A complaint filed in the District of New Jersey was unsealed today charging Thalha Jubair, a United Kingdom national, with conspiracies to commit computer fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering… According to another complaint affidavit filed in the Middle District of Florida against Jeremy Achey, an investigation into a fentanyl overdose death in Orange County, Florida, on February 27, revealed that the lethal substance was purchased on AlphaBay from Achey. If you decide to venture into the dark depths of the deep web, make sure you’ve bolstered your device’s security with powerful privacy and security tools that can defend against dark web threats. To help find functioning .onion URLs, look to dark web directories and forums — Reddit users recommend tor.taxi, tor.watch, daunt.link, or one of the Hidden Wikis. Many dark internet users favor Tor which uses a network architecture originally developed by the U.S.
Illegal Activities On The Dark Web
The agency said further investigations against criminal sellers and users of the platform are presently ongoing. One card costs 15 euros, while the average cost of a card is about 10 euros,” says Černiauskaitė. Illicit cigarettes last year accounted for 28.3 percent of Lithuania’s market of tobacco products, the second highest rate in Europe after Latvia’s, according to the latest study by the international audit, tax and consulting company KPMG. Flourishing black market in Lithuania can be reduced with properly chosen and implemented digital solutions, experts claim. Fewer businesspeople in Lithuania think underground economy is a problem than a year ago.
AlphaBay, The Largest Online “Dark Market,” Shut Down
And as law enforcement gained access to the vendors’ extensive buyer lists during the operation, thousands of customers around the world are also at risk of prosecution. According to a US indictment opened Thursday, Cazes created AlphaBay in July 2014 to host, via the anonymizing Tor network, a wide range of illicit trade and money laundering. They also seized millions of dollars’ worth of digital currencies like Bitcoin used exclusively on the websites. “With all of that said you decide for yourself whether you ride the wave with us to the top and beyond,” he wrote in a message to users on the dark web market forum Dread. “I understand if you decide not to but over time you will be proven that we are the original AB and we have never been ‘compromised’ in any way shape or form.” DeSnake counters that if law enforcement had gotten to him and launched the new AlphaBay as a honeypot, they would have simply reused the original AlphaBay’s code.
Country-specific Results
Launched after the takedown of AlphaBay in 2021, Abacus Market has rapidly risen to prominence. It features over 40,000 listings including narcotics, counterfeit items, hacking tools, and stolen data. The marketplace is well-known for its bug bounty programs and robust security mechanisms, including mandatory 2FA. Brian’s Club has been around since 2014 and remains one of the most well-known credit card shops on the dark web.
These unusual exhibits are part of the oldest museum of antiquities in Lithuania, the Baublis Museum of Dionizas Poška (Šilalė district). A piece of the lower jaw of a great blue whale, which is about 50,000 years old, and parts of a mammoth rib were found in the peat bogs of the Bijotai area. On display here is a mammoth bone found in the Sungailiškės gravel pit near Tauragė in the 1970s. According to researchers, mammoths lived on the territory of Lithuania between 76,000 and 26,000 years ago.
“The investigation to bring to justice the administrators of and vendors on Nemesis Market continues,” a spokesperson for the U.S. German law enforcement hasn’t responded to Recorded Future News’ request for comment about whether the website’s administrators were arrested. According to local media outlet Der Spiegel, the operators have not been identified. The investigation into AlphaBay revealed that numerous vendors sold fentanyl and heroin, and there have been multiple overdose deaths across the country attributed to purchases on the site. Darknet markets operate within this hidden space, often hosting illegal activity, while the deep web primarily consists of everyday private or password-protected content.
What Has Replaced Silk Road As The Biggest Dark Web Marketplace?
Visitors to the cybercrime website were greeted on Thursday with a red banner announcing the takeover. At the bottom, the police placed an animated spaceship reminiscent of a 1990s video game called Nemesis. Known for its publicity stunt releasing millions of stolen card details for free, BidenCash specializes in credit card fraud and identity theft. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Alexandre Cazes and his wife’s assets located throughout the world, including in Thailand, Cyprus, Lichtenstein, and Antigua & Barbuda. If your Social Security number is found on the dark web, take immediate action to protect yourself.
SecurityWeek
The significance of today’s announcement will only truly be known over the coming year or more as authorities follow up the “many new leads” they said had been found as a result of infiltrating and shutting down these two enormous networks. Police in other countries, including the UK, France and Lithuania, also contributed. It was a “landmark” operation, according to US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) acting director Andrew McCabe.
What Is Cyber Threat Intelligence?
- The police were bound by Dutch law to track and report every transaction occurring on the site under their control to Europol; with roughly 1,000 illegal transactions occurring every day on their watch, the paperwork was becoming unmanageable.
- Its rules have always banned the sale of data stolen from victims in former USSR countries, a common prohibition among Russian hackers intended to shield them from Russian law enforcement scrutiny.
- The collection of 15,000 objects in the Palanga Amber Museum includes a very rare find – a piece of amber with a lizard that lived in the time of dinosaurs.
- Still, the dangers are severe — exposure to scams, malware, surveillance, and prosecution are just the beginning.
- According to another complaint affidavit filed in the Middle District of Florida against Jeremy Achey, an investigation into a fentanyl overdose death in Orange County, Florida, on February 27, 2017, revealed that the lethal substance was purchased on AlphaBay from Achey.
If your personal data ends up for sale on the dark web, it can lead to serious consequences like identity theft, financial fraud, or unauthorized access to your online accounts. The best way to protect yourself from the dangers of darknet markets is to simply avoid them altogether. Even browsing these sites can put you at risk of malware infections or attract unwanted attention from law enforcement.
Is The Dark Web Illegal?
Lithuanian armed resistance to the Soviet occupation lasted until the early 1950s. On 11 March 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to break away when it proclaimed the restoration of its independence. Opinion polls suggest that people in Lithuania believe only half of the government’s budget is used efficiently.
Plus, it features a built-in VPN to encrypt your connection, hiding your IP address and online activity, for more anonymous and private browsing. Many sites become defunct quickly, either because they are shut down due to illegal activity, their founders lose interest, or they change addresses and names to avoid detection. Next, select a dark web search engine like DuckDuckGo that can help you find dark web websites that cannot be indexed by traditional surface web search engines, such as Google or Bing.
The takedown, announced on March 22nd, 2024, by the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) of Germany, marks a significant blow to cybercrime operations on the dark web. BidenCash became known for regularly leaking huge amounts of stolen credit card data and personal information — often for free. The goal is simple — make financial fraud easy and get as much attention as possible. Unlike surface web platforms, darknet markets have no reliable way to verify vendors.
