from Hacker News

I listed one of my car for sale on craigslist and had someone contact me outside my city. The conversation started off very natural with the "buyer" asking very relevant used car questions. Then he said he is out of town and is willing to send me a deposit to hold the car. He said: "Before I send you a deposit, please send me a selfie of you, with your drivers license with a piece of paper with todays date July 5 2022. also include a copy of the vehicle registration & insurance."

I got caught off-guard as I sold my last car also to someone remotely sight unseen. So I sent him what he asked. The next morning I woke up and had a sudden realization that I probably got scammed. I went back to the email and realized the phone number and personal email he provided were both fake. He used a generic common Chinese name of "Charles Lau".

I googled selfie ID and it looks like a lot of crypto site (including Coinbase) is using selfie + id + hand written text for biometric verification. Some banks since covid also implemented selfie ID verification.

I filed a local police report and contacted my driver licensing and insurance, which they said theres not much they can do.

My question to HN is what are some of the risks to me as this scammer now has my Selfie + ID + vehicle registration + address. Knowing that crypto sites uses this for verification, can the scammer create a bunch of crypto exchange accounts under my name and start laundering dirty crypto money? or take out a crypto/regular loan under my name? What can I do to protect my self going forward?