Official Guide to Using DarkMarket (Dark Market)

12 min readDec 30, 2020

**This article is provided for information only. No endorsements are made or implied regarding any sites or organizations mentioned here. This article is for For educational (and research) purposes only! **

DarkMarket has been seized!

More info can be found here.

WhiteHouse Market (WHM) has replaced DarkMarket as the biggest DarkNet Market, Link to WHM -

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DarkMarket is an increasingly popular darknet market that accepts Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) and features over 125,000 product listings. It appears to be centered primarily on a European customer base but does feature vendors in the U.S. as well. Globally-speaking, it operates just about everywhere around the world, with two notable exceptions being Russia and UAE.

DarkMarket’s purchase system works a bit different from most other darknet markets as it does not feature user wallets with account balances hosted by the market. Instead of drawing funds from an account balance to make a payment, each purchase generates a unique deposit address, which reduces the potential for monetary loss to one order at a time.

The market’s search engine isn’t the best, the filtering system has a few problems, and it doesn’t seem like the market has many vendors or customers from the U.S. On top of that, there are a lot of negative reviews floating around from customers getting scammed by vendors, and in some instances, the market itself. Whether or not the latter of these allegations are true is unknown, but DarkMarket does stress the importance of making sure you are always visiting an official URL as their users are frequently the victims of phishing websites on scam URLs.

There’s no way to know for sure that DarkMarket is here to stay — at least for a while — so it is recommended to start out with smaller purchases before getting comfortable making larger ones. With a simple account creation process, a special emphasis on customer service and a sizeable collection of experienced vendors, the market has managed to attract a lot of customers in its 16 months of service and appears to be as good a darknet market as any when it comes to overall selection of product listings.

Quick Facts about Dark Market

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Official Guide and Links- DarkNetOnions
Founded: 2019
Number of listings: 127,000+ (as of December 2020)
Listing categories: Digital Goods, Drugs, Services, Security & Hosting, Miscellaneous, Jewelry, Identification, Guides & Tutorials, Fraud, Counterfeit, Software & Malware, and Carded Items.
Coins accepted: Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR)
Multisignature escrow: No
Finalize Early: Yes
Vendor bond: $750, reduced or waived for certain vendors

Complete Video Guide

Before Getting Started

Using a darknet market like DarkMarket requires some basic knowledge in a few different areas related to cryptocurrency, encryption, and basic security practices. Before creating an account and attempting to make a purchase on DarkMarket, we recommending having at least a basic understanding of the following subjects:

How to send and receive BTC or XMR
How to buy and sell BTC or XMR
How to generate a PGP public/private key pair, encrypt and decrypt messages
How to safely secure sensitive information
How to use a Tor browser

Also, don’t forget to turn off JavaScript if you have it enabled in your Tor browser (DarkMarket will remind you of this upon visiting their site). You can do this by clicking on the “S” to bring up “NoScript” options and making the site an “untrusted” site. Refreshing the tab will block JavaScript from running on the page.

One of the first things that you’ll need to do before opening an account is make sure you are visiting a valid URL. DarkMarket frequently suffers from DDOS and phishing attacks and for that reason it is a good idea to make sure you are visiting a most recent, correct URL when attempting to register at or visit the market.

The best way to find valid URLs for DarkMarket is to visit their page on Darkfail or DarkNetOnions. Trying to get links from a search engine is generally a bad idea and it is better to only use trusted, verifiable sources, like darkfail . You may be asked to put two parts of a TOR URL together in order to access a valid mirror of the market — a tactic DarkMarket uses to slow down DDOS attacks. Also is it adviced to bookmark and save the official link of DarkMarket-

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Trying to get links from a search engine is generally a bad idea and it is better to only use trusted, verifiable sources. You may be asked to put two parts of a TOR URL together in order to access a valid mirror of the market — a tactic DarkMarket uses to slow down DDOS attacks.

How to Create an Account at DarkMarket

After making sure you have landed at a valid URL, press the “Sign Up” button in the upper right corner of the screen. The sign up process requires that you provide a user name, password, and fill in a captcha. Upon doing this, your account will be created, and you will be brought to a screen with a 24-word mnemonic that looks something like this:

Be sure to save these words somewhere secure and where you won’t forget as you will need them to recover your account if you happen to lose access to it. After creating your account, you will be logged in to the market and see its home page:

Although your account has officially been created and you are free to browse the market, there are a few things you’ll need to take care of before attempting to make a purchase. First, hover over your account name on the right side of the menu bar and select “Settings”. You’ll notice that DarkMarket has provided you with your own custom URL links, which are a great way to keep track of valid URLs that can be stored and used for future logins.

A few sections below on the Settings page you’ll notice there is an option for Two Factor Authentication which can be set by entering your PGP public key in field below. It should look something like this when correctly filled:

After pasting your PGP public key, click the blue “Add PGP Key” button below the text field. This will cause the screen to refresh with a message encrypted with your PGP key. Within the message is a Validation number that you will need to copy from the unencrypted version of the message provided by DarkMarket. A successfully decrypted message will read something like:

“You have successfully decrypted this message. To validate this key please copy validation number to the field on the site

Validation number:127157513817”

After copy/pasting the Validation number and pressing the “Validate” button, you will be notified that your PGP key has successfully been changed. This will allow you to toggle the Two Factor Authentication to “On”, which can be located directly above the PGP key text field. It will also allow you to receive encrypted communications from vendors and buyers.

Another thing you’ll need to do while you’re in Settings is enter in a refund address. This will be either a BTC or XMR address, depending on what coin you are using to make your payment. Do this by entering an address in the space below the “Crypto Addresses” field, which is below the PGP key information.

After configuring your Two Factor Authentication, PGP and refund address, you’re now ready to start using the market.

Finding a Product Listing

DarkMarket’s product categories can be found on the left side of the screen. The list of categories (and subcategories) includes the following:

Digital Goods (Software, E-Books, Erotica, Serials and Keys), 5600+ listings
Drugs (RC’s, Cannabis, Harm Reduction, Paraphernalia, Pharmaceuticals, Nootropics, Dissociatives, Benzos, Stimulants, Alcohol, Opiates, Tobacco, Psychedelics, Steroids, Ecstasy), 40,000+ listings
Services (Social Engineering, Hacking, Carding, Energy Control), 2400+ listings
Security & Hosting (Hosting, VPN), 440+ listings
Miscellaneous (Other), 330+ listings
Jewelry (Gold, Silver), 280+ listings
Identification (Passports, Drivers Licenses, Credit Score / Defaults, Bills / Statements, Tax Returns), 750+ listings
Guides & Tutorials (Fraud, Drugs, Security & Anonymity, Social Engineering, Hacking, Cryptocurrency), 5100+ listings
Fraud (Data & Scans, Bank Accounts, Online Accounts, Bank Drops, Credit Cards / CVV, Dumps), 8600+ listings
Counterfeit (Clothing, Electronics, Jewelry, Fake ID’s, Currency), 1400+ listings
Software & Malware (Security Software, Crackers & Checkers, Botnets, Malware, Exploits), 1300+ listings
Carded Items (Digital, Clothing, Electronics), 540+ listings

In addition to the search tool that can be used to locate specific products, DarkMarket has the following filters to help narrow your selection:

Digital / Physical
Category
Minimum price / Maximum price
Ships from / Ships to
Newest, Price, Most Experience Points, 5 Star Product/Communication/Shipping, Trusted Vendor

Pro Tip: In this day and age, it’s a good idea to only place orders from vendors within your country when possible, as this prevents the need for international travel and thus additional scrutiny.

Before Making a Purchase

Keep in mind that DarkMarket doesn’t host user wallets with balances associated with their accounts. Instead, a new address is created representative of each transaction.

It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that reputation is everything when it comes to successful experiences with darknet markets. It is recommended to only deal with vendors that have impeccable reputations when possible. A vendor’s reputation information can be seen right under their name on all their products listings, which shows the number of positive, neutral and negative reviews a vendor has receive.

Vendors who are reported as having more problems than average are marked with a warning label, such as can be seen below:

Take the time to read the vendor’s feedback before making a purchase. This can be found by clicking the “Feedback” tab beneath the product order screen. If a product has no feedback, click the vendor name at the top right of the product listing to go to their home page at DarkMarket. Here, you can see the XP earned by the vendor (positive is good, negative is bad), their PGP key, and feedback ratings. It is recommended that you also read individual ratings by clicking “See all feedback” on the right.

When offered a choice between vendors who may be competing for your business, be sure to always choose the vendor with the highest overall trust scores, including net positive reviews, XP, and high marks in Quality, Shipping and Communication. It’s also recommended to seek out more experienced vendors whose clients leave nothing but satisfied comments. Don’t bother dealing with reported scammers or inept vendors, even if their prices are lower than everybody else’s. You’ll usually end up wasting your time at best and losing your funds at worst.

Making a Purchase on DarkMarket

DarkMarket supports both Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) as deposit options. It is pretty much recommended to transact in XMR when possible as funds can be moved more anonymously and it will make it harder to trace your sent funds back to you. The only downside of XMR on the market is that not as many vendors will accept it as a payment option, and thus your selection of purchasable products may be diminished.

After finding the product you wish to purchase, click on it (or the “Buy Now” button underneath) to bring up the listing’s details. Here, you will see the following vendor-defined options for the listing:

Escrow options (Regular, Finalize Early)
Payment options (BTC and/or XMR)
Shipping options (Regular, Priority, Express, etc.)

After setting the following 3 options for your order, enter the quantity of the item you wish to purchase, and click the “add” button below. You will be brought to the order placement screen where you can review your order and enter the address to which you want the product shipped. Text in the address field will be automatically encrypted using the vendor’s public key, which means you do not need to perform this step for your communication to be encrypted.

If you are satisfied with the order details and the address you have provided, click the “Checkout” button — unless you have multiple items in your shopping cart to review; in which case press the “Next” button on the right side of the screen to proceed to the next item. You will then be brought to the checkout screen where you can review your order one more time. Press “Purchase” to confirm the order.

After confirming your purchase, you will be brought to the payment screen. Beneath the order information will be a section with payment information, alongside the encrypted address message sent to the vendor. Here you can see the exact amount of BTC or XMR that needs to be sent in order for your order to be marked as “paid.” Beneath that will be a payment address. After the payment has been confirmed by the coin’s network, the vendor will be notified of the order and start preparing it for delivery.

If you want to change your mind about an order, this is the best time to do it: simply hit “Cancel purchase” and the order will be removed.

Orders have 5 statuses:

Purchased (payment has been received)
Sent (product has been mailed by the vendor)
Delivered (product has been received by the buyer)
Disputed (product delivery or quality disputed by the buyer)
Canceled (order cancelled by buyer or seller)

You can keep track of your order a number of ways, including selecting the “Purchases” drop-down option from the menu tab with your account name.

Pro Tip: If an article is late, quite often you will have the chance to extend the deadline before it is finalized. Just keep in contact with the vendor and let him know when you have received your product (don’t forget to encrypt all post-order conversation with the vendor using the PGP key)

Finalizing Your Order

There are only two types of escrow that can be used on DarkMarket: Normal Escrow and Finalize Early (FE). Selecting Normal Escrow means that you will have to finalize your order after receiving it in order for your funds to be released to the vendor. This can be done from the order page, found by hovering over your account name tab and selecting “Purchases” from the drop-down menu.

If you are unsatisfied with the quality of your order, you can also submit a dispute from the order page which will give you a chance to let DarkMarket operators know what is wrong with your purchase. The dispute resolution team will then reach out to the vendor in an attempt to mediate and gather information. If the team finds in favor of you, your payment will be refunded to your refund address. If the team finds in favor of the vendor, the funds will be released to the vendor.

The second escrow option, Finalize Early, is only made available to vendors who have proven their trustworthiness and ability to carry out smooth business on the forum. This will release funds to the vendor immediately. Only use this escrow option if you have complete confidence in the vendor’s ability to fill your order.

Other orders will auto-finalize after a certain amount of time, as ordinarily it is assumed the order went according to plan if there is no objection from the buyer. The time before auto-finalization can be extended from the order page if an order is taking an inordinately long amount of time to arrive. Even though DarkMarket advertises themselves as having a great customer support team, it is better to avoid the hassles of the dispute resolution process when possible, even if it means exhibiting an extra amount of patience or understanding.

Conclusion

In all, DarkMarket is a decent market for those willing to be a bit on the adventurous side, as it does not inspire an overwhelming amount of confidence in terms of security or forthrightness. It has, however, managed to attract tens or ever hundreds of thousands of customers over a relatively short period of time, many of which followed vendors from markets that are no longer in operation. The fact that they don’t maintain customer funds in accounts is a bit trust inspiring but it hasn’t stopped similar “wallet-less” escrow schemas from exit scamming their customers in the past.

So long as one has a basic understanding of cryptocurrency transfer and PGP, they should be able to have a successful experience on DarkMarket; especially if they follow basic principles like only buying from reputable vendors and starting off with smaller purchases. It’s important to remember that this type of market can be extremely risky to operate or participate in, and paying attention to one’s own security will forever be more important than getting in on what appears to be a good deal.

DarkMarket Official Link-