“Wall Street Market” is supposed to be the second largest illegal trade space in the Darkweb. The investigators arrested three Germans. However, the business with drugs and weapons in the Darknet will go further
Anyone who makes the effort to go with the TOR anonymity network into the Dark Web to open the page of the Wall Street Markets, will be surprised: instead of Offers for drugs and illegal services can be found only in German and English the note: “The platform and the criminals were seized by the Federal criminal police office.”
Thus, according to the Federal criminal police office, the world’s second-largest illegal Online marketplace on the Darknet, in the meantime, criminal history. Last should not have been set in the case of the Wall Street Market less than 63,000 offers for sale, offered by over 5000 sellers – a sort of underground Ebay for more than a Million customers. Three German suspects, aged 22 to 31 years were arrested. You can have up to 15 years in prison. During the searches of their apartments, among other things, cash in the amount of more than half a Million euros, as well as documents to currencies, large quantities of the Crypto-Bitcoin and Monero been found.
Until 2017, several Germans were arrested, as also in an international police operation, the Darknet trading platform Hansa-Market was closed. Illegal transactions of more than a billion dollars have been made on the Hansa Market.
The Online drug trade continues
However, despite the determination of the police successes: The trade in Prohibited in the Darknet blooms. There are hundreds of trading platforms. And a look at the comparison page deepdotweb.com also after the closure of the “Wall Street Market” a round dozen of the larger Darknet trading platforms, including information about the current safety standards and customer reviews.
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Darknet: Online market place for crimes
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Darknet: Online market place for crimes
The combination of encryption technology, the use of anonymous browsers and the 2009 created crypto-currency Bitcoin is a functioning business model for the illegal trade of all type of knit that first recognized the US-American Ross Ulbricht. Under the alias “Dread Pirate Robert” launched Ulbricht in 2011, the Darknet marketplace “Silk Road”. In the almost two years of its existence, have been implemented via the Silk-Road Deals to the value of around 1, 2 billion US dollars. As a Commission of around 80 million in Ulbricht’s bags are intended to be flowed. In the case of such profit prospects, it is no surprise that it took just a month, until after the closing of the “Silk Road” to other cyber-criminals have brought the successor of “Silk Road 2.0” at the Start. With increased security measures.
Drug trafficking as an E-Commerce Screenshot of a darknet platform
Modern E-Commerce – only anonymous
The high profit margins make for a lively competition. In the result, the competition-oriented, highly functional market places, with all the hallmarks of modern E-Commerce sites. Only under the cloak of anonymity. The most important goods for this digital Underground marketplaces are drugs. For the customers, it is much more comfortable, from the Sofa to the Web at one of the other customer valued, and service-oriented Dealer goods anonymously, than to go to dark corners and shady characters and run the risk of being cheated, robbed or to be robbed.
But also to switch weapons on the Darknet market places their owners. The 18-Year-old gunman, killed in 2016 in Munich nine people and then himself, had drawn his gun on a Darknet marketplace. Are traded but also the illegal services of any kind: botnets can be rented, and cyber-attacks. Who attack need tools for the digital world, you can order viruses, worms, Trojan. On the now-closed platform “Wall Street Market” were offered in addition to BKA-information and out of peered data, such as credit cards and fake documents.
The gunman, of Munich, had ordered his weapon in the Darknet
Protective space for the opposition
However, The Darknet is not just a Playground for Criminals. It is also a retreat for people who want to be protected to communicate: Maybe it’s because they live in countries where freedom of expression is restricted. Maybe because they are worried after the revelations of Edward Snowden about the extensive Surveillance practices of the secret services.
Worldwide opposition movements rely on the anonymizing network TOR, with the TOR Browser, however, access to the criminal market places. For his service to the freedom of the TOR network in 2011, has received the award for social Use of the Free Software Foundation. GOAL have around allows for 36 million people uncensored access to the Internet with control over privacy and anonymity, as it was then in the grounds.
Therefore, the TOR project, which operates the establishment and maintenance of the anonymization network and the further development of the TOR-browser, in 2015 was also supported by the German Ministry of foreign Affairs. With the easily downloadable TOR Browser, you can’t be only in the Darknet, but also anonymously on the Clearweb, the World-Wide-Web move. The security has its price: The data flow is much slower.