Dark Bazar Market Review

Dark Bazar has been gradually attracting attention from vendors and buyers alike with its minimalist yet surprisingly feature rich platform. A major design overhaul was undertaken in mid-2023 with the aim of improving the user experience, whilst retaining the relative simplicity of use it has become known for. Dark Bazar offers physical products such as drugs, plus a range of fraud, digital goods and services.

Disclaimer: By using Dark Bazar Market for any form of transaction, you may be committing an illegal act in your country. The information provided here is for educational and research purposes and is not intended to promote any illegal activity. Any actions you choose to take are 100% your own responsibility.

Dark Bazar Market key information:

Dark Bazar disappeared in late November 2023 under unknown circumstances. The information here is for historic reference purposes.

Dark Bazar Market Link (Primary onion URL):
http://vpqhwsisxuishmvxhyzy3mh5rntyd3hwyb2oj5y7atipalid3ufp67qd.onion
Online since: November 4 2022
Cryptos accepted: Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR), Litecoin (LTC)
Multisig support? No
Walletless? No
Vendor bond: $250
Key features: PGP 2-FA, Escrow, Autoshop, Crypto swap
Categories: Drugs, Fraud, Digital Goods, Counterfeits, Services

Registration / login process:

After getting past the two relatively simple anti-DDOS captchas on the landing page, you can then login or create a new account. New accounts require a 4-8 digit PIN (used for purchases and withdrawals) and a personal phrase (a security feature to verify the site you're using is the real Dark Bazar and not a phishing site). You will then receive a mnemonic code in case you need to recover from account in future due to a forgotten password. Make sure you save this as you'll only be shown it once.

After logging in you'll reach a hub page which contains all your account options, latest market news, featured listings and search options. You'll immediately notice it's rather unique minimalist approach presented primarily through a red and black color scheme which makes it feel very different from most other markets. One might call it 'retro'. If darknet markets existed in the late 90s, what's the bet they'd look something like this? It'll probably be a design you'll either love or hate, but don't be too quick to judge before you've checked out the features it has to offer.

Dark Bazar Rules:

Nothing relating to arms or abuse of any kind is permitted. There are also strict rules around dealing outside of the market through platforms such as Telegram, Signal etc. Many vendors have already been banned for rule breaking, showing that Dark Bazar is keen to prevent users from being scammed outside of the market where they have no escrow protection.

Speaking of escrow protection, most transactions are subject to a 7 day escrow period for physical goods and 3 days for digital goods, which many buyers may find reassuring. Buyers can extend this for a further 7 days if needed. Finalize Early (FE) is only offered to large established vendors. Only use this is you trust the vendor 100%.

Searching for products:

You can search by category, or perform a simple or advanced search from the main hub page. We recommend an advanced search since this returns results in a much friendlier format and features more information about the product. The advanced search is located just above the featured listings and provides options to filter by item name category, price range, shipping to/from locations and more. This covers pretty much everything a user could want.

If you just want to search by vendor name, you can enter this into the simple search box and this will display any vendors matching that name. Perfect if you already know a vendor you're looking for.

Results are displayed in a list format which shows the product title, vendor name, price (in USD) shipping to/from locations, a photo, stock, sales numbers and feedback rating. Pretty damn comprehensive and enables you to quickly decide whether this a listing you wish to view.

Product information:

Each product listing features a photo, detailed description of the product, plus details about shipping options, price etc. You can also add a product to your favorites by clicking the star icon, which will make it easy to find on your next visit by visiting the 'favorites' page from the menu. By scrolling to the bottom of the page, you can view details of any written feedback left about the product - extremely useful when making a purchasing decision.

You can view more detailed information about a specific vendor by clicking on their name (underlined in green) on the right hand side of a product listing. Here you can view their store and feedback from across their entire product range. For some vendors, sales figures are also shown from markets they currently or have previously vended on, including large markets such as ASAP, Darkode Reborn and Empire Market. This is a good way to determine which vendors are established elsewhere. Reassuringly, all of these have been added and verified by Dark Bazar staff, so vendors can't just add fake sales figures.

To see details of the feedback left against a vendor's products, simply select 'Reviews' from the menu on the right.

Making a purchase:

If you've decided you want to purchase a product, the first thing you will need to do is deposit funds to your market wallet (see 'Wallet' in the header). Unfortunately Dark Bazar doesn't offer walletless pay. It does however offer 3 different cryptocurrencies to choose from - Bitcoin, Litecoin and Monero. Monero is fast, has the lowest transaction fees and is the safest, so we always recommend this. Whilst there are no fees for depositing (unlike some markets), due to crypto fluctuation, we advise always sending a few percent more than you need. Don't forget to factor in shipping costs.

Before making a cryptocurrency deposit, be sure you're not on a phishing site (check your onion link against those listed on Torhoo), then send funds to the wallet address provided in the wallet section of your account.

Once the funds are in your wallet, select the item you want from the relevant product page, fill out your as shipping address (and any other notes) and quantity, then enter your PIN and captcha. Finally select your preferred cryptocurrency to pay with (must have enough in your wallet), then proceed. Your order has now been placed. Very simple and all done on a single screen.

For security reasons, it is strongly recommend that you always encrypt messages yourself using the vendor's PGP key (found on their vendor page). Don't put your personal details in the hands of a darknet market, however good their security practices may seem on the surface. If you're not yet familar with PGP encryption, we have a detailed guide on how to use PGP.

Once confirmed and submitted, any outstanding orders will show in the Orders section of the site, shown in the header. When the vendor accepts, ships or cancels the order, it will be displayed here and you will receive a notication accordingly. Once your order has arrived, you can then mark it as received and leave feedback for the buyer. In the event of an issue, you can raise a dispute which will then be reviewed by market staff. We always recommend messaging a vendor first before disputing any order however. The vast majority of vendors will try their best to resolve the situation with you in the first instance.

Crypto swap:

Dark Bazar offers a crypto swap function which can exchange any Litecoin or Monero within your market wallet to Bitcoin in seconds. Unfortunately exchanges between other pairs are not possible at this time. Be aware that there is also a 5% fee incurred for doing so, meaning it's not as competitive as many other exchanges. However if you had smaller amounts of several cryptocurrency and wanted to combine this all into one in order to make a purchase or withdrawal, this is likely to be prove more cost effective than withdrawing and converting yourself.

Autoshop:

The autoshop allows those with an interest in credit card fraud to search from a database of cards on sale from a variety of vendors. Advanced search filters including bin and country are available to narrow down the list quickly. This is a feature which only a handful of markets are currently offering. Purchases can be made quickly and easily with funds deducted from your market wallet.

Conclusions on Dark Bazar:

Positives:

Minimalist design and easy to navigate

Support for Bitcoin, Litecoin and Monero

Autoshop feature

Tough stance on scammers with those vendors banned publicly named and shamed

Negatives:

No walletless / direct pay

Basic searches return very limited information (we recommend using advanced search)

Crypto swap to BTC only

Dark Bazar's layout has undoubtedly improved since launch and whilst it returns a relatively simple layout may look a primitive at first, once you get to grips with the range of features it offers, it's actually go quite a lot going for it. It's a prime example of 'dont judge a book by its cover.' Most crucially of all, it's easy to use and everything works exactly as you'd expect. All the information you'd want is clearly displayed and the purchasing process is simple and straight forward. Add to the mix an ambitious administration who is tough on scammers and seemingly never sleeps, and you've got a market with a great deal of potential. Who knows what the future holds for it?