The Dark Web - A Horrifying Place

I have been watching YouTube videos on the Dark Web, which you need a Tor browser to access. It sounds like a scary place - for one thing, you will need to protect yourself if you venture there, or your computer could easily get hacked and your personal information could get stolen. I do not go on the Dark Web myself, but I have been watching videos about it.

To start with, there are easy-to-find websites offering guns, drugs, hit men, human trafficking, stolen credit card information, stolen PayPal accounts, hackers-for-hire, and more. There are also a lot of pages dealing with conspiracies, some of them going deeper than what is on ATS. In fact, there is supposedly a deeper layer to the Dark Web that holds access to extremely secret information from sources like the government and the Vatican.

What is disturbing is the type of content you find on the Dark Web - there are streaming video and audio services, of course, but in addition to that, there are people out there who post snuff films - there is clear evidence to suggest that there are really people getting murdered out there on camera just so that someone can post it on the Dark Web. One user runs a website that has detailed information on how to cook women, and there are groups of cannibals that get together to eat each other.

In addition to this, there are at times hard-to-access live streams where someone can sit in a chat room and watch, in real-time, as a man tortures and murders his victims. The people in chat can suggest what the perpetrator should do next, or in some cases, who he should kill next. There is some seriously dark stuff happening out there.

As always, be careful, as the people you bump into on the Dark Web could gather personal information about you and use it to blackmail you or track you down. One user had a "friend" he had known for a long time from the Dark Web suddenly turn on him and private message him personal information about himself, including the user's family members, the name of his teacher, his Facebook, his address, his phone number, and more. The scary thing is that the two had not shared any personal information between each other.

In another instance, one user found a website that allowed him to covertly access the webcams and microphones of random internet users. He did this for a while, until he found his own webcam being offered on the site. He quickly logged off, only to get a Skype call later in the night from an unknown number who said he was "looking good."

I am continuing to watch YouTube videos about this subject, but so far, I am very convinced that this is a legitimately shady place to go. I hear that law enforcement doesn't do that much about the Dark Web. Some of the most troubling things to be found on the Dark Web, in my opinion, involve abusing people - making snuff films, child porn, live streams of torture and murder, human trafficking and the like.

What do you think? Is the Dark Web out of control? Should law enforcement do more about it? Or is it a necessary evil in our society? Has anyone been there before? Definitely don't share links to places you have been, or post any media or links to media that violates the Terms of Service.

a reply to: darkbake

As a sane individual... Why the Hell would I want to go there.... ever?

Sounds like a bunch of hacker predators, perverts, and criminals.... and you are the prey.

a reply to: darkbake

Sounds like you found our modern version of campfire stories.

Yes, it's quite an astonishing land of tales and terror! The darkness of the human heart is fully on display.

I do not visit the dark web but love a good campfire story!

A good lot of it is probably real, and a good lot of it is fiction.

(Also to mention that I have heard it said many times that live streams are not possible through tor and therefor are likely hoaxes, though I am not an expert.)

a reply to: darkbake
In a brief nutshell, Tor isn't actually anonymous. There are several things that will cause your information and IP address to still get out. Exit nodes can still be sniffed. Bypassing the fact that it was created by a Navy think-tank, some say a lot of exit nodes are sat on by intelligence anyways...

They know what's going on there. I wouldn't be surprised if they ran it.

Dark services makes dark money for dark projects. We wouldn't want another Iran Contra Affair, would we?

a reply to: infolurker

I wouldn't recommend going there, I heard it isn't safe. I'm not going there anytime soon.

a reply to: darkbake

Simply internet user but I have read there ar 7 layers to the dark web.

We all know FBI/CIA has access and the same capabilities as the users. So why are they still here doing what they do?

ah, no thanks, ATS is dark enough for me.

Ive been there and browsed

The problem is none of the Dark Web search engines really work, most pages are old and outdated/unused

The Hidden Wiki is the only way I know how to find anything. That being said, im sure 70% of stuff linked from the hidden wiki is fake.

If anyone knows how to find and browse through Darknet sites not using hidden wiki let me know. Because it seems impossible to find anything unless someone lets you know about it and gives you a link.

a reply to: darkbake

Viceland has a series called “Cyberwar” and they have an interesting segment on Deep Web/Dark Web/Darknet: The Marketplace of the Darknet

originally posted by: darkbake
a reply to: infolurker

I wouldn't recommend going there, I heard it isn't safe. I'm not going there anytime soon.

First point to mention: Using Tor with windows is pointless, yes you can access .onion sites with it, but it offers nothing more than that. Windows will not keep you safe.

Second: The idea of red rooms is a bit of a myth. The Tor relay service is incapable of sustaining live streaming services of anything more than about 144p.

Third: The idea of "levels" to the internet, as another poster mentioned, is also a myth. "Marianas web" doesn't exist. The only thing the "deepweb" offers is access to the unindexed part if the internet.

Fourth: Be careful if you use it, there are a lot of malicious people who take advantage of security vulnerabilities in onionland. Plus, the absence of site descriptors is essentially renders browsing a game of Russian roulette. There are some horrible places there, but so there are on the clearweb too.

Onionland is also a place where journalists and such transmit their stories, when living in oppressive regimes, for example.

a reply to: darkbake

I really don't mean to come off as a dick but I'm probably going to.

The darknet isn't anything particularly special and all of the oogey boogey YouTube videos I've ever seen on the subject are laughable at best. The VAST majority of the darknet is information that just plain isn't hosted on the surface web. That's all. Databases, remote webcams, encrypted information. That's all. Give it a go. Most of the users are just people that want privacy in their browsing. Some people use it to access sites that aren't available in their countries. Mostly though, again, its people who want their privacy.

I'm going to go through this ridiculousness in order here:

-You are, by very definition, protected when accessing the darknet through TOR. That's the point of it. If you configure it properly and learn what you're doing, no ones going to hack you and steal your personal information just by going to a different part of the internet. Well... Chances are about the same as being hacked using the regular surface web. That's just plain untrue.

-Guns? Yep. They're available on there. At totally ridiculous prices and with NO guarantee you'll receive anything at all. You're more likely to go to a crappy neighborhood and pick up anything you'll find on a DNM for less than half the price without the opportunity to be ripped off via irreversible btc transaction. There was a semi famous one, I think it was just called The Armory. Can you guess how many customers received what they paid for? If you guessed none, DING DING DING! YOU WIN! Not to mention that you can find illegal weapons all over the surface web. There's just a layer of privacy with TOR that makes it a tiny bit harder to find you.

-Drugs? Oh hell yeah. There have been dozens of DNMs that have come and gone, either by way of law enforcement raids or just admins taking off with all of the users escrow funds. Go ahead, look into it. Silk Road, BlueSky, Pandora, Sheep Market, all of the three bajillion subsequent Silk Road wannabes... The list goes on and on. The Dutch police got ahold of Alphabay a few months ago. They sold a little of everything but rumor was it was run by Russian carders so anything and everything from CC info to hacked PayPal accounts was their big draw I think. Again, plenty of drugs available on the surface web. Hell, look at topix. Drugs galore. Whether they're real or not, I have no idea but the same can be said for DNM sellers.

-Hitmen and human trafficking? I'm sure its there. I'm also sure, again, the same things are available on the regular old internet, albeit with a little less protection of who you are when ordering something than doing so from, say, Amazon. That being said, if you legitimately believe you've found a hitman on a totally anonymous platform and actually attempt to hire them, you deserve to lose every penny you're undoubtedly going to lose doing so. That's not to say I don't feel the same about hiring hitmen or human traffickers on the regular old internet but really. Naivety is more of a killer on the darknet than any hitman you're going to find.

-Conspiracy sites? Yep. Ones that provide a hell of a lot more proof than sites like this because it can be a bit... Unsettling sometimes. Again, that being said, there are a lot of things down there that you wouldn't believe if I told you. I'm actually in the process of digging up some articles down there to add to a comment I made on a thread here yesterday regarding drones over French nuclear reactors. Go ahead. Download the browser bundle, set security to medium or high and make sure you've got NoScript running and you'll find some pretty interesting things you'd never find on the surface web. JFK, MLK, TSA 800... Every bit of proof of certain things that's been meticulously scrubbed from the internet is still down there.

-Gov't/Vatican? Well yes, I'm sure there's quite a bit of government related things down there. TOR was developed by the navy, after all. I'm sure there's millions of things like that down there but good luck getting into any of it without a way to break their encryption. Vatican? Doubtful. Their secrets are too large to risk even letting anything sit on a PC that's never been connected to the internet. But again, with that being said, there are more than a few whistleblower sites down there so who knows what's freeballin around out there.

-Snuff films? I'm not going to post links but I can think of a half dozen EXTREMELY well known and popular websites you can go to right now that feature almost nothing but snuff movies. Nope, not on the darknet. You could go there right now with whatever browser you're using. I mean yeah, that crap is down there too. 99.999% is just a few google searches away up here, though.

-"Red Rooms?" I always hear about these from those ignorant of darknet workings. I think I heard of one real one maybe. Maybe. Same as hitmen. "Send 1.5 BTC to this address then an email to this address stating your transaction number and you'll be given a password" kind of crap. If this sounds similar to the hitmen thing, that's because they are a scam, too. Are there real ones? I'm sure there are. But you're not going to just stumble on them. From what I DO know of them, IF there are real ones out there, they're invite only. Again, more that plausible to expect some surface web live streams of this crap too.

-That "user" that had a "friend" that had all of that happen to? That's an old-as-hell creepypasta. As I said before, the intent of TOR as a whole is privacy. Unless you go into it totally clueless (as in can't be bothered to read a 5 minute tutorial before using) no one is going to find a damn thing about you. Minor security knowledge is key here. Don't deviate from .onion sites (as in don't go from an onion site to a .com then another onion site and expect that you're still masked) and use common sense. The boogey man doesn't live in the darknet. Just in YT videos about it.

-Law enforcement doesn't do much? Really? Look into freedom hosting. They provided hosting for TONS of child porn sites. Google it. See how many people were arrested when LE got the info that led them to the servers. The go to deepdotweb and search how many dark net markets have been shut down by law enforcement. Trust me. Its more than a couple. The reason they don't act on the rest of the things you mentioned? Mostly because they're 99% urban legends perpetuated by people that have no clue what they're talking about on YouTube.

Go ahead. Grab the TOR browser bundle, read a summary of how to stay anonymous and use something like TORCH (TOR search), the Hidden Wiki or any number of other sites that index darknet pages. Have a look around. You'll realize pretty quickly that far and away the most evil thing down there is the never ending stream of scammers.

Here you go.

a reply to: Noncents

Ah I forgot exit nodes. Still, as long as you're just browsing, doesn't make much of a difference.

a reply to: darkbake

That's your choice but your reasoning is beyond flawed.

a reply to: Lucidparadox

TORCH is a good place to start. Deepdotweb has a lot of helpful links.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Yes, this. So much this. I just went off on a tangent and you summarized everything very eloquently. And remembered what I left out. Have a star.

originally posted by: Jonjonj
Second: The idea of red rooms is a bit of a myth. The Tor relay service is incapable of sustaining live streaming services of anything more than about 144p.

Are you sure on that?

My regular data streams on a tor relay are ~1-2MB/s (bytes, not bits).

Then again my purpose for that service may be quite a bit different then what is written here...there is much more to a tor service then ones here may know.

a reply to: darkbake

Most of what is said about the deep web is just internet folk lore. Yes it may have happened throughout it's history but its rather rare.
I used to watch a friend of mine browse it all the time when tor first came out.
The thing is the messed up stuff is there, but you can't just stumble on it, or search it, in theory anything is on the internet (deep and surface web)
But most of it cannot be accessed without being "invited".
Majority of the stuff we found was just random books banned in libraries, lots of weird basic forums selling guns, hookers, weed, etc, but we go back a week later and it's been gutted. Lots of military documents where 90% of the documents are just blanked out. Sections of the anarchists cook book.
We found a hamster breeding website that was strange. Most messed up thing we found was just some early internet day gore, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It got boring and we just stopped because it was a hassle.
I am sure it's a lot more exciting now. Back then we didn't really know much about it or how to browse it proporly.

a reply to: darkbake

I wouldn't recommend going there, I heard it isn't safe. I'm not going there anytime soon.

Nothing wrong with the dark net.. Instead of watching youtube videos go and have a look yourself. You are in no position to make a thread about something you have no experience about.
Most of the internet is darknet.. Clearnet is just the tip of the iceburg..

If you are worried boot up in tails and run tails under a vpn..

Freedom of speech is dead on the clearnet.. If you want it you need to go there..

originally posted by: darkbake
or your computer could easily get hacked and your personal information could get stolen.

There's no difference to venturing to a normal public domain website that attempts to steal your data compared to a 'dark web' site. They all use the same methods: security flaws, low security protection by the user or common malicious website practices. It isn't any more 'dangerous' to navigate than any normal 'security-risky' websites.

Just because you're on the Dark Web doesn't mean you're suddenly 'more exposed' to risk.

Yes, many things in the Dark Web are there for the same reason - it's either illegal or highly immoral, hence why it isn't on the public web. However many are not -- circumventing country firewalls and blocked content, anonymity which is not a crime in of itself, whistleblowing, etc. It's not all bad.

In another instance, one user found a website that allowed him to covertly access the webcams and microphones of random internet users.

You can find this on the normal internet... :/

What do you think? Is the Dark Web out of control? Should law enforcement do more about it?

WHat else can they do? They already are working hard to remove specific illegal content. But they nature of what it is means it isn't a simple 'switch' you turn off.

Or is it a necessary evil in our society? Has anyone been there before?

Sure. i work in IT security and often have to check certain financial sites to see if MY company has any data leaked or employee names listed, etc. I also check for 0 day exploits and hacks which I then use to alert my own IT security team to get upgraded. We call our vendors and ask for patches, etc.

As far as a necessary evil - well, I would say that if it's gone, people will find something else. I stay away from about 99% of what you mention above; I have no interest in that stuff. My only use of it is as I said, finding out if my company has been compromised.

There are also Security companies you can pay that protect your personal info and periodically scan known areas of the Dark Web to see if any of your listed data is there -- same thing I do for my company.

originally posted by: darkbake
I have been watching YouTube videos on the Dark Web, which you need a Tor browser to access. It sounds like a scary place - for one thing, you will need to protect yourself if you venture there, or your computer could easily get hacked and your personal information could get stolen. I do not go on the Dark Web myself, but I have been watching videos about it.

Isnt the above an oxymoron? If you are simply viewing youtube videos 'about' the 'dark web' on the 'mainnet' of course I would take everything with a grain of salt.

That being said - a lot of what you mention is true. Of course there are marketplaces offering anything you can imagine. Paypal accounts for example are sold for cents on the dollar. All a buyer needs is to use the correct info for socks and they have full access for pennies. All anybody has heard about for the most part is 'the SilkRoad' marketplace and its subsequent shutting down by the FBI. Rarely is it mentioned that dozens of other maketplace sites stepped up to take its place immediately and will always do so.

That being said, those markets are honeypot central. Bet your ass half of the vendors and sellers are spooks gathering intel to bust darknet dealers. Funnily enough, current info on said markets and addresses is easiest found on Reddit go figure.

Law enforcement does do things about it but it is mostly limited to busting site operators and/or major drug dealers. The reason is simple enough. The tactics and methods used by LE in such places are technically not legal especially without warrant IE not admissable in court. Basically, the NSA/gov knows all but they cannot present illegally obtained survelliance information in court so they only pursue legal evidence against the 'big wigs.'

Other than that, the honeypots let them collect data for future reference and tabs on people.

It is a necessary evil. There are also gems on the dark web. And afterall- it was developed by the US military. They control most of the exit nodes so it is not truly anonymous or secret as people think, but it is less touchable because these are things the gov wont bring to the courtroom in most cases.

Also, anybody can view peoples private webcams and security cams right on the mainnet. There are sites specifically for that purpose.

Again, that all being said, dont go there if you havent been or have no valid reason to. Bet your ass connecting to a tor node immediately logs your info and flags you on another list.


Eta: Also, even calling it the 'darkweb' is terribly cliche.

a reply to: darkbake

don't worry, you can find just as much disturbing content on your good old regular interwebz.

I like going to look at onion sites myself. Like torrents there is a tonne of legit reasons for being there and well you get what you're looking for, just like the normal interwebz.

It's kind of like saying OMG interwebz is evil because I google p0rn and got p0rn!!!.

Aint what you got, but how you use it. Not interested in drugs, illegal guns etc, the solution is simple. Don't go looking for it.

Heck if I had a dollar for every time I come across a "faces of death" video on youtube, and don't even get me started on LiveLeak.
Hell I often see worse on facebook posts than I do on the TOR network.

Honestly might be an idea to just stay away from the interwebz altogether if such content concerns you and you do not know how to computer. e.g not google for things that offend you.

This is again just one of those things that comes down to personal choice and responsibility for ones own actions.

a reply to: darkbake

Query...

If its the Deep Web, how were you watching YouTube videos there? I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that they will not be YouTube videos, because if they were, you would not need to be using TOR to examine them, unless I have missed something fundamental about the way YouTube works.

Outside of the chans, it's mostly a repository of odd books including a whole smorgish board of occult and banned books.

Once Tor got popular, other "dark webs" got rolled out.

I hear that law enforcement doesn't do that much about the Dark Web.

Heh,it's mostly law enforcement (alphabet soup) that lurks on it now, folks bailed, long ago.