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Following The Money
“They show an affluent lifestyle with expensive apartments, luxury brands, but with a touch of illicit intrigue.” Many of Telegram’s Russian drug bloggers are most likely sponsored by new darknet drug shops. They often wear clothes with shop logos and publish price lists and post links. But Russians fleeing the country since the war have still been able to buy drugs on the dark web. In Georgia, on its southern border, where more than 100,000 Russians have fled, there is Matanga, a local Russian-speaking darknet market offering the same “treasure hunt” buying system as back home. Another aptly named Darknet marketplace, but this time nothing to do with the Nasdaq or Stock Exchange. With over 9,500 currently listings, over 4,600 of these seem to be related to drugs.
Federal prosecutors in San Francisco also filed criminal money laundering and drug charges against a 30-year-old resident of Russia, Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov, described as the site’s alleged administrator. Considering the monthly sales volume by category (Fig. 5), we observed a similar trend for available listings (Fig. 3), with most sales occurring between mid-2014 and mid-2015. Again, watches are represented most, followed by forgeries and “Other”.
Understanding the Darknet Market
The darknet market refers to a part of the internet that requires specific software and configurations to access, making it a shadowy realm where anonymity reigns supreme. Primarily accessed through Tor (The Onion Router), these markets facilitate the buying and selling of goods and services, often of an illegal nature.
Darknet markets provide resources for sellers and buyers on how to get the products through the mail, including what supplies are needed to disguise shipments and techniques to foil detection. Revenue rose 23% to $1.75 billion of cryptocurrency in 2020 even as the number of total darknet purchases fell, the firm said. Revenue at Hydra, which only serves Russian-speaking countries, jumped 33% to $1.37 billion, accounting for more than 75% of sales worldwide. One of those email accounts included the 12-word seed phrase needed to access the Monopoly operator’s bitcoin wallet, the FBI said. Hydra Market enabled vendors of a wide range of drugs — including heroin, other opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD — to connect with customers of those narcotics, who could rate sellers on a five-star system, according to U.S. prosecutors.
The Hydra Market’s servers were shut down and cryptocurrency wallets containing $25 million worth of Bitcoin were confiscated by German police on Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Dmitry Pavlov, a 30-year-old Russian resident, for conspiracy to distribute narcotics and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his operation and administration of Hydra’s servers. Hydra had nearly 17 million customers or buyers accounts and over 19,000 registered seller accounts. The bust by the Bundeskriminalamt also led to the seizure of 543 bitcoins, which equate to €23 million (~$25.2 million). “In particular, the Bitcoin Bank Mixer, a service for obfuscating digital transactions provided by the platform, made crypto investigations extremely difficult for law enforcement agencies,” statedOpens a new window the Bundeskriminalamt. 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.
But the most common and lucrative trade on the Silk Road was for drugs — by 2013, 70% of the products for sale on the Silk Road were drugs. Once access was granted, vendors and customers used the Silk Road to make transactions with cryptocurrency or via an escrow (a trusted third-party). To avoid detection, all purchased items were sent to alternative addresses, like PO boxes. 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.
Characteristics of the Darknet Market
- Anonymity: Users retain privacy through encryption and routing methods, which obscure their identities.
- Cryptocurrency Transactions: Many transactions occur using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Monero, enhancing anonymity.
- Decentralized Structure: No central authority governs these markets, making them resilient to takedowns.
- Variety of Offerings: Products range from illicit drugs and weapons to counterfeit currencies and hacking services.
Once a user places an order, the delivery is primarily set by location. A user is prompted to select their location immediately when accessing the site’s landing page – which is as odd for a darknet market that is designed to promote anonymity. Changes in personal circumstances impact the professional lives of many, especially during global pandemics, and darknet market operators are no exception. On January 12th 2022, UniCC – a darknet marketplace for stolen credit cards – announced its retirement on a prominent carding forum.
The investigation of DarkMarket was spurred by another, much larger German police investigation into an organization called CyberBunker, which I wrote about in the magazine last year. In 2013, a polyglot group of programmers and hackers, under the leadership of an eccentric fifty-three-year-old Dutchman named Xennt, moved into a Cold War-era bunker near the picturesque town of Traben-Trarbach, in the Mosel Valley. The bunker had previously belonged to the German military, and it was designed to withstand a nuclear attack. Xennt, who had a lifelong fascination with underground fortresses, lived in the bunker. Inside the bunker, Xennt’s team installed servers that hosted dark-Web sites trading illicit products and images, including terrorist material and images of child abuse. Some, such as Julia Finess, have become popular and also made a name for themselves on TikTok.
How to Access the Darknet Market
Accessing a darknet market typically involves several steps:
- Install Tor Browser: This specialized browser is essential for accessing .onion websites.
- Create a Secure Identity: Use a pseudonym and avoid sharing personal information.
- Choose a Reputable Marketplace: Research ongoing marketplaces to find ones with good reviews and active communities.
- Conduct Transactions with Care: Use cryptocurrency and understand the risks involved.
Risks and Challenges
Engaging with the darknet market poses various risks:
- Legal Consequences: Many of the goods and services offered are illegal, and involvement can lead to significant legal repercussions.
- Scams and Frauds: Many sellers are not trustworthy, leading to potential financial losses.
- Cybersecurity Threats: Users risk exposure to malware and hacking attempts, especially through phishing schemes.
Common Questions About the Darknet Market
What can you buy on the darknet?
Products include illegal drugs, counterfeit documents, hacking services, and weapons, among others.
- Xennt did not come to the door, but one of his managers spoke to the officers and showed them to the server bank.
- This cost must be weighed against the potential benefits, including a higher quality of drugs, decreased potential violence, and the incentives for a large marketplace to self-regulate.
- The following month RuTor retaliated, hacking WayAway and posting screenshots of the breach, arguing that WayAway’s security was too weak to be trusted.
- Buyers rated the sellers on a five-star range, which were displayed on the site along with customer reviews.
- Some holding prices are very high to prevent anyone from buying the product.
- Collecting data from dark markets to gather intelligence could be done manually and automatically and would probably be very cost-effective compared to (border) seizures.
Is it safe to use the darknet?
While measures exist to enhance anonymity, using the darknet market is inherently risky due to potential legal issues and exposure to scams.
Can law enforcement track darknet users?
Yes, law enforcement agencies are increasingly employing advanced technology and tactics to track illegal activities on the darknet, despite the challenges posed by its anonymity.
Conclusion
The darknet market remains a complex entity within the digital landscape, appealing to a wide range of users. While it offers numerous opportunities for those seeking anonymity, it is fraught with risks that can lead to serious legal and personal consequences. Understanding the workings of this market is essential for anyone considering exploring its offerings.
