Marketplaces on the dark web (3/4)

Important clarifications:

– A great many fraudsters operate on the dark web. It is therefore entirely possible that some of the sites we mention are pure and simple scams.

– This series is not intended to promote dark web sites, nor to give advice on transacting safely on them. Its only purpose is to describe the kinds of goods and services offered for sale within the dark web. For that reason we give no site addresses, and any contact details appearing in the screenshots are blurred.

In terms of presence on the dark web, sites offering financial operations — handling stolen accounts, selling gift cards, cryptocurrency mixers — make up a very large share of profit-driven activity. This article covers five points:

1. Cryptocurrency sites
2. Bitcoin mixers
3. Handling hacked bank accounts
4. Payment method packs
5. Gift cards

1 – Cryptocurrency sites

The dark web teems with offers dangling easy, quick money. This type of service is so ‘popular’ that the ten sites replicated across the greatest number of mirrors are currently all of this kind.

We note in passing that the number of mirrors of the Bitcoin x200 site has gone from 4,000 to nearly 7,000 since our January 2021 publication. We will not return here to how suspicious this proliferation of mirrors is; our two July articles on the subject still stand.

Honour where honour is due. The Bitcoin x200 Service site offers to exploit a flaw in the bitcoin transaction system. If one gives any credit — and it is very hard to — to what their page describes, it is possible to carry out transactions in which the seller receives more money than the buyer sent, thereby creating artificial funds and generating significant income. The rest of the pitch is entirely predictable: you are invited to invest a minimum of 0.005 bitcoin (some 260 euros at today’s rate) in these transactions. The promised gain is one bitcoin, or 52,000 euros.

The Bitcoin x200 Service site

Another site more modestly offers to double your Ethereum holdings. No explanation is given as to the method, and the site’s design makes it fairly hard to read.

The Ethereum Doubler site

2 – Bitcoin mixers

Bitcoin mixing services can also be found on the dark web. This type of service — bitcoin mixer, bitcoin blender or bitcoin tumbler — adds a layer of anonymity to bitcoin transactions, and so serves people concerned about their privacy. That, at least, is what their promoters say; the main purpose of these systems is far more prosaically to launder funds of dubious origin. These mixers do not appear to work any differently from those available on the clear web.

The Mixabit site

The Bitcoin Mixer 2.0 site

3 – Handling hacked bank accounts

Another very widespread activity on the dark web is dealing in hacked bank accounts. A great many sites, with evocative and sometimes rather well-chosen names, sell — for a percentage of the sum available in the account — all the information a buyer needs to use it.

The 21 Dump Street site

The Fresh Credit Cards Dumpz site

Bank accounts are not the only hacked payment methods sold on the dark web. Some sites specialise in selling PayPal accounts or bitcoin wallets.

Hacked PayPal accounts for sale

Hacked bitcoin wallets for sale

4 – Payment method packs

Where the services described above provide only intangible information, other sites offer complete packs including physical means of payment — bank cards, chequebooks. These can be used to buy goods or withdraw cash from ATMs. They are generally not hacked accounts but prepaid cards created artificially, whose details the buyer can alter.

Complete banking packs for sale

The BitCards card sales site

Example of cards sold on the BitCards site

The KingMan card sales site

Example of cards sold on the KingMan site

5 – Gift cards

One further means of payment is offered for sale on the dark web: gift cards for major retailers. They are often sold at a quarter of their face value. According to the sellers, these are not goods of fraudulent origin; the explanation given for the abnormally low prices is that they buy gift cards in large quantities and so obtain significant discounts. Readers will judge the credibility of that explanation for themselves, much as they will note with a smile the box on the GC King Market home page warning us that there are scams on the dark web.

Site specialising in selling Amazon gift cards

GC King Market and its scam warning

While a significant share of everything presented here seems barely credible, the fact remains that every day bank accounts are hacked and resold on the dark web. That will continue until a serious effort has been made to inform holders of bank accounts — and other accounts.

Counterfeits