As supply soars, prices of dark web goods plummet

Over the past year, the dark web data market has seen a large increase in both total volume and product variety. Unsurprisingly, as supply has increased, most commodities have seen significant price declines.

This is revealed in Privacy Affairs' 2022 Dark Web Price Index report, which examines dark web data from February 2021 to June 2022. Data collection methods include scanning dark web marketplaces, forums and websites.

Booming Sales

The report found that the number of goods sold on the dark web has increased dramatically over the past year. each of the more than 9,000 active vendors selling fake IDs and credit cards reported sales from thousands of transactions last year.

In addition, more fake credit card data, personal information and documents are being sold in 2021 compared to 2020, and the variety has increased with the addition of hacked cryptocurrency accounts and web services such as Uber.

The report also shows that as the dark web trading market matures, the criminals operating it are beginning to mimic the legitimate economy, using methods similar to traditional marketing and retail operations, such as offering two-for-one transactions against stolen credit card details.

No new market leader

Prior to last October, buyers tended to use more established sites that offered more security features and focused on customer service.

White House Market, clearly the most active site in the system, was the clear leader, hosting about a third of the roughly 9,000 active vendors on the dark web marketplace.

However, in October of last year, with little explanation, the site administrators announced that they were shutting down the site, which closed shortly after the announcement. While other sites, notably ToRReZ Market and the relaunched AlphaBay Market, have begun to fill the void, no long-term dark web market leader has been identified yet, although AlphaBay Market may be temporarily ahead.

Cloned, Stolen Credit Cards

Last December, some 4.5 million credit cards were sold on the dark web. Overall, the prices of hacked credit cards have dropped, in some cases significantly.

The average price for credit card details ranged from $1 in the U.S., Canada and Australia to $20 in Hong Kong. However, the overall price trend for these items is down.

The price of credit card details for account balances up to 5,000 dropped from $240 to $120, and the price of credit card details for account balances up to $1,000 dropped from $120 to $80.

Stolen online banking login accounts with at least 2,000 accounts also dropped from $120 to $65.

Other examples include a drop from $65 to $25 for hacked CVV credit card details in Israel and a drop from $35 to $15 for hacked (global) credit card details CVV.

Some places fared better, with hacked credit card details with CVV in the U.K. staying at $20 and the same in the U.S. dropping only $3, from $20 to $17.

The company says bad actors prefer to sell credit card details rather than take the money directly because doing so poses an unnecessary risk.

"They do what they do best and make a profit by selling this stolen data to felons willing to convert these details into cash through crypto marketplaces on the dark web or some other scheme," the company explained.

"Since they also steal this type of data on a large scale, some of the cards' data may not actually be usable for various reasons, which is a factor in the price. However, considering they do this on a large scale, they are quite profitable."

Supply and demand

According to the Privacy Office, this data proves that data on the dark web is getting cheaper.

"This is happening because hackers are collecting a lot of data and there are more and more hacking groups and therefore more and more suppliers. The dark web market is more like a real market, with new vendors entering the market and trying to sell at lower prices, proving the supply and demand equation."