The OLVX stolen-password market led to Golema Rečica: the Interior Ministry celebrates the operation but stays silent on whether there are Macedonian victims

Macedonian police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have shut down OLVX - an illegal online marketplace selling stolen passwords, access to user accounts and tools for computer fraud. The trail ended in Golema Rečica, near Tetovo. A criminal complaint has been filed with the Tetovo Basic Public Prosecutor's Office against 20-year-old E.A., who according to the Interior Ministry administered the marketplace's domains and websites from 2023 to 2025.

The complaint lists "computer fraud", "misuse of personal data" and "production and distribution of child pornography". According to the ministry, the investigation also showed that in 2025 and 2026 the suspect ran the "ONEMILI" group on Telegram, which offered tools for illegal refund fraud, and that he obtained child sexual abuse material via Telegram. That last part is no cyber trifle - it's the most serious part of the complaint.

The number 1,500 means two different things

This is where the part the press releases don't explain begins. The Interior Ministry says "more than 1,500 stolen access credentials" were on offer on the marketplace. The FBI gives the number 1,500, but for something else entirely - more than 1,500 accounts through which victims' data was sold. According to the available information, the seized infrastructure held data on more than 2,600 user accounts and over 1,500 seller profiles, and the platform's turnover exceeded half a million US dollars. If 1,500 is the number of sellers and not of stolen passwords, then nobody has publicly said the real number of victims.

The FBI at least said who it was protecting: the platform, according to them, "directly threatened the digital security of thousands of American citizens". The Interior Ministry didn't say whether the stolen accounts include Macedonian users, Macedonian companies or, God forbid, state institutions. Did nobody ask - or did someone ask and get no answer?

A first joint operation - and that's news in itself

The two agencies presented the operation as the first joint, coordinated cyber operation between the Interior Ministry and the FBI. According to the ministry, it started from information supplied by the FBI. So a marketplace that was open on ordinary web domains, not on some hidden "dark web", ran for years until someone on the other side of the Atlantic picked up the phone.

Praise was exchanged, congratulations arrived. But the passwords that went through OLVX don't disappear when the site goes dark - they stay in cybercriminals' databases. The least citizens deserve is to know whether theirs is among them.