Understanding Darkmarkets
When we organized LAN parties around 2000 and took those images, we first encountered a generation of predominantly white male human beings (98 percent in first-person-shooter gaming in 2001), many of whom are working in finance today. The first time we ever set foot on a modern high-frequency trading floor we were both struck by the semblance of our experience to the LAN Parties in 2000. It was a strikingly similar experience to the tension during the first-person shooter battles and a systemic game character, prevalent in both occupations once again caught up with us. We couldn’t help but connect the term with the expression in a face of a first-person-shooter gamer we took a picture of in 2001, who smiled at our camera in the most incomprehensible way in the moment he was killing his opponent in the game.
In the vast expanse of the internet, there lies a shadowy realm known as darkmarkets. These are online platforms that facilitate the buying and selling of illicit goods and services, often using cryptocurrencies to ensure anonymity.
One look upon their otherworldly visages will drive a character totally batnuts. These existential horrors are not so much evil as they are cold and completely anti-human, and so they call into question the very meaning of human life—people are as insignificant hiccups in a larger cosmos that is chaotic and unfeeling towards human plight. For this reason, the human animal should be quite thankful it is unable to “correlate all the contents” of the cosmos and just try not to read that book or dig up any ancient relics.
This cooperation was essential in gathering legal evidence, sting operations, takedowns, and for the eventual legal cases that brought with them their own hurdles. From the criminal perspective, the book recounts their often-accidental journey into crime. It looks at the challenges they faced, such as building trust between criminals, who could not turn to violence in the digital world, as they would in the physical, when things didn’t go as anticipated. It also explores the battles between carding groups/individuals and, of course, how they tried to evade capture. ‘Operation Disruptor’ involved agencies from nine countries and the seizure of over $6.5m in cash and cryptocurrencies as criminals warned law enforcement will track them down. The agency says the international partners planned on using the data stored on those servers to go after the site’s moderators, sellers and buyers.
By comparing our measures of the types of counterfeits to goods seized at borders, we can identify how products differ and discuss possible contributing factors to those differences. Based on a report by OECD/EUIPO (2019), which summarizes findings regarding seized counterfeits between 2014 and 2016, we see that not all categories represented on dark markets are also present in seized goods (Table 5). Also, the distribution of counterfeits found on dark markets and seized products varies greatly. In addition, sunglasses, handbags, and other accessories, which make up around 10% of counterfeits on dark markets, are not listed individually in the report but are grouped within headgear (1.5%), miscellaneous (0.4%), and articles of leather (13.4%). Each market category has subcategories and several related items are offered for sale on each, making AlphaBay one of the most popular and unique dark web marketplaces since it operates both as a classic marketplace and a data store. The main items sold in the marketplace were illegal drugs, counterfeit money, stolen or counterfeit credit card details, anonymous SIM cards and malware.
Pathfinder Chronicles: Dark Markets–A Guide To Katapesh
“If the cards did what they were supposed to … they would be recommended. If not they weren’t allowed in,” said the investigator. But once vetted, its 2,000 vendors and buyers traded everything from card details, obtained through hacking, phishing and ATM skimming devices, to viruses with which buyers could extort money by threatening company websites. The unnamed 34-year-old man from Australia said to be behind the marketplace, DarkMarket, was picked up by police in the city of Koblenz in the southwest of Germany. According to police, the investigation was a collaboration of law enforcement in Germany, the U.K., Denmark, Switzerland, Moldova, Ukraine, Australia, as well as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s narcotics law enforcement division and the Internal Revenue Service. The world’s largest online illegal marketplace today was taken offline and an Australian man accused of running it has been arrested. From the law enforcement perspective, the skills and techniques required to identify who and where the criminals were often required cooperating across agencies that had previously been unaccustomed to working together.
Counterfeits could be introduced during packaging, distribution to wholesalers, retailers, or any other transportation process. As Hollis and Wilson (2014) discuss, addressing the problem in cases where companies have been misled would involve improvements to guardianship in risky parts of the supply chain. Companies could be provided with information about which products are affected and from which country they originate to facilitate their efforts to identify risks in their supply chain. Such implementations could include raising employee awareness of the affected products, implementing reporting mechanisms, or introducing additional validation checks for particular product types for specified periods of time. To aid in this activity, dark net market data—searchable by brand—could be made accessible to companies. Since product information is quite detailed, an implementation with up-to-date darknet market data is feasible.
Furthermore, the Treasury Department’s February 2002 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment5 noted that darknet markets allow criminals to sell stolen personal or business data obtained by their unauthorized access to victim computers or computer networks. They then offer such stolen data to other criminals who can readily profit from its further misuse. Furthermore, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has also cautioned6 that criminals frequently use darknet markets to sell illegal or stolen goods and services and accept cryptocurrency payments to thwart detection by law enforcement. Dark web marketplaces are fertile ground for cybercriminals who use them to expand their network, activity, supplies, and knowledge of various criminal fields. Dangerous illegal products are added and bought on these marketplaces on an hourly basis, and more and more markets launch a matching forum to keep expanding and supporting criminal web activity. As to security and anonymity, marketplaces guarantee their users’ privacy and protection, which provide threat actors with a safe and optimal environment for their illegal activities.
The distribution of the shipping origins for all products seems to differ from counterfeits. While most products seem to originate from the USA, most counterfeits are from China, including Hong Kong. “Other” contained mostly European countries (e.g., Italy, France, Poland, Portugal), it also contained a range of Asian countries (India, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia), and others (e.g., Afghanistan, Chile). The category “EU” (Europe) is not an aggregation we generated but was indicated on some products. Thus, for those products, we cannot say which European countries they originate from specifically. Inspired by previous research (Wegberg et al., 2018), we used the annotated listings to train a multiclass classifier to predict the labels of the remaining unlabeled counterfeits.
What are Darkmarkets?
Darkmarkets are marketplaces operating on the dark web, which is a part of the internet not indexed by traditional search engines like Google. Access to these platforms usually requires specific software like Tor or I2P.
Characteristics of Darkmarkets
- Anonymity: Users often mask their identities using pseudonyms and cryptocurrencies.
- Illicit Goods: Commonly sold items include drugs, counterfeit products, hacking services, and stolen data.
- Escrow Services: Most darkmarkets incorporate escrow systems to facilitate safe transactions.
Popular Darkmarkets
Numerous darkmarkets have emerged over the years, each with unique characteristics. Some well-known examples include:
- Silk Road: The first and most infamous darkmarket, shut down in 2013.
- AlphaBay: Operating from 2014 to 2017, it was a major player before its closure.
- Dream Market: Once a long-standing market, its operations ceased in 2019.
- Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
- OTC markets are thus said to be relatively opaque; investors are somewhat in the dark about the most attractive available terms and about whom to contact for attractive terms.
- He compared DarkMarket’s improvements on the now-defunct Silk Road to the advent of Bittorrent, a decentralized technology that revamped Napster’s more vulnerable model of filesharing and flummoxed copyright enforcers.
- It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure.
- It’s important to point out however that as long as the dark web provides an outlet for anonymously trading in illicit goods, malware, and stolen data, dark web marketplaces will continue to emerge and flourish.
How Do Darkmarkets Operate?
The functioning of darkmarkets relies heavily on anonymity and user trust. Key elements include:
- Access: Users must connect to the dark web using specialized browsers.
- Registration: Most markets require users to create an account, often with no real identification needed.
- Payment Methods: Transactions are primarily conducted using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Monero, or Ethereum.
Risks Associated with Darkmarkets
Engaging in darkmarkets poses significant risks:
- Legal Consequences: Buying or selling illegal goods can lead to severe legal repercussions.
- Fraud: The anonymity can facilitate scams and fraudulent activities.
- Security Threats: Users may fall victim to hacking, phishing attacks, or law enforcement sting operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the dark web and the deep web?
The deep web includes all parts of the internet not indexed by search engines, including databases and private servers. The dark web is a small portion of the deep web that has been intentionally hidden and is inaccessible without specific software.
Can I be tracked while using darkmarkets?
While darkmarkets aim to provide anonymity, users can still be tracked through various means, such as IP address leaks or poor operational security practices.
Are all activities on darkmarkets illegal?
While many transactions involve illegal goods and services, not all activities are criminal. Some darkmarkets also sell legal products under the radar.
Conclusion
While darkmarkets continue to evolve, understanding their operations and the associated risks is crucial for anyone considering engaging with these platforms. As technology advances, so do the methods for law enforcement and fraud prevention, making navigating this hidden part of the internet a complex and risky endeavor.
