When dark net markets are shut, their users typically move quickly to new markets. But on Thursday, news of the joint operation sent the community into a panic. AlphaBay, the largest so-called dark net market, was taken down in early July at the same time the authorities arrested the reported founder of the site, Alexandre Cazes, a Canadian man who was living in Bangkok. I’m very curious to see over the coming days and weeks how users react to the news.
One of the admins was arrested in Thailand, but another, going by the alias “DeSnake”, was never apprehended. DeSnake announced on a dark web forum that the AlphaBay Market has been reopened and is ready for business. DeSnake claims the new market is extremely secure and has safeguards against disruptions caused by hardware failure, police raids, or seizures. The operation to seize AlphaBay coincided with efforts by Dutch law enforcement to shut down the Hansa Market, another prominent Darknet marketplace that was used to facilitate the sale of illegal drugs, malware, and other illegal services. After AlphaBay’s shutdown, criminal users and vendors flocked to Hansa Market, where they believed their identities would be masked.
- Further down the road, DeSnake will get to demoing the project and bringing on a marketing team.
- DeSnake now claims, however, that he and others involved in the original AlphaBay do in fact remain beyond the reach of Western law enforcement.
- The DDoS protection and bot detection measures are excessive for a brand new marketplace.
Cazes used a pseudonym, Alpha02, to run the site which he had previously used (e.g., in carding and tech forums) since at least 2008, and variously advertised this identity as the “designer”, “administrator” and “owner” of the site. In May 2015, the site announced an integrated digital contracts and escrow system. The contract system allows users to make engagements and agree to provide services in the future, according to the terms of the contract. 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. Cazes and his wife amassed numerous high value assets, including luxury vehicles, residences and a hotel in Thailand.
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In cooperation with the FBI, the Royal Thai Police took steps to organize the extradition of the 24-year old Canadian administrator back to the United States. However, after Cazes was held for exactly a week at the Narcotics Suppression Bureau in Bangkok, reports of his apparent suicide surfaced. Bangkok vowed to conduct an autopsy, while US authorities had no interest in verifying the legitimacy of the suspect’s death.
Authored by Dexter Shin McAfee’s Mobile Research Team has identified new malware on the Google Play Store…. Follow us to stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats. Worry-free protection for your privacy, identity and all your personal devices. McAfee +Products Worry-free protection for your privacy, identity and all your personal devices. Dark web marketplace moderator Bryan Connor Herrell pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to engage in a racketeer-influenced corrupt organization. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes.
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The Colorado man mediated disputes on the now-defunct darknet marketplace Alphabay. In a potential operational security failure, the suspect allegedly also chronicled the adventures of a “darknet drug trafficker” on Reddit. Some, however, suspect the site’s disappearance may relate to multiple factors. On Thursday, Reddit user HugBunter claimed to have discovered “a huge vulnerability … which exposed a lot of data,” including vendor messages and order details, and he reported the flaw to AlphaBay administrators on July 2.
“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.” AlphaBay, however, was more diverse than Silk Road, experts say, specializing not just in drugs but also guns, counterfeit ID and payment cards, and other illegal goods. The marketplace also accepted a variety of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Monero and Zcash.
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While Silk Road made its name selling drugs, AlphaBay was prolific in its black market products. In the first six months of 2017, it reportedly sold $5 million worth of stolen credit card numbers alone. If a dark net market’s operators decide to take off with the bitcoins that are being held in escrow, users have no recourse. AlphaBay was an extremely popular darknet market that launched in 2014 and operated until June 2017, when it was seized by law enforcement as part of Operation Bayonet. At the time of its downfall AlphaBay was ten times the size of its largest predecessor, Silk Road, facilitating $600,000 – $800,000 of transactions a day between over 400,000 users. In total, AlphaBay facilitated over $650 million of sales, for items such as narcotics, hacking tools and firearms.
“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. AlphaBay and Hansa – two of the largest “dark web” marketplaces for illegal and illicit items such as drugs and guns – have been shut down, the US Justice Department said on Thursday. It might be time to update the obituary of one of the web’s most notorious marketplaces for hacking tools and drugs.
Four years after FBI shut it down, AlphaBay dark web marketplace claims it’s back in business
AlphaBay’s Monero-only policy does not seem to have deterred or hindered buyers and vendors from operating in the marketplace, which most popularly boasts drug offerings. Cannabis, stimulants, and psychedelics hold the current top three spots, and account for the majority of the current 33,000 drug-related listings. Just over a year later, however, AlphaBay has emerged as a top, if not the top, illicit marketplace. In fact, since AlphaBay’s August 2021 relaunch, the illicit marketplace landscape has been tumultuous to say the least.
DeSnake argues that new safeguards like these will make AlphaBay that much harder to remove from the dark web this time around. “I had given many ‘holy grails’ of anonymity, but he chose to use only certain things while he branded other methods/ways as ‘overkill,’” DeSnake writes, in his seemingly foreign-inflected and occasionally misspelled English. “The biggest reason I am returning is to make the AlphaBay name be remembered as more than the marketplace which got busted and the founder made out to have committed suicide,” DeSnake writes.
