Arrested earlier this year, McCann allegedly shipped over 10 2kilograms of fentanyl and over 300,000 counterfeit Xanax pills every month. What these cases, along with the dozens of arrests across Europe, have in common is that the investigations largely stem from last year’s Wall Street Market takedown. At the time, German authorities arrested the site’s alleged operators and two of its most prolific vendors. Europol confirmed to WIRED today that it was also able to recover the Wall Street Market backend server, providing investigators with an invaluable trove of evidence.
Finding A Silk Road Alternative: What Are The Best Options Today?
It is legal to host sites containing illegal activity, so long as the host is unaware of the content and does not actively assist the site’s owner in illegal behavior. A German police unit in Mainz spent about five years spying on Xennt, using digital and phone taps as well as undercover officers—including a man employed as a gardener at the bunker complex. In September, 2019, Xennt and most of his lieutenants were arrested in a nearby restaurant, as German police made a spectacular raid on the bunker. Shortly afterward, eight people were charged with facilitating two hundred and forty-nine thousand criminal transactions. When it comes to cybercriminal enablement, markets like Kraken Market, the DNM Aggregator, and Exploit.in are go-to services, providing bad actors with tools to carry out ransomware attacks, hacks, and more.
Abacus Vs Alphabay
- It also comes with identity theft insurance, which can help cover the cost of recovering from identity theft.
- Versus Market allows users to leave detailed reviews, making it easier to identify trustworthy vendors.
- The average of these latest percentage changes was applied to the most recent price index total to provide an estimated new price index total.
- However, it’s worth noting the website does not contain multisim like other marketplaces do and don’t force vendor PGP, but there is 2FA to help you stay protected while buying online.
- This platform has rapidly become a key player in the fraud market, trading in PII and SSH credentials while making use of both the clear and dark web.
One of the clues unearthed by the trawl of CyberBunker’s servers was related to the ownership of DarkMarket. In May, 2020, an online-crime unit in the northern German city of Oldenburg was asked to investigate. British, American, and Australian forces then helped to follow the clues to verify real-world information about them. In 2023, Chainalysis discovered that some popular fraud shops rely on payment processors as a way to reduce their own costs, add efficiency to their operations, and perhaps add a layer of security to transactions.
Essentially, these payment processors provide a white label service for darknet markets and fraud shops, and a seamless checkout experience for those services’ customers. UAPS, shown in the chart above, is one such example of a payment processor that many fraud shops, including the OFAC-designated Genesis Market, used in 2023. The value received by UAPS in this chart includes payments sent to multiple fraud shops using the service as a payment processor. The stolen data supply chain begins with producers—hackers who exploit vulnerable systems and steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, bank account information, and Social Security numbers. Next, the stolen data is advertised by wholesalers and distributors who sell the data.
One of the most popular uses of the darknet is for online marketplaces, also known as darknet markets or DNMs. ASAP drives 25,000+ listings and $4M monthly across BTC, XMR, LTC, and USDT, holding a 7% share. With 14,000+ users and 1,000+ vendors, it’s a versatile crypto commerce powerhouse. While the darknet market ecosystem showed signs of recovery in 2023, it has yet to return to the revenues it experienced before the Hydra Marketplace closure in 2022, given the financial success of that operation.
Torrez Market
Background research tasks included learning from past drug lords, researching legal matters, studying law enforcement agency tactics and obtaining legal representation. Patterns recommended to avoid include hiring hitmen like Dread Pirate Roberts, and sharing handles for software questions on sites like Stack Exchange. Generally, complete anonymity and invisibility to the search engines are the two essential features that define the darknet. Despite the common assumption, its use is not limited to buying and selling illicit products. Tor2door’s a standout since 2020 with 20,000+ listings and a custom design that’s not off-the-shelf junk.
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It follows then that hacked accounts for a delivery platform like Grubhub would be the most valuable at $9. There are reports of accounts being exploited by hackers for up to $180 in a single order.10 Log-ins for Deliveroo, a similar service in the UK, trade for £3. Fraudsters have been caught setting up complex scams involving stolen Paypal and eBay accounts that they use to buy expensive electronics. A hacked FedEx account for $11 could be the missing piece of the puzzle that allows them to get their hands on the goods, which they would usually resell. Prices have inflated further as sellers demand a larger percentage cut of the balance.
Trade Craft
85% of top 10 markets use escrow (up from 60% in 2023), with Alphabay at 99% success. This reduces fraud by 25%, resolving 90%+ disputes within 48 hours, making escrow a non-negotiable standard in 2025. Follow our Trends section—e.g., ASAP’s USDT cuts fees 20%, Incognito’s 2FA slashes scams 15%. Darknet forums and X posts reveal shifts (e.g., XMR’s rise to 40% in 2025), keeping you ahead of scams and law enforcement moves impacting 10% of trades.
The 17 Best Dark Web Marketplaces In 2025
Alphabay’s size has downsides—load times can hit 5–10 seconds at peak (10 PM–2 AM UTC), and seller fees run 10–15% above smaller markets—but its 20% share and $20M monthly haul tower over rivals, securing its high rank. Incognito stands out with its security-first mindset—mandatory 2FA, added after a 2023 phishing scare, cut account breaches by 80%, winning over privacy-minded traders. Sellers like “DarkMedic” and “GhostCode” hold 98% ratings, delivering solid drugs and digital goods with 94% shipping reliability. Its 20,000+ listings lag behind Alphabay’s 60,000, but the focus on safety and quality keeps it tight, with scams below 1%. The $2.8M monthly trade volume trails bigger players, but its 5% share shows a loyal base that values security over size. ASAP is a tech nerd’s playground—accepting BTC, LTC, ZCash, and Monero, it’s got options for days.
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The site is nicely laid out, there are a few categories to explore, and it’s quite a quaint experience. Even before the German police shut down CyberBunker, they had glimpsed inside its blue book. Xennt did not come to the door, but one of his managers spoke to the officers and showed them to the server bank. U.S.-based drug vendors on Abacus Market advertising a synthetic opioid called China White, which its customers can purchase using Bitcoin or Monero. The chart above shows that ASAP and Mega Darknet markets led the large retail and wholesale segments respectively.
- A once-sizable illicit enterprise that began in 2014, AlphaBay was closed by authorities in 2017 and then reopened in 2021.
- They’re tightening security and carefully screening anyone who wants to join.
- Law enforcement agencies have achieved big wins following this strategy, shutting down once-prominent markets like AlphaBay and Hansa.
- Of course, not all the popular and widely-used dark web sites and things like marketplaces on the dark net are illegal.
UK passports, marriage and birth certificates all trade for around £2,000, but can fetch as much as £5,000. The higher value is because it’s easier to realize the value of debit cards into cash, and because accounts with high balances are being put up for sale more often. In last year’s Price Index, PayPal‘s average price of $247 was inflated by the number of accounts listed with balances in excess of $10,000. Find out more about how different types of hacked credentials can be used for fraud in the common scams section of our Dark Web Prices research hub.
The website allows a personalized searching experience, where you can search according to your geographical location, country-specific, and keyword or price-specific search results. More of a forum than a traditional vendor market, exploit facilitates cybercriminals’ ability to transact. Many threat actors are rushing to Telegram channels and groups in order to leverage their anonymous profiles and end-to-end encryption. Another trend that is affecting traditional dark web markets is the rise of Telegram as another funnel for cybercriminals.
In 2013, the FBI shut down the Silk Road, but it was later relaunched in 2014 with the new name of Silk Road 2.0, but the German authorities shut it down in the same year. Other than the Silk Road 2.0, similar marketplaces also emerged, but they all went down sooner or later. You can find featured listings on the homepage and browse the products of your choice. There’s also a search bar that you can use to search for any particular product or vendor. The White House market offers impressive features like a mandatory PGP requirement that enables 2FA for the user’s profile and adds a protective layer.
