Marketplace
Empire cybercrime market owner pleads guilty to drug conspiracy
A Virginia man who co-created Empire Market, one of the largest dark web marketplaces at the time, pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy charges for facilitating $430 million in illegal transactions from 2018 to 2020. The marketplace operated as a hidden service accessible only via TOR browsers and was advertised as an AlphaBay “clone,” modeled […]
Slovakian man pleads guilty to operating darknet marketplace
A Slovakian national admitted on Tuesday to helping operate a darknet marketplace that sold narcotics, cybercrime tools and services, fake government IDs, and stolen personal information for more than two years. 33-year-old Alan Bill (also known online as “Vend0r” or “KingdomOfficial”) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances for his role in running Kingdom […]
Microsoft disrupts massive RedVDS cybercrime virtual desktop service
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it disrupted RedVDS, a massive cybercrime platform linked to at least $40 million in reported losses in the United States alone since March 2025. Microsoft filed civil lawsuits in the United States and the United Kingdom, seizing malicious infrastructure and taking RedVDS’s marketplace and customer portal offline as part of […]
Abacus dark web drug market goes offline in suspected exit scam
Abacus Market, the largest Western darknet marketplace supporting Bitcoin payments, has shut down its public infrastructure in a move suspected to be an exit scam. Exit scams occur when the operator of a marketplace decides to vanish with the money they hold in escrow for various transactions between platform users. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reports that Abacus […]
Police seizes Archetyp Market drug marketplace, arrests admin
Law enforcement authorities from six countries took down the Archetyp Market, an infamous darknet drug marketplace that has been operating since May 2020. Archetyp Market sellers provided the market’s customers with access to high volumes of drugs, including cocaine, amphetamines, heroin, cannabis, MDMA, and synthetic opioids like fentanyl through more than 3,200 registered vendors and […]
‘Russian Market’ emerges as a go-to shop for stolen credentials
The “Russian Market” cybercrime marketplace has emerged as one of the most popular platforms for buying and selling credentials stolen by information stealer malware. Although the marketplace has been active for roughly six years and became relatively popular by 2022, ReliaQuest reports that the Russian Market has recently reached new heights. Part of this surge in popularity is […]
Police arrests 270 dark web vendors, buyers in global crackdown
Police arrested 270 suspects following an international law enforcement action codenamed ‘Operation RapTor’ that targeted dark web vendors and customers from ten countries. National authorities in Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States have also seized over €184 million ($207M) in cash and cryptocurrency, more than 2 tonnes of drugs (including amphetamines, cocaine, ketamine, […]
Kosovo extradites BlackDB admin to face US cybercrime charges
A Kosovo national has been extradited to the United States to face charges of running an online cybercrime marketplace active since 2018. Kosovar authorities arrested the 33-year-old Liridon Masurica (also known as @blackdb) on December 14th, 2024, and he was extradited to the United States earlier this month, on May 9th. Masurica was detained following […]
Police dismantles HeartSender cybercrime marketplace network
Law enforcement authorities in the United States and the Netherlands have seized 39 domains and associated servers used by the HeartSender phishing gang operating out of Pakistan. Also known as Saim Raza and Manipulators Team, the group has operated online cybercrime marketplaces for over a decade, selling hacking and fraud-enabling tools like phishing kits, malware, and spamming […]
Police shuts down Rydox cybercrime market, arrests 3 admins
Albanian law enforcement has seized the Rydox cybercrime marketplace and arrested three administrators in collaboration with international partners. Kosovo nationals Ardit Kutleshi, Jetmir Kutleshi, and Shpend Sokoli were arrested on Thursday by Kosovo law enforcement and Albania’s Special Anti-Corruption Body (SPAK). The U.S. Justice Department indicted the first two for involvement in Rydox’s operations, and they’re awaiting extradition to […]