One of the underground markets on the dark web called ToRReZ marketplace has shut down its operations in the earlier weeks of December 2021. Launched in February 2020, this marketplace is known for trading illegal goods such as stolen data, crypto wallets, cookies, and more. It also operated as an eBay and Amazon-like market, enabling all visitors to register on their site as sellers or customers.
This marketplace, which claimed to have approximately 160,000 registered users, was known for selling narcotics and offered items such as counterfeiting, malware, data dumps, and other illegal services.
An unidentified ToRReZ marketplace admin announced their departure from the dark web.
According to an alleged ToRReZ admin called MrBlonde, they have decided to close their marketplace after almost two years of existence on the dark web. After the announcement, the admin’s colleagues stopped registering new accounts and offering new products. They plan to take down their servers in two to three weeks to enable users to withdraw their deposited money on the site, for transactions to finish, and for users to file any disputes or complaints.
ToRReZ marketplace actors claim they are going out of business on their terms and that there is the possibility of their reemergence soon with a new brand. They are the second marketplace on the dark web to willingly shut down after the White House Market did the same thing last October 2021.
In related news, a low-tier dark web black market called Cannazon has also taken down its operations recently. The smaller dark web market’s admin stated that they had to shut down due to numerous repeated denial-of-service attacks against them.
For 2021, the federal law enforcement sector has counter-attacked dark web marketplace operators, and have taken down and arrested several dark web marketplace operators from January to October of 2021.
The dark web’s marketplaces are slowly dwindling their numbers down. However, more than ten dark web markets are still up and running and still offer many illegal products on services. Cybersecurity agencies and law enforcement have a long way to go before eradicating all existing marketplaces.
