The most expensive of these tended to be Bitcoin-enabled, making them more suitable for use on the dark web. The markets with the most listings for hacked streaming accounts were Nemesis, Kingdom and Kraken, which hosted 63.5% of all such listings. Finally, as with most online accounts, fraudsters bank on the fact that many people still reuse passwords across multiple accounts, especially those they use often like Facebook. First, they are an incredibly rich source of personal information that can be used to facilitate identity theft, helping criminals answer security questions for example. Log-ins for everyday services like Netflix and Spotify primarily offer a route into potential identity theft, since it remains so common for people to reuse their passwords.
Is Your PayPal Account Safe? 16 Million Credentials Allegedly For Sale
According to the research data analyzed and published by Wette.de, they are worth 9.2 cents per dollar in the account as of September 2021, up by 293% over the past eight months. Another seller was offering what they called “full profiles” of stolen identities. For the bargain price of $40, the seller would allegedly provide social security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and less sensitive information such as education and telephone numbers. Those with an advertised $5,000 limit are being sold for $450, while a card with a $10,000 limit was spotted on sale for $800. Access to crypto funds from third parties is gained through their access data.
The Most Popular Dark Web Platforms For Discussions Of Credential Stuffing

The second category consists of data stores, which specialize in stolen information. As of 2020, nearly 57% of the dark web was estimated to contain illegal content, including violence and extremist platforms. Listings offering multiple accounts for a single price were split into their constituent parts and prices calculated equally according to the number of accounts offered. The Russian darknet market landscape had some significant differences to the international scene. Coinbase, which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume in the U.S., and its controversial competitor Binance, which is banned in several countries, each accounted for 12% of listings in this category. Our report does not suggest in any shape or form that the companies included or referenced have suffered security breaches.
On the Russian darknet markets, VPN account log-ins were the most popular stolen credentials for sale, accounting for almost 40% of all listings. Indeed, Russian sites played host to an outsize proportion of hacked VPN account details, with 43% of VPN credentials globally from three of 15 darknet markets. Cloned and stolen credit cards or user data, which criminals have skimmed, are offered by the sellers in commercial-looking offers. The following table compares the darknet markets included in this research. It is ordered by the number of listings, which refers to volume of hacked account credentials for sale. Actual physically cloned credit cards traded for far more money, around $171 on average, or $0.0575 per dollar of credit limit.
Ready To Explore Web Data At Scale?
This was followed up with a mid-year update of UK prices, conducted as part of our appearance on the BBC Watchdog consumer affairs TV show. We publish the index to help make the public more aware of the true value of their personal data. We hope this will lead to improved standards of day-to-day information security. Taking steps to prevent identity theft should be a priority for every single person online.
Social Security numbers and other national ID numbers are for sale on the dark web but aren’t particularly useful to cybercriminals on their own.

It reveals the extent to which streaming and VPN account details dominate the illicit trade in personal data on the darknet markets. Like every cyberattack, launching credential stuffing attacks has its own challenges. This identity and access management security method, which is known to many of us, requires two forms of identification to access platforms and data. In the case of PayPal, the first identification would be the login details and the second one could be a text message or an email. This means that even if a threat actor gained access to stolen login user details, he won’t necessarily manage to take over the account as it requires another step. Our research show that payment and travel accounts continue to be the most lucrative in the darknet market trade of hacked credentials.
- Number of listings refers to the total number of accounts identified, regardless of whether they are listed separately or together.
- This is reason enough to have the best antivirus software installed on your devices and kept up to date.
- We’re back with another video in our Webz Insider video series on everything web data.
- More than 9,000 active vendors selling fake IDs and credit cards reported sales in the several thousands.
Current Prices
Although these guides often cost a few cents, there was no guarantee to whether they would actually work. A quick guide for developers to automate mergers and acquisitions reports with Python and AI. By monitoring darknet networks, organizations can stay informed about new threats and emerging trends in the cybercrime landscape. The intelligence they can collect can assist them in proactively detecting any leak of their own information or that of their customers on these hidden platforms. The PayPal attack was carried out by using bots that automatically ran lists of credentials which they “stuffed” into the PayPal’s login portal. Users who have reused PayPal credentials on other platforms remain vulnerable to attack.

Why Is It A Big Deal For PayPal Users?
The recent real-world proliferation of streaming services was clearly reflected on the darknet markets, with stolen credentials for 150 different services identified. In conducting this research, we have assembled the world’s largest dataset of darknet market listings for hacked account details. We initially reviewed 27 darknet markets before excluding those that did not sell hacked log-ins. None of the darknet markets we looked at in our previous report still operate in 2023.
Tips For Data Safety
Renowned cryptocurrency trading platforms and wallets, such as LocalBitcoins, Kraken, and Coinbase, featured in dark web listings ranging from $90 to $250. These types of posts facilitate credential stuffing and enable any interested threat actor to carry out such attacks. The dark web is the number one digital resource cyber criminals turn to for tools and methods to launch cyberattacks, including credential stuffing.

Darknet Market Price Index: 2019 Report

This seems strange because people can use a VPN to bypass streaming site restrictions. Online payment methods such as mobile payments and payment processors are becoming more popular among retailers. They use pseudonymous wallets, privacy coins (like Monero), mixers, chain-hopping, and non-KYC platforms to obscure transaction trails. The Abacus Market links to the new dark web marketplace sections and took over much of the vacuum left by the AlphaBay takedown. If you ever decide to explore the dark web, protecting your identity is crucial.
Its focus on financial fraud and high-value transactions has attracted a dedicated user base, contributing to its growing reputation and market value. We also publish VPN research and advice to help protect your internet privacy and security. Fraudsters in possession of a hacked PayPal account can also try to double their money by using the account funds to run various well-established chargeback scams on merchants who accept PayPal.
Which Type Of Credit Card Is Worth The Most On The Dark Web?
They can then sell the account credentials to a buyer who can log in and drains the funds, or the vendor can transfer the requested amount of money from the victim’s account to the buyer’s account. In a similar study earlier this year, we noted an average price of 3.13 cents per dollar in the account. So unlike credit cards, prices for PayPal accounts and transfers have gone up during the pandemic by 293 percent.
People unexpectedly have their card cloned, their identities stolen, or their accounts hacked. Most stolen card details end up on the dark web marketplace for a quick profit, and this can happen before you even know about it. In addition to PayPal account balances, they can also transfer money from any connected bank accounts or credit cards. On top of all that, they could make purchases or request money from contacts listed in the PayPal account. Hijacking a PayPal account requires a different approach than stealing a credit card number. Instead of card numbers and CVVs, criminals steal usernames and passwords that they’ve gathered either through phishing or malware.
Comparitech researchers gathered listings for stolen credit cards, PayPal accounts, and other illicit goods and services on 13 dark web marketplaces. For legal reasons, we will not publicly disclose which marketplaces were used. Information in the listings was entered into a spreadsheet for data analysis and statistical calculations. We reviewed all darknet markets that were active in February-March 2023 that featured fraud-related listings.

