Like AlphaBay, Hansa Market was used to facilitate the sale of illegal drugs, toxic chemicals, malware, counterfeit identification documents, and illegal services. The administrators of Hansa Market, along with its thousands of vendors and users, also attempted to mask their identities to avoid prosecution through the use of Tor and digital currency. Further information on the operation against the Hansa Market can be obtained from Dutch authorities.

AlphaBay reportedly launched in September 2014, pre-launched in November 2014 and officially launched on December 22, 2014. It saw a steady growth, with 14,000 new users in the first 90 days of operation. The darknet informer website Gwern.net placed AlphaBay Market in the top tier of markets regarding the 6-month survival probability and it had proven to be successful. In October 2015, it was recognized as the largest online darknet market according to Dan Palumbo, research director at Digital Citizens Alliance.

How To Get On The Dark Web

Alphabay market currently down please choose another market from the darknet markets list. Four years after the FBI shut down AlphaBay, which registered a reported $1 billion in transactions, a scammer is touting the launch of a new version of the illicit marketplace, according to threat intelligence firm Flashpoint. Per standard modes of purchase in AlphaBay are Escrow and Finalize Early . If you want a ‘wallet-less’/non-custodial marketplace then simply transfer only amount which you will be paying into your AlphaBay XMR wallet.

AlphaGuard which protects wallets of both buyers and vendors in case of police raids on all servers by giving them opportunity to finish escrows, disputes and withdraw funds. By comparison, the infamous SilkRoad had a little over 950,000 users and about 14,000 listings, most of them for drugs. It transacted 9.5 million bitcoins in two-years time, valued at $1.2 billion at the time. Flashpoint researchers note that the rule restricting activity related to former Soviet Union countries is typical for threat actors based in those regions, to avoid scrutiny from local law enforcement. One concern is that the admin may be doing this project from a compromised position, following instructions from law enforcement to trap vendors of illegal products.

How/Why is AlphaBay different?

Authorities said the market was also used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars. The hidden service allowed a measure of anonymity for the marketplace. U.S. authorities along with law enforcement Europe and Asia announced today the takedown of the dark web’s largest illicit market, AlphaBay. One of, if not the most popular destination for illicit goods on the dark net, the site took over Silk Road’s throne after its founder was arrested. According to a new report, AlphaBay has suffered the same fate and international authorities have shut it down.

Assets acquired through proceeds were held in a variety of accounts directly linked to Cazes, his wife and companies they owned in Thailand , as well as directly held personal accounts in Liechtenstein, Cyprus, Switzerland and Antigua. The servers contained multiple constantly open hot cryptocurrency wallets. The servers were hosted at a company in Canada directly linked to his person.

Alphabay Onion Link

“Tracers in the Dark” shows that there is hope in stopping drug dealers, dark web market kingpins and child abusers given the sheer number of successful busts, takedowns and arrests, from Silk Road to AlphaBay. And it’s all thanks to the immutable, persistent nature of the Bitcoin blockchain, the perfect place to follow the money. Additional language analysis reveals other questionable inconsistencies. It is unheard of that a darknet service would decline and discourage donations.

• Cannabis, stimulants, and psychedelics hold the current top three spots, and account for the majority of the current 33,000 drug-related listings.
• After almost two months of operation, the market has a handful of vendors, with only a couple of hundred listings across drugs and fraud goods.
• AlphaBay now uses only Monero cryptocurrency and currently has only two featured listings, both for drugs.
• There is a “Admin” account as was the case with the historical AlphaBay forum, and DeSnake also has their own personal account.

One year into its reemergence, AlphaBay has become one of the largest illicit marketplaces on the darknet—and has plans to innovate. InfoArmor’s purpose is to notify healthcare organizations regarding the significant interest that cybercriminals have in infiltrating and exploiting the Healthcare Industry at large. Whether the result is ransomware, stolen PII/PHI, targeted spear phishing attacks or other exploitation, the consequences can have a dramatic impact. As shown by this intelligence briefing, the risks to your organization extend well beyond your perimeter to healthcare software vendors and any third party technology provider. InfoArmor has notified the NH-ISAC as well as other appropriate parties in order for further risk mitigation and incident response measures to be enacted.

In January 2017, the API was once again compromised, allowing over 200,000 private messages from the last 30 days and a list of usernames to be leaked. The attack was from a single hacker who was paid by AlphaBay for the disclosure. AlphaBay reported that the exploit had only been used in conjunction with this attack and not used previously. Netcraft is in the news today after the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced plans to work with us to develop better automatic defences to reduce the impact of cyber attacks affecting the UK. The stolen credentials are then submitted to a PHP script, which immediately redirects the victim to the genuine AlphaBay hidden service.