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The dark web can be a valuable resource, providing access to information not available on the regular internet. However, it can also be a pardon for the pun in a dark place. There is a lot of bad content that you should avoid. It can be offensive at best, and highly illegal at worst. Let's take a closer look at some of the most heinous things you might come across on the dark web.
If you've been keeping up with the news, you'll know that crypto scams are already common on the regular web. In mid-2018, Facebook issued a blanket ban on crypto ads due to the issue (though the ban has now been partially lifted). It should come as no surprise, then, that crypto scams are even more prevalent on the dark web. The scammers use the same techniques as on the regular web, but because there is no regulation, ad networks, forums, and other places where the scams appear are less likely to shut them down.
Exit scams occur when a seller ceases shipping but continues to accept orders and money.
The buyer has no recourse or compensation because the items sold on the dark web are frequently illegal (guns, drugs, etc.) and payments are made in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Exit scams on the dark web have included Olympus Market and Empire in September 2018 and the Evolution darknet market in 2015. The Evolution market's owners allegedly walked away with more than $12 million in escrow Bitcoins.
The dark web is riddled with hoaxes, almost all of which want you to part with your money for nothing in return. Understandably, scams take many forms; people are inventive. Some of the deceptions are downright sickening. The most well-known example is probably "red rooms." The rooms claim to show live animal and human torture, as well as live rape and even murder. We're not saying they're all fake because we didn't do the necessary research, but the consensus among regular dark web users is that they're staged at best and a money-grabbing scam at worst.
In August 2015, one incident promised the torture of seven ISIS prisoners, even claiming that viewers could direct the action through an interactive chat. The event generated a lot of buzz on Reddit and 4chan. The site then went down three minutes before the action was supposed to begin. It returned half an hour later, thanking everyone for participating. The camera froze every time the torture was about to begin when the "source footage" was eventually uploaded. A few days later, a suspiciously fake-looking FBI seizure notice appeared. Other hoaxes prey on people who want to use illegal services (such as hitmen, dubbed the "Nigerian princes of the dark web") and buy illegal goods. If you try to obtain these services and products, you will almost always be out of pocket.
Terrorist groups have used the dark web to coordinate their actions, according to anti-terrorism authorities. The Al-Hayat Media Center, which is affiliated with ISIS, launched a new dark website to disseminate information in early 2015. Its regular website even provided explicit instructions for accessing dark web content. In October 2015, Rawti Shax (a branch of the Kurdish jihadist group Ansar al-Islam) was also discovered to have a dark web presence. Following the 2015 Paris attacks, the Anonymous hacktivist group took control of one such ISIS-sympathizing website and replaced it with a Prozac advertisement.
The dark web is rife with illegal pornography. The most severe problem is arguably child pornography and its associated pedophile rings. The FBI famously busted a massive child porn site on the dark web in 2015 using malware, Adobe Flash exploits, and other hacking techniques. Authorities took control of the server in North Carolina and ran it for two weeks before shutting it down. Finally, the FBI compromised over 1,000 computers and arrested three men. Child pornography isn't the only issue. Content that falls into a legal grey area, such as revenge porn, is also a massive issue that authorities are struggling to address.
