We then analyzed these forum posts to profile underground opioid trading behaviors. Freshtools is a unique marketplace in that it does not only provide the stolen data, but it allows criminals to purchase MaaS which can cause further damage to the victims. It is one of the most active and up to date markets and always provides new and updated malware and data. It is a hub for financial cybercrime and offers a wide range of illicit services and stolen data that cater to sophisticated cybercriminals.
Investigations
Beyond drugs, there are now ever-growing examples of generative AI being used for sexual deepfakes across schools and even of public figures, including the recent case of NRL presenter Tiffany Salmond. This ability of dark web communities to thrive in disruptions reflects how dark web market users have become experts at adapting to risks, managing disruptions and rebuilding quickly. In fact, it is routine for individuals participating in these dark web communities, par for the course of engaging in the markets. Usually these products are sent to the buyer by post and money transferred to the seller through the escrow system.
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Based on our observations from analysis on dark web data using Lunar, we’ve identified the top 7 marketplaces on the dark web in 2025. We developed Lunar to monitor the deep and dark web, including dark web marketplace sites. WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users. It offers counterfeit documents, financial fraud tools, hacking and malware services.
Russian Language Darknet Marketplaces Continue To Drive Overall Volume Of Illicit Drug Sales
When the buyer wants to check out and make a purchase using cryptocurrency (eg, Bitcoin), if the trader accepts payment through an anonymous online marketplace as an escrow, the buyer will place the listed amount of cryptocurrency in escrow (step 7). Then, the trader receives the order and escrow confirmation (step 8). Otherwise, the buyer will pay the trader directly using cryptocurrency or any other payment method accepted by the trader (step 9) 7. Note that the escrow mechanism is widely deployed in the anonymous online market because it helps to build trust and resolve disputes between sellers and buyers.
Trump Revokes Secret Service Protection For Former VP Kamala Harris
Once it lands on a darknet marketplace, it becomes part of the illegal weapons trade. Although these marketplaces are continuously shut down by law enforcement agencies, they still work today. Interestingly, new sites get more hype, and it even becomes difficult to shut them down, as they have better security than the older ones. Law enforcement also conducted more seizures than any prior operation, including 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of drugs that include 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies.
Police Shut Down Long-running Dark Web Drug Market
The number of arrests and amount of money seized were the most for any international Justice Department-led drug trafficking operation, he said. Experience the power of The DarkBlue Intelligence Suite and get proactive in your fight against cybercrime. Request a free trial today and strengthen your ability to track and disrupt illicit activities on the dark web. Others, particularly those based in Russia, focus solely on info stealer hacking tools and brokering stolen data. Market URLs change rapidly nowadays on the dark web, to escape malicious hacking by blackmailers. This exposes users to risk as it is simple to copy a site’s code, host a fake version of it, circulate URLs online and steal users’ passwords to the official sites – and then steal their bitcoins.
Budget, Financial Reporting, Planning And Performance
Despite claiming to ship overnight, Cory explained, most dealers prefer to ship as many packages as possible at the same time. “I waited nine days for one dealer’s wares to arrive; another arrived two days after I placed the order,” he said. Still, that’s not too bad; nine days may be a very long time if you’re in withdrawal, but it’s manageable if you plan in advance.
The review detection model yielded a mean precision of 81.5% and an average recall of 80.1%, whereas for the promotion detection model, it yielded a mean precision of 88.1% and an average recall of 85.1% (Table 4). To identify forum posts related to opioid commodity promotion and review, our methodology was designed to filter forum posts with opioid keywords and then use a classifier to the posts with the topics of interest. The classifier was built upon transfer learning and a crafted objective function that heavily weighs the penalty of misclassifying a positive instance. Learn how to automate financial risk reports using AI and news data with this guide for product managers, featuring tools from Webz.io and OpenAI.
- The Justice Department appreciates the cooperation and significant assistance provided by law enforcement partners in the British Virgin Islands, Germany, Lithuania, and Türkiye.
- Founded in 2014, BriansClub remains one of the oldest and most infamous dark web markets for stolen credit cards, fullz (complete identity kits), and dumps.
- BidenCash is another latest marketplace that started in 2022, and is now home to sensitive financial data transactions.
- Law enforcement also conducted more seizures than any prior operation, including 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of drugs that include 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies.
- Imagine an underground version of your favorite online marketplace, somewhere hidden, exclusive, and often operating outside legal boundaries.
That extortion threat, combined with increased tracing and investigative pressure, led many users to flee the platform, dramatically reducing deposits and facilitating law enforcement’s final takedown. The evolving landscape of crypto crime in 2024 highlights a complex interplay between advancing security measures and increasingly adaptive illicit actors. While efforts to curb illegal activities have shown promising results, threat actors continue to innovate — exploiting vulnerabilities within decentralized finance, blockchain infrastructure, and emerging technologies. Incoming crypto volumes to Chinese drug precursor manufacturers have seen a significant decline, from USD 27.6 million in 2023 to USD 17.0 million in 2024. This drop may be driven in part by stronger actions from the Chinese government following the Biden-Xi summit of November 2023. The summit resulted in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banning a range of fentanyl precursors and shutting down some suppliers, followed by a further ban of several nitazenes and analogs in July 2024.
Law enforcement authorities across Europe have dismantled Archetyp Market, the most enduring dark web drug market, following a large-scale operation involving six countries, supported by Europol and Eurojust. Launched in 2020, Cypher Marketplace sells fraudulent documents, stolen credit cards, fake IDs, and malware. Its emphasis on user anonymity and document forgery makes it a core tool for identity fraud. Europol, which is based in The Hague, built its intelligence on evidence from Germany, which seized the marketplace’s “criminal infrastructure” in December 2021, the agency said. Encryption technologies allow vendors to communicate with customers and receive payments anonymously. The drugs are delivered in the post, so vendor and customer never have to meet in person.
Jacob Lott is the long-time owner of Tampa Computer Doctors and has served as a “white-hat hacker,” who legally hacks systems to find vulnerabilities and improve cybersecurity for businesses. It seized 50.8 million euros ($53.4 million) in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kilograms of drugs, and 117 firearms were seized in a series of raids in several countries. The largest number of arrests — 153 — were made in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom with 55 and Germany with 52, according to the European Union law enforcement agency Europol, which coordinated the worldwide operation.
- The dark web is a collection of sites that are not indexed by search engines and can only be viewed with specialized web browsers designed to provide privacy and anonymity.
- Nevertheless, the Western DNM ecosystem experienced some innovation in spite of recent enforcement actions.
- In total, we collected 248,359 listings from 10 anonymous online marketplaces and 1,138,961 traces (ie, threads of posts) from 6 underground forums.
- Saheed Aremu passionately advocates for digital privacy and cybersecurity in the modern digital age.
What People Are Saying
The arrest of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, in August 2024 triggered a notable shift in the operational dynamics of the platform’s drug vendors. The Northern Colorado Drug Task Force (NCDTF) also helped investigate this matter. NCDTF works to protect the community by identifying, investigating, and impacting drug-related crime in Larimer County. Participating agencies who make this effort possible include Fort Collins Police Services, Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, Loveland Police Department, Windsor Police Department, the Eighth Judicial District Attorney’s Office, and Colorado Adult Parole. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fayetteville Resident Agency also assisted during the investigation. In the first arc of the anime series Lupin the 3rd Part V, Lupin III steals digital currency from the “Marco Polo” darknet market.
Or that the most popular market, called Dream, had taken itself offline at the end of last month, perhaps sensing law enforcement closing in. Or that a multiagency US law enforcement task force devoted to stemming opioid sales on the dark web arrested more than 60 people in a major operation the month before. Even after Silk Road went down, dark web marketplaces haven’t slowed down. Stopping their growth takes serious effort from US agencies like the FBI, often working hand-in-hand with international law enforcement.
