Most darkweb marketplaces ultimately get taken down by authorities, hacked, or closed down by the operators. Today, we’re going to look at a few of the most notable cases and talk about how to find a working dark web market.
Markets on the dark web
The dark web is also called the deep web or the darknet. The deep web, like the internet, is vast, and very accessible to anyone with a computer and a valid password. Unlike the internet, however, the dark web is extremely difficult to access. In our experience, most people think of the dark web as the vast repository of information on the dark web.
However, a lot of these markets have gone under over the years, despite their popularity.
Silk Road
Silk Road was an online market. It was the largest and the oldest website on the dark web. It was anonymously operated and quickly became infamous for the anonymity it offered. However, the FBI shut down the site. The founder, Ross Ulbricht, was ultimately given a life sentence with no possibility of parole for his alleged involvement in conspiracies to commit murder (though these charges were never upheld in court), narcotics trafficking, hacking, and money laundering.
Agora
Agora was an anonymous darknet forum where users could post questions and get answers and buy/sell goods and services. It was the largest dark web market for some time, after the Evolution exit scam in 2015, but was shut down by authorities in 2017.
AlphaBay
AlphaBay was the largest dark web market for several years, with over 400,000 users at the height of its popularity. It made waves for selling hacked Uber accounts. Its owner, Alexandre Cazes, was arrested by Belgian law enforcement in July 2017. It has since reopened by someone using the name DeSnake.
Dream Market
Dream Market was the third largest dark web market. It was hacked in August 2017, causing the theft of over 1.5 million user account and credit card numbers.
Evolution
Evolution was another large dark web market. It, too, was assumed to have been hacked or seized in March 2015, but it turned out to be an inside job as the admins stole approximately $12m in BTC of user’s funds from the market’s escrow account.
You may know someone who has advertised a product on the dark web or been offered something on the dark web that you have thought sounded interesting and, most probably, you have also been curious to know what it is. In certain circles, the dark web is known as a place where you can find stolen credit card numbers, drugs, and weapons. While these are all true, we also think of it as a place where illicit information can be found.
Where to find working dark web markets today
There is a list of approved dark web markets on our homepage if you’re wondering which ones are still working today, and once you have logged in to the market, you will find the vendor list. You may notice that the list is very long, with dozens of vendors listed. While most vendors are legitimate, a small number of them are counterfeit. So, first, be sure that you only log in using a valid e-mail address.
You will notice that the vendors all have a link to their pages. The pages themselves sometimes give the vendor’s country of origin, and if they have been reviewed by other users.