The creator of the relaunched website—an English computer programmer named Thomas White—was also arrested in the course of the shutdown, but his arrest was not made public until 2019 after he pled guilty to charges stemming from running the website and was sentenced to five years in prison. On 6 November 2014, authorities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, and Eurojust announced the arrest of Blake Benthall, allegedly the owner and operator of Silk Road 2.0 under the pseudonym "Defcon", the previous day in San Francisco as part of Operation Onymous. While the site remained online, all the bitcoins in its escrow accounts, valued at $2.7 million, were reported stolen. A new temporary administrator under the screenname "Defcon" took over and promised to bring the site back to working order. On 20 December 2013, it was announced that three alleged Silk Road 2.0 administrators had been arrested; two of these suspects, Andrew Michael Jones and Gary Davis, were named as the administrators "Inigo" and "Libertas" who had continued their work on Silk Road 2.0. It has been considered a 'proto-Silk Road' but the use of payment services such as PayPal and Western Union allowed law enforcement to trace payments and it was subsequently shut down by the FBI in 2012.
Silk Road 2011 2013 The First Darknet Bazaar
In addition, several fake websites impersonate the famous dark net marketplace to obtain your financial and personal information and use it for malicious purposes. Accessing any darknet marketplace is dangerous because it is known to be a hub for illegal trade. For cybersecurity professionals, focusing on payment methods, vendor migration, and marketplace specialisation offers the most effective path to actionable intelligence.
These markets mimic traditional e-commerce websites, but instead of second-hand books or vintage jackets, they traffic in illegal goods and criminal services. It’s possible to buy and sell illegal drugs, malware, and prohibited content in darknet marketplaces. Cybersecurity companies and researchers monitoring darknet markets face legal and ethical restrictions.
Secure communication for journalists, accessing privacy-focused forums, and whistleblower submissions. Combining it with VPN and good digital hygiene improves security. Journalist in India → Uses Tor to access a whistleblowing portal → Submits information anonymously while protecting their identity. But how does one safely and legally access the Dark Web?
Daniel’s Onion Directory
Most dark web links are hosted on “.onion” domains due to the sensitive nature of the businesses or services they host. Before attempting to use it, learn more about the dark web and make sure you know how to stay safe on dark web websites. And (c) is the dark web, which is the part of the deep web that isn’t indexed by search engines and requires special tools like Tor Browser to access. In the image above, (a) is the surface web, which includes publicly visible websites like blogs, shopping sites, and news sites. ProtonMail’s end-to-end encryption makes it one of the best onion sites for easy-to-use, secure, anonymous email. The best Tor sites are under constant threat of closure, including Tor directories like the Hidden Wiki, so having a backup in case one goes down is handy.
Legal Considerations
Some dark web marketplaces even host content that’s not just illegal but extremely harmful, so it’s really important to understand the risks before diving in. Our team searched the dark web and put together a list of the most active dark web marketplaces in order to assist you in monitoring illegal trade of products, cybercrime activity, and dark web trends in the dark web space. Monitoring active marketplaces offers early access to malware kits, credential dumps, and fraud tools.
The Three Internets
- That’s “a special-use top level domain suffix designating an anonymous hidden service reachable via the Tor network,” according to Wikipedia.
- The dark web contains content that’s only accessible through networks like Tor.
- There are multiple search engines on the dark web that can help you find what you’re looking for.
- The rise of verified market lists has further simplified access to these platforms, ensuring users can connect to legitimate and secure marketplaces without the risk of phishing or scams.
- Many sites use Bitcoin multisig transactions to improve security and reduce dependency on the site's escrow.
For sellers, it’s often about making money while staying off the radar. Some are looking for illegal stuff they can’t buy elsewhere, like drugs or counterfeit documents. Some were taken down by law enforcement, others just vanished overnight with users’ money. These platforms sell everything from drugs and fake IDs to weapons and hacking tools, resembling a digital black-market bazaar. Despite growing crackdowns from law enforcement agencies, the dark web remains a hotbed of criminal activity, offering everything from drugs to stolen data.
Best Dark Web Sites 2025 – Detailed List
If you exercise due caution and use a combination of the Tor browser and common sense in which sites you access on the dark web, yes, the dark web is safe to use. However, because it's almost completely anonymous, there are a lot of illegal images, information, products, and services on the dark web. While visiting any of the sites you find on those Wiki sites, do not maximize your browser, as it can help identify you by your monitor resolution. There are some websites you can absolutely get in legal trouble for even visiting, so proceed with the utmost caution. Be aware, however, that there are sites for absolutely everything, from the benign to the very illegal. Take a look at the sites that these directories have collected and see what topics interest you.
Malicious vendors often infect buyers with spyware, ransomware, or infostealer malware hidden in downloadable files. Many listings involve stolen personal information, including credit card data, Social Security details, and full identity profiles. But no matter how polished or professional these sites seem, the risk of getting scammed — or tracked — is always high. Marketplaces often come and go — some disappear without warning, taking users' money with them, while others are shut down by law enforcement. Most buyers and sellers use the Tor network, which hides IP addresses and locations.
Dell Customer Data Breach (
It has gained a lot of users and has become a popular marketplace due to its focus on security. Over the next two years, the Silk Road set the standard for darknet marketplaces. The very first of these marketplaces to pair the darknet with Bitcoin was the Silk Road. However, no matter how much you try to stick to legal websites, you can still land on illegal or highly disturbing content. For example, the Silk Road site operator, an illegal dark web marketplace, was traced and arrested. The majority of users (over 90% as per our research) only need a Tor Browser for accessing .onion links; they don’t need to know about other methods.
You can quickly get into trouble for acting illegally, such as infringing on other people’s safety and freedom. Simply put, accessing and browsing the dark web is perfectly legal. Its key features include kernel hardening, application firewall, package security, filesystem encryption, meta-proxy encryption, and binary integrity.
Cybercriminals on the dark web marketplace always look for new victims to target them with scams or infect their devices with malware, spyware, or adware. Despite using a VPN, there’s always a risk of the VPN leaking your IP address through DNS or WebRTC leaks or misconfigurations when on a dark web forum or marketplace. All the payments were made through cryptocurrency, further enhancing marketplace anonymity.
The Dark Web Hub equips law enforcement, enterprises, MSSPs, and researchers with essential knowledge to navigate dark web threats. After each big bust, entrepreneurs and criminals often re-establish sites. The takeaway is that big darknet busts now require synchronized international action. This unprecedented coordinated takedown froze millions in Bitcoin and led to indictments of Hydra’s operators. It dominated Russian and Eastern European trade in drugs and stolen data. Rather than a violent raid, Dream’s end was essentially an exit by the operators.
To expand their reach, some marketplaces established parallel channels on Telegram. Regularly monitoring the top dark web markets gives your SOC team an insider’s view of the latest malware and phishing kit trends, plus real-time knowledge related to relevant compromised PII. Cybercriminals gather on dark web stores to buy and sell illegal goods and stolen data.
Shortly after the breach, these records appeared on dark web forums, where they were sold to malicious actors aiming to exploit customers through targeted scams and phishing attacks. The exposed data included customer names, addresses, and purchase details. This trove of stolen data included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers, leaving millions of individuals vulnerable to identity theft. In April 2024, a data broker company, National Public Data, suffered a catastrophic breach, exposing 2.9 billion records.
