Darknet market

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A darknet market (also: crypto market ) is a virtual marketplace that operates in the darknet beyond the open Internet . Basically, since these are mostly illegal black markets, such platforms are implemented as a hidden service in the Tor or I2P network. Only crypto currencies such as. B. Bitcoin or Monero are used. Darknet markets became known to a wide audience primarily through the rise and fall of Silk Road .

While all large markets represent full-fledged e-commerce platforms and thus act as a third party to buyers and sellers, some offers are limited to a function as a classifieds portal or forum and only offer a contact option between those involved. A distinction is to be made between markets and simple dealer shops, which z. Some also operate in the Clearnet (open Internet).

The products traded are mainly illegal drugs and various digital goods (e.g. premium accounts and e-books ), but on some platforms also counterfeit money , counterfeit identity documents and credit cards, as well as weapons and child pornography .

Origin and history

Although e-commerce on the darknet didn't begin until around 2011, illicit goods were among the first products to be traded over the internet when students at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used the ARPANET to purchase Coordinate cannabis . In the late 1980s, newsgroups like alt.drugs became online centers for discussion and information about drugs ; however, all related business was conducted directly between individuals entirely off the site.

The publication of the first version of the Tor developed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory - a peer-to-peer software that disguises the IP addresses of users to preserve anonymity - in September 2002 made the Darknet possible in its current form. In its early phase, this was reminiscent of the rudimentary Internet of the early 1990s and was mainly used by computer geeks and a hard core of criminals .

This changed when the first incarnation of Silk Road went online in February 2011 ; the platform was openly advertised by the operator as “ Amazon for drugs ”. Two and a half years later, the authorities succeeded in seizing the market, but only a month later it went back online as Silk Road 2.0 . Shortly afterwards, in November 2013, Bitcoins worth 6 million US dollars were stolen on the competitor platform Sheep Marketplace in a software hack , which led to the market being closed. This later turned out to be a large-scale fraud on the part of the market operators. The closure of the Sheep Marketplace resulted in an enormous influx of new users to the competitor Black Market Reloaded , whereupon it also closed due to insufficient capacity.

The February 2014 Bitcoin hack heralded the slow demise of Silk Road 2.0. During the year Agora and Evolution became the dominant marketplaces in the darknet. Ultimately, Silk Road 2.0 was seized in November 2014 during Operation Onymous , which was carried out by the FBI and Europol , among others , and the operator was arrested.

In the course of what was possibly the largest exit scam in the history of the darknet markets, Evolution was shut down in March by the operators operating under the pseudonyms Verto and Kimble and all trust funds were stolen. Then it came to Reddit given the z. Sometimes enormous sums of money were cheated out of thousands of users of the platform, resulting in public threats from other (allegedly) participants.

Shortly afterwards, two cases of significant government corruption in the Silk Road case became public: In the course of their assignment to infiltrate the original Silk Road, DEA officials Carl Mark Force IV and Shaun Bridges from the Secret Service had acquired the equivalent of at least 1.3 million US dollars. Dollar enriched. They have been charged with fraud, theft of government property and money laundering. Force was sentenced to 78 months (more than 6 years) in October 2015, and Bridges to 71 months (almost 6 years) in December.

The news site Deep Dot Web reported in May 2016 that the recently re-active market Silk Road 3.0 (which, however, only has the name in common with the original platform) announced that from June 8th on, part of the sales will go to the Canadian addiction support program Last Door to donate. The reason for this is that the marketplace is concentrating first and foremost on the security and privacy of its users instead of profit maximization and is consistently behind harm-minimizing consumption .

Security measures and access to darknet markets

For anonymous access to Darknet services, the Tor Browser Bundle is used in addition to a current PGP implementation (such as gpg4usb or GnuPG ). Since in some jurisdictions (e.g. Great Britain) the disclosure of the passphrase for encrypted data media can be forced, these or comparable programs that do not require installation, together with the private keys and other sensitive data, are saved on a e.g. B. copied removable media encrypted with VeraCrypt or LUKS / dm-crypt . Since Windows systems cannot be checked for backdoors due to their unknown source code, specialized Linux live systems such as Tails or the permanent installation of a Linux system such as Ubuntu , Linux Mint or Qubes OS (including in a virtual machine ) are used . These offer partial or full encryption of the system during installation.

For security and anonymity reasons, all communication within a store, in particular the transmission of delivery addresses, takes place using PGP encryption, with messages being encrypted with the recipient's public key stored in the user profile . A user-specified security PIN is required for payments or withdrawals in most markets. Moreover, in view of the darknet widespread identity theft the most two-factor authentication used taking care to decrypt a short mystery after entering the login name and password by means of your own private PGP key.

A potential weak point in the security chain is the choice of delivery address, which is primarily relevant in the case of the profiling of suspicious mail flows by investigators, but also with regard to darknet merchants who store customer data permanently and possibly unencrypted. To disguise real names and place of residence, some buyers use z. B. mailboxes at empty addresses , receive items as poste restante using a password or rent mailboxes under a false name.

Bitcoins are not completely anonymous, just "pseudonymous"; the metadata may be used to trace transactions to a specific Bitcoin address. In order to eliminate this risk, there are so-called Bitcoin mixers , in which the origin is concealed by means of random payouts from a shared pool in order to establish the fungibility of the Bitcoins (so-called CoinJoin implementation). The exchange of bitcoins for crypto currencies with ring signatures, such as B. Monero , is used to disguise the origin.

Business transaction

Cash flow in a darknet market business; the example shows the cash flow of the no longer existing darknet market Silk Road. The US government is the author of the flowchart.

The appearance and user interface of darknet markets are generally professionally executed and are similar to those of other virtual marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon. In principle, a coin wallet with one or more addresses is provided for each account, and new addresses can be generated at any time. Upon completion of a purchase, the amount to be paid is transferred to the seller. Many markets tumble (anonymize) the coins internally in order to make it difficult for third parties to track the transaction. In addition, the markets recommend tumbling coins before depositing them in the market.

Almost always there is a trusteeship system ( escrow ), in which the amount payable to the Wallet of the market paid and will be paid only after the close of trading on the seller. An increasing number of markets also support multisig escrow , a type of cryptographic extension, which makes it difficult to lose payments or theft by involved parties.

Purchased products can be rated and / or reviewed, which has a direct impact on the seller's reputation and creates a basis of trust. Customer service is also always available, for example to report fraud .

Law enforcement activities

Time and again, law enforcement authorities succeed in closing large and small markets in the Darknet and obtaining user data. One of the largest in recent history was Operation Bayonet , a multinational covert operation in which authorities from the USA , Europe , Thailand and Canada succeeded in closing down the AlphaBay and Hansa darknet markets and revealing data such as IP addresses , PGP Confiscate encrypted messages, bitcoins , passwords and other "relevant" information.

The Dutch police maintain a page that is operated as a hidden service  in the Tor network to provide information about their activities to contain crime in the Darknet. The site is intended to act as a deterrent with a real-time updated list of identified and condemned Darknet market users. It is available at the link politiepcvh42eav.onion .

On March 15, 2019, the German Federal Council approved a draft law intended to facilitate investigations against operators of illegal trading platforms on the Darknet. According to this, a new criminal offense is to be introduced in the German Criminal Code with Section 126a , which makes operating illegal marketplaces on the Internet a criminal offense. The maximum sentence provided is three years in prison. According to this, offering services on the Darknet would be punishable if these in turn allow criminal offenses such as the distribution of drugs , explosives or child pornography .

Darknet Commerce Trends and Impact

It can be stated that despite concerted action by law enforcement authorities and increased cases of fraud, the number of product listings has grown continuously and with double-digit annual percentages since the store was founded. In the course of this, the drug trade on the Darknet has proven to be remarkably resistant to external interference and achieved (as of August 2016) a stable monthly sales volume of the equivalent of US $ 12 million to US $ 21 million, which is a three-fold increase compared to 2013. Regardless of this, online trade only accounts for a tiny fraction of the total drug trade, which in Europe alone amounts to an estimated € 2 billion per month.

According to a study by the Universities of Montreal and Manchester, the markets, in their role as virtual wholesalers, may have led to a decrease in intimidation and violent crime related to drug trafficking. The same assumption comes from an investigation report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction , which also attests that drugs obtained from the Darknet are generally more pure than those available on the street.

According to a study by the University of Oslo (2017), 80 percent of the customers in the darknet markets are male, well educated, tech-savvy, in their mid to late 20s and occasional consumers. In contrast, people with “problematic or dependent consumer behavior” who cannot wait several days for the drug to be delivered - or who do not have the necessary technical and financial resources or digital skills, have little access.

A study of 109,686 transactions on the former darknet marketplace Agora showed that drugs were the most frequently traded products with 85% of all transactions, followed - far behind - by services (e.g. hacking and money) with 2.4% and counterfeits (e.g. watches) with 2.2%. Chemicals and jewelry were rarely traded on Agora.

List of major markets

glossary

  • 2FA = two-factor authentication ; secure two-step login with login data and private PGP key
  • CD = controlled delivery ; Delivery of an illegal shipment by a civilian police officer with the aim of evacuating the recipient
  • DNM = Darknet Market
  • Drop = delivery address; either as a real name or anonymized
  • Escrow = escrow account , which is administered by the market during the transaction
  • Exit Scam = "exit fraud" ; Shock fraud ; Type of fraud in which a retailer or store ceases to operate without prior notice and enriches itself financially by taking advantage of customer confidence
  • FE = Finalize early ; "Early" manual completion of the transaction by the buyer before receiving the goods, usually with a discount on the part of the dealer
  • LE = law enforcement ; Law enforcement agencies
  • Love Letter = "love letter" ; Notification by the postal or logistics company that a shipment could not be delivered due to confiscation . Specifically so because in the case of the USPS this is done in the form of a pink slip of paper
  • Multisig Escrow = Fraud-proof escrow system in which a temporary wallet with one-time keys is created outside of the market
  • OPSEC = operational security ; Measures designed to minimize the risk of illegal activities being discovered
  • Stealth = measures by which a shipment should appear as inconspicuous as possible by post or in customs transit (even with a spot check)
  • Tumbler = Mixing Service, a service for the random "mixing" of cryptocurrency transactions, which obscures their origin

Swell:

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

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  4. ^ Illicit e-commerce: Winning the battle, losing the war -  The Economist
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  9. ^ The Darknet: A Short History -  Foreign Policy
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  11. ↑ Dead End on Silk Road: Internet Crime Kingpin Ross Ulbricht's Big Fall -  Rolling Stone
  12. ^ New Silk Road Selling Even More Illegal Drugs Than Old Silk Road -  Huffington Post
  13. ↑ One month after launch, new Silk Road is up to 3,000 drug listings -  The Verge
  14. ↑ Silk Road Competitor Shuts Down And Another Plans To Go Offline After Claimed $ 6 Million Theft -  Forbes
  15. ↑ Online drugs marketplace shut down after £ 3.5m bitcoin hack ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) -  The Guardian
  16. ↑ Users Track $ 100 Million in Stolen Bitcoin After Sheep Marketplace Hack -  CoinDesk
  17. ↑ Sheep Marketplace Scam: Over 40,000,000 $ in the Biggest Darknet Scam Ever! ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. -  Deep Dot Web @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deepdotweb.com
  18. ↑ Silk Road's main competitor shuts down indefinitely -  The Verge
  19. ↑ Black Market Reloaded Drugs Market Place Shutting down over Heavy Traffic -  International Business Times
  20. ↑ Silk Road 2.0 'Hack' Blamed On Bitcoin Bug, All Funds Stolen -  Forbes
  21. ↑ Silk Road 2 Hacked: Entire Bitcoin Wallet Drained, $ 2.7 Million Stolen -  International Business Times
  22. ↑ Silk Road 2 Loses Over $ 2.6 Million in Bitcoins in Alleged Hack -  CoinDesk
  23. ^ A new king of the Dark Net emerges after Silk Road 2.0 falls -  The Daily Dot
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  26. ↑ Silk Road 2.0 Seized, Alleged Operator Unmasked in FBI Crackdown -  CoinDesk
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  30. ↑ Bitcoin 'exit scam': deep-web market operators disappear with $ 12m -  The Guardian
  31. ↑ Evolution offline: Biggest dark web drugs marketplace exit scam sees millions in bitcoin disappear -  International Business Times
  32. ^ Criminal Charges Against Agents Reveal Staggering Corruption in the Silk Road Investigation -  Forbes Magazine
  33. ↑ 5 other insane things a corrupt DEA agent did while allegedly stealing Bitcoin from Silk Road -  Fusion
  34. ^ Two agents investigating Silk Road, a notorious online black market, stand accused of lying and stealing -  Bloomberg News
  35. ↑ DEA agent arrested for stealing Silk Road bitcoins also orchestrated murder-for-hire scheme -  The Daily Dot
  36. ^ Federal agent gets six years in prison for extorting bitcoins from Silk Road creator -  The Verge
  37. ↑ Cop charged with stealing $ 820K from Silk Road is trying to run, prosecutors claim -  The Daily Dot
  38. ↑ Secret Service Agent Gets Six-Year Sentence for Bitcoin Theft In: CoinDesk (English)
  39. ↑ Judge sets 71-month sentence for former Secret Service agent who plundered Silk Road In: Ars Technica (English)
  40. ↑ JP Buntinx: Silk Road 3.0 Announces Bitcoin Charity Drive . In: Bitcoinist.net
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  42. ↑ Darknet marketplace usage tutorial ( Memento from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) -  PsychonautWiki
  43. ↑ Patrick Beuth: My digital protective shield: TrueCrypt - the safe on the hard drive . In: time online
  44. ↑ House search - how do I behave as a victim? What are my rights? -  Lawyers Gulden & Röttger
  45. ↑ Truecrypt - more secure than the police allow! -  Just & Partner lawyers
  46. ↑ Markus Mandalka: Encrypt hard drive with Ubuntu . In: Selbstdatenschutz.info
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  50. ↑ How To Buy Drugs Online From DarknetMarkets? ( Memento of the original from December 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Deep Dot Web @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deepdotweb.com
  51. ↑ a b Allen Hoffmann, JD: Drops For Beginners: Why You May Or May Not Want To Use One? . March 23, 2015. Archived from the original on June 13, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 13, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deepdotweb.com
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  61. ↑ How I bought drugs from 'dark net' - it's just like Amazon run by cartels -  The Guardian
  62. ↑ Libertarian Dream? A Site Where You Buy Drugs With Digital Dollars -  The Atlantic
  63. ↑ Silk Road: The Amazon.com of illegal drugs -  The Week
  64. ^ The Dark Net: The New Face of Black Markets and Organized Crime -  Huffington Post
  65. ↑ Could 'Multisig' Help Bring Consumer Protection To Bitcoin Transactions? -  Forbes
  66. ↑ The Year of Multisig: How is it Doing So Far? -  CoinDesk
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  68. ↑ Tom Ough: 'It's a self-regulating free market': how the dark web Brought consumerism to drugs . In: The Telegraph
  69. ↑ Dark net drug markets kept alive by great customer service -  Wired
  70. ↑ Darknet Drug Markets Put Customers in Charge ( Memento from December 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) -  Design & Trend
  71. ↑ Nick Statt: Dark Web drug marketplace AlphaBay was shut down by law enforcement. July 14, 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2017 .
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  73. ↑ Mike Riggs: Five Lessons from the Hansa and AlphaBay Busts . July 26, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  74. ^ Robert McMillan, Aruna Viswanatha: Illegal-Goods Website AlphaBay Shut Following Law-Enforcement Action . In: Wall Street Journal . July 13, 2017, ISSN  0099-9660 ( wsj.com [accessed August 30, 2017]).
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  76. ↑ Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti: Federal Council agrees on action against illegal Darknet marketplaces - heise online. In: heise.de. March 15, 2019, accessed March 23, 2019 .
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  79. ↑ Crackdowns Haven't Stopped the Dark Web's $ 100M Yearly Drug Sales -  Wired
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  82. ↑ Silk Road may have prevented drug violence, study says -  The Verge
  83. ↑ Silk Road Reduced Violence in the Drug Trade , Study Argues -  Wired
  84. ↑ Online market 'is turning drug dealers from goons to geeks' In: The Guardian (English)
  85. ↑ Christian Buck, Wolfgang Stieler: Darknet drug trade serves "last mile" - heise online. In: heise.de. April 3, 2018, accessed April 3, 2018 .
  86. ↑ Drugs, Weapons and Bitcoin - an analysis of over 100,000 Darknet transactions. Retrieved January 29, 2019 (German).
  87. ↑ DeepDotWeb's DarkNet Dictionary Project! ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. -  Deep Dot Web @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deepdotweb.com