The darknet marketplace Empire Market has been offline for more than three days. The first to report it was a TOR researcher using the handle dark.fail.
Here’s the source code to the Endgame DDoS filter that has helped most major darknet sites withstand attacks over the past eight months, H/T to @onionltd for mirroring https://t.co/tn6LUoFNGm
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) August 23, 2020
Initially he suggested that the cause could be a large-scale DDoS attack. He added that the EndGame DDoS filter, whose release took place last year, helped darknet markets maintain stable operation.
Then the Empire Marker administrators informed the researcher of a server IP leak and warned that many could take advantage of the opportunity to redirect users to fake copies of Empire Market. Such copies indeed appeared amid unconfirmed reports of an exit scam by the administrators.
Empire staff contacted me privately to comment on an alleged server IP leak that is circulating: «anyone can set up 301 redirect on IP address and claim to be us» @ydklijnsma
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) August 23, 2020
Phishers are modifying their sites to allow any username and password to «log in» to their fake Empires.
They cannot withdraw any user funds from stolen PINs since Empire is offline, but they can save credentials for later and expect a big payday if Empire returns. pic.twitter.com/N9FLwJGJfY
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) August 24, 2020
One of the moderators of Empire Market under the handle Se7en expressed hope that the admins would bring the site back to life. Otherwise he promised to disclose what happened with the marketplace. dark.fail cast doubt on his awareness.
Se7en, not being an admin, may simply not know what is going on. This could be a sign of good staff OPSEC.
Regardless — «maybe» was not the right choice of words.
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) August 24, 2020
Then the moderator posted his version of events. The market administrators allegedly transferred $10,000 to $15,000 weekly to the operator of major DDoS attacks in exchange for non-attack, but another player appeared who managed to bring down the site’s infrastructure.
Users have already begun migrating to competing markets, and darknet commentators concluded that Empire Market’s chances of a return were slim.
Concerned Empire users are flocking to White House and Monopoly Markets, the two cryptomarkets endorsed by Empire staff member Se7en in their “State of the Darkweb” post last week. Empire remains offline, no posts from admins.
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) August 24, 2020
Se7en believes Empire Market will not return, shifting blame onto the Tor project and DDoS attackers.
Empire’s admins are running out of time to salvage their reputation, or to go down in history as another greedy exit scam. Se7en’s Dread post: https://t.co/VENmBQnq9C
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) August 25, 2020
As noted last year, US and South Korean authorities closed the largest darknet marketplace for child pornography, through which more than 1 million videos were distributed. They managed to arrest an administrator from South Korea and 337 users from the United Kingdom (38), Brazil, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and the UAE.
In 2019, law enforcement authorities, as part of international operations, shut down the following darknet markets and enterprises:
- Wall Street Market;
- Silkkitie;
- Deep Dot Web;
- Cannabis Road (after a raid on the decommissioned NATO bunker in Traben-Trarbach);
- Orange Chemicals.
In April 2019, the oldest and largest darknet market at the time, Dream Market, also shut down.
Bitcoin on Silk Road raised darknet economy to a new level, but in recent years marketplaces on the deep web disappear one after another. What is the reason for the extinction of such a profitable, though illegal, business? https://t.co/tFFrFc3wc1#darknet #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/drOIkaoeN1
— ForkLog (@ForkLog) May 1, 2019
In March 2020, the FBI arrested the creator of the darknet marketplace Deer, a Russian named Kirill Firsov. He is charged with trading personal data for cryptocurrency and aiding human trafficking.
A month later, the darknet market Monopoly prohibited sellers from exploiting the COVID-19 panic in advertising.
Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — the full news stream, ForkLog — the most important news and polls.