Did a darkweb marketplace known as WallStreet Market wind up seized by German authorities after its moderators pulled an exit scam? Or is what may be intended to look like a seizure by German authorities just another part of the exit scam? Today’s drama on the darkweb started after what appeared to be a seizure notice was noted on WallStreet Market today:
The notice was mentioned in a post on Dread/d/DarkNetMarkets by “Skuffle:”
Just a heads up, time to clean house, especially all the users that used plaintext addresses.
All wallstreet market addresses are now showing a seized page by the “Bundeskriminalamt” (BKA)
“Die Domain und der kriminelle Inhalt wurden beschlagnahmt – Notice: The domain name and the criminal content have been seized”
“Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA)”I hope no innocent parties are affected by this & godspeed to everyone.
-Skuffle
The seizure was also reportedly confirmed by NU.nl, who reported (English translation:)
The marketplace Wall Street Market on the dark web has been taken over by European authorities. A spokesman for the European police organization Europol informed NU.nl on Thursday evening that it is currently unable to provide additional information, but that more information will be announced on Friday between 10 AM and 4 PM.
[…]
A spokesperson for the National Unit tells NU.nl on Thursday evening that the Dutch police have cooperated with the German authorities to take over the site. Details of how they proceeded are made clear on Friday afternoon.
ZDNet also seems to think the takedown is for real, although they do not provide the identity of the source for this statement:
We were told that both German police and Europol are scheduled to make an official announcement tomorrow morning, with additional information about the takedown.
Was it NU.nl that told them that or did they have a second source?
Does anyone remember that it was only a few months ago when KickAss appeared to have a seizure banner that turned out to be false? Is this latest banner also part of trying to throw users off while an exit scam is completed?
Over on Twitter, @5auth posted an interesting tweet:
The original BKA seizure banner vs the BKA seizure banner on the Wallstreet Market homepage. pic.twitter.com/g1wuELvyft
— Caleb (@5auth) May 2, 2019
According to statements on NU.nl, law enforcement should be revealing details on Friday. Let’s see if they do.
[UPDATE: I have been asked not to name the source, but it’s a very reliable source, so yes, this appears to be a real seizure.]