Authorities Take Down World’s Largest Illegal Dark Web Marketplace

Europol on Tuesday said it shut down DarkMarket, the world’s
largest online marketplace for illicit goods, as part of an
international operation^[1]
involving Germany, Australia, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, the U.K.’s
National Crime Agency (NCA), and the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI).

At the time of closure, DarkMarket is believed to have had
500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors, with over 320,000
transactions resulting in the transfer of more than 4,650 bitcoin
and 12,800 monero — a sum total of €140 million ($170 million).

The illegal internet market specialized in the sales of drugs,
counterfeit money, stolen or forged credit card information,
anonymous SIM cards, and off-the-shelf malware.

In addition, the months-long intelligence operation also
resulted in the arrest of a 34-year-old Australian national near
the German-Danish border over the weekend, who is alleged to be the
mastermind behind DarkMarket.

According to The Guardian^[2], DarkMarket came to
light in the course of a major investigation against the web
hosting service CyberBunker^[3], which served as the web
host for The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks in the past.

The takedown of DarkMarket also saw law enforcement seizing the
criminal infrastructure, including more than 20 servers in Moldova
and Ukraine, that was used to conduct the operations.

“The stored data will give investigators new leads to further
investigate moderators, sellers, and buyers,” Europol said.

DarkMarket may have been turned off, but underground
marketplaces such as Joker’s Stash continue to be a hotbed for
trading malicious software^[4], with the pandemic
contributing to a spike in goods or services for carrying out
social engineering scams.

Previously, Dream Market, another top dark web marketplace,
ended operations in April 2019, and a Europol-led police operation^[5] also shut down Wall
Street Market and Silkkitie (also known as the Valhalla
Marketplace) a month later in May 2019.

The Wall Street Market had 1.15 million users and 5,400 sellers
of drugs, malware, and other criminal goods.

Then last August, Empire Market^[6], a popular darknet
marketplace for buying and selling drugs, mysteriously went
offline, implying an exit
scam^[7] that has plagued illegal
darknet markets.

These changes have led cybercriminals to find alternative ways
to build trust and sell their wares, including leveraging encrypted
email services like Sonar and Elude, private channels on Discord to
facilitate transactions, and a website called “DarkNet Trust” that
aims to verify vendors’ reputations by searching through
usernames.

“These marketplaces shift and evolve like legitimate spaces,
adapting to buyer needs, supply issues, and new technology,” Trend
Micro researchers said in a report published last year detailing
the volatile nature of underground
markets^[8]. “Available commodities
and prices respond quickly to issues in the public sphere.”