 75,000 dark web marketplace listings between January 2025 and February 2026 and recorded the median US price for each type of stolen data:
| Item | Median Price (US) |
|---|---|
| Accounts and Financial Data (login credentials and card data sold on dark web markets) | |
| Payment card | $10.00 |
| Work email account (Office 365) | $26.50 |
| Identity Data and Document Scans (digital copies – cheap to duplicate, sold in volume) | |
| Passport scan | $34.99 |
| Full identity package (“fullz”) | $35.00 |
| National ID scan | $50.00 |
| Driver’s license scan | $50.00 |
| Forged Physical Documents (counterfeit items that must be manufactured and shipped) | |
| Forged physical ID card | $135.00 |
| Forged physical driver’s license | $135.00 |
| Forged physical passport | $1,500.00 |
The reason a full identity costs less than a single document is supply. American records have flooded these markets for a decade, so fullz – a package containing a Social Security number, date of birth, and address – are among the most abundant products on the shelf. Some scanned documents are rarer and hold their price – a driver’s license or national ID scan costs $50, well above a full identity package. Physical forgeries sit in a different league: a counterfeit passport runs $1,500, roughly 43 times the price of a digital scan.
Why This Data Is Important
Cheap does not mean harmless. The price reflects supply, not damage.
The number that matters is not the price but the gap between what it costs them and what it costs you. A criminal spends $35. You spend months closing accounts, disputing charges, and rebuilding your credit file.
The pricing also shows what criminals are really buying: speed to cash. A personal email sells for as little as $1 because it mostly enables spam. A work email is worth $26.50 because it opens doors inside a company. A crypto exchange login runs past $100 because the money is already liquid.
That is a good reason to stop reusing one address everywhere. A separate anonymous email address for signups keeps your main account out of the next breach dump.
Looking Ahead: Future Outlook
The gap between $35 and $1,500 is the thing to watch. Digital records cost nothing to copy, so every new breach pushes scans and identity packages cheaper. Forged physical documents still have to be manufactured and shipped, so their price holds.
Expect that split to widen, and expect the cheap side to get cheaper. Meanwhile, hiding your IP address limits what ends up in the next dump.
Source & Methodology
All figures come from the NordVPN Research Lab Dark Web Market Study, which analyzed roughly 75,000 marketplace listings – 28,559 unique after deduplication – across markets including BidenCash, Russian Market, and Exodus Market. Listings were collected between January 2025 and February 2026. Prices are US medians in US dollars. Figures cited in prose for personal email and crypto accounts are not country-segmented.