There’s also a privacy angle—some users live in countries with censorship or surveillance, and the dark web gives them a space to communicate or access information more freely. The second category consists of data stores, which specialize in stolen information. As such, hackers are more interested in the flight points on your account, which they can spend on “reward holidays.” This tactic makes less of a financial footprint and is harder to spot. If you want to know how hackers use these accounts, be sure to read about the ways scammers can exploit your email address. We’ve already discussed in detail how much your identity is worth on the dark web, so be sure to read it to learn more about how your details are sold.
Which Type Of Credit Card Is Worth The Most On The Dark Web?

Everything is for sale here, from a $20,000 bank loan for next to nothing, through to services that will attack sites and services on a rental basis. The popular Silk Road was the first dark web marketplace that you could only access via the Tor Browser. Interestingly, the hackers don’t hide, but most of them even openly advertise what they offer on the darknet forums. Therefore, you can hire them to perform a task for you, from planting malware to hacking email accounts and even breaking into various social media accounts. Employees with legitimate access to business data can pose an internal risk, either by intentionally selling sensitive information or unknowingly exposing data through negligence.

Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy. We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. And PayPal says its dedicated security teams closely monitor and take steps to stop malicious activity from occurring. Santander adds that it uses a variety of tools to monitor the Dark Web for anything criminals might use to target customers.
- All of this has made it one of the most reliable markets still active in 2025.
- If a seller encourages you to opt for other well-known and commonly used payment methods, then the person is likely to be a scammer, and you must not make any deal with them.
- One notable incident involved the sale of 533 million Facebook user records, which included phone numbers, email addresses, and personal data.
- Here are some of the now-defunct dark web markets that were notorious for cybercrime.
The three biggest markets for cryptocurrency account log-in details were Bohemia, Nemesis and Blacksprut, which were host to 49% of all such listings. While the five most popular cryptocurrency platforms may account for almost half (44%) of all listings in this category, no single platform dominated. Hacked VPN log-ins were disproportionately popular on Russian markets, which accounted for 43% of all VPN listings. Streaming was much less concentrated than other categories we analyzed, with the 20 most frequently-listed services accounting for almost 60% of all listings.
The Top 6 Deep And Dark Web Credit Card Sites

If you want to be untraceable and undetectable, connecting to the dark web via the Tor browser is a major step towards that, but not the only step you’ll need. To get on the dark web, you need a browser built for the job, and the best in the business is Tor. Tor is a browser engineered for extra security and privacy, and can be used to navigate the normal, surface web as well as the dark web. It blocks trackers, prevents user fingerprinting, encrypts data, and reroutes your browsing so no one can see where in the world you are.
Azteco: Buy Bitcoin Like A Prepaid Card
Dark web marketplaces are mostly hubs for illicit goods and activities, posing serious risks to users and the wider community. Abacus Market is one of the newer darknet marketplaces that quickly filled the gap left by AlphaBay’s takedown. It hosts over 40,000 listings and offers everything from illicit goods and substances to hacking tools.

How Cybercriminals Obtain Stolen Data

But these efforts of law enforcement don’t go in vain; hackers and criminals lose trust if a website or marketplace goes down. Like ransomware, criminals can buy software and inject your devices with viruses. With it, they can spy on people, steal their sensitive data, or secretly control their devices.
Securing Transactions With 3-D Secure ACS
Digital Shadows said that the highest price is the system administrator account information, which can reach a maximum of 120,000 US dollars, the average selling price of such account information is 3139 US dollars. However, criminals who obtain such account information usually have a “lion’s mouth” to the attacked organization, so they think such a price is “value for money”. Many accounts have been shared multiple times, indicating that users do not know that their accounts have been attacked. Even if there is duplication of information, there are more than 5 billion “independent” accounts that “sell for the price” on the dark web. Finally, as with most online accounts, fraudsters bank on the fact that many people still reuse passwords across multiple accounts, especially those they use often like Facebook.
- We publish the index to help make the public more aware of the true value of their personal data.
- Initially focused in Europe, Peach has expanded to support users in Latin America and Africa by adding local currencies and payment methods.
- The more and rarer the items, the higher the price it can command on the dark web.
- Wikipedia defines the dark web, sometimes also referred to as the dark net, as a part of the internet that exists in an encrypted world of networks within networks.
Data Encryption & Access Controls
Russian Market has consistently remained one of the most popular and valuable data stores on the dark web. The platform’s activity has increased significantly over the past year, indicating its growing influence and market share in the underground economy. Its focus on financial fraud and high-value transactions has attracted a dedicated user base, contributing to its growing reputation and market value. While the average price for a dark web European passport is US$750, each European country has its own average price based on the previously mentioned factors determining the cost of dark web documents. Our researchers discovered that passports advertised as “registered”, “authentic”, and “verifiable” were expected to be genuine and, as such, demanded more money.
Protective Measures And Precautions
As per our research, the forum served as a place where hackers had discussions revolving around malware, unauthorized access, sales, database trading, and security vulnerabilities. DarkForums rose to power almost immediately after the original version of Pompompurin was shut down after the FBI arrested the infamous hack forum’s administrator. The forum offers leaked databases, malware, auto-checkers, lists of stolen credentials, account hacking tools, and several other threats. Dark web forums are online platforms that can only be accessed using anonymous networks, mainly Tor. Unlike clear web forums, these communities not only facilitate communication, but they also facilitate the sharing and trading of various services and goods (most of which are usually illicit or illegal). Users need a specialized browser like Tor to access these forums, which provides anonymity and encryption to its users.
How A PayPal Account Or Credit Card Ends Up On The Dark Web
Prices are surprisingly low, from $110 for credit card details, to anywhere from $30 to $500 for login details for major financial institutions and $60 for a New York driver’s license. These markets offer buyers an arsenal of sensitive information — and produce substantial revenue for sellers. Department of Justice, an Illinois man led a group of criminals in marketing almost 50,000 stolen payment cards on dark web marketplaces, generating at least $1 million in cryptocurrency. We live in a digital world where information can be the most valuable currency and the dark web serves as the commercial hub.
The Price Of Stolen Info: Everything On Sale On The Dark Web
The firm’s researchers said they also found dozens of adverts for domain admin access, and in many cases these were being auctioned for anything between $500 and $120,000, with an average selling price of $3,139. Digital Shadows said many basic account details were offered free of charge, but for those on sale, the average account traded for $15.43 (€13.43/£12.15), rising to an average of $70.91 for a bank account. Although we found stolen account credentials for 50 different online payment platforms, 40% of them were for PayPal, the most well-known brand in this category. Such low average prices are reflective that these accounts may not last for long before the new user is locked out.
A single compromised credit card can be sold for as little as $10, while full identity profiles—often called “fullz”—can fetch hundreds of dollars. Businesses face severe consequences when their data is leaked, from regulatory fines under data protection laws to reputational damage that erodes customer trust. Small businesses, in particular, are attractive targets due to often-limited cybersecurity resources, making preventing data breaches a priority for sustainable operations. In the heart of STYX Marketplace, members can browse vendor listings for compromised online-banking, credit cards, cryptocurrency, e-commerce account credentials, as well as stolen credit card data. Bad actors are especially focusing on defrauding “digital banks” and VCC (virtual credit cards).
When we click on fraud we browse sub-categories such as stolen credit card information (including names, card numbers and addresses) starting at £12 and online banking details. Using a diffuse network of money mules, Zen Crew provides account opening services at various financial institutions (FIs) in the U.S., the UK and Canada. Notably, once the account and card has been issued, they provide an option to physically ship the latter to the buyer. But in some cases, buyers do not even require a debit or credit card, as a photo of the card the remote use of the account and will be often be enough to effectively facilitate illicit transactions and cash-outs. It reveals the extent to which streaming and VPN account details dominate the illicit trade in personal data on the darknet markets. The Darknet Market Price Index is a series of research reports that track the average sale prices of stolen online account credentials and personal data.
Listings offering multiple accounts for a single price were split into their constituent parts and prices calculated equally according to the number of accounts offered. Other notable differences included local brands, such as streaming platforms IVI Amediateka being as or even more popular than their international counterparts, such as Netflix. Similarly, local payment platform Qiwi was more popular in Russia than any global rival. Almost half of the 20 most popular brands in the category offered a variety of courses across a range of disciplines. Four platforms were focused on access to books and book summaries, while three were language learning platforms.