How Easily Your Information Is Exploited On the Dark Web

The Dark Web is a place you do not want your information to stubble over because how easily can someone buy your information for a mere couple of dollars is mind crashing. In order to look into this matter and how the dark web works the team over at PrivacyAffairs scanned and analyzed through some dark web markets thoroughly and the data they gathered makes us think how sometimes our information is not safe on the web.

The company found out that just 1010 dollars are enough for someone to steal your entire identity. This can be called as “full set of data” that someone can buy and start leading a life of someone else according to registered documents and while only 1000 dollars were enough to steal someone’s identity the single data information can be bought on even lesser amounts.

The company found out that online banking logins cost an average of just 40 dollars, with full credit card details including associated data costing between 14 dollars and 30 dollars. The US credit cards were available in lesser amounts for an average of just 17 dollars compared to other countries which had a credit card buying rate of up to 65 dollars. After buying such data fraudulent can manage to forge onto other legal documents as well. High quality driving license were available for 400 dollars each and the European National ID could just be bought for 500 dollars.

The credit cards and associated card holders have increasing demands day by day on the dark web and therefore because of the increasing demands their prices are rising as well. However, according to the privacy website the increase in prices could just be because of factors like the increasing risks of attaining the information, the increasing benefit for buyers to use the information, the increased quality/accuracy of the card data, or just inflation.

While the prices for credit cards have seen a great rise in the past few years on the dark web, the prices of hacked accounts have seen a sudden decline with a hacked Facebook ID now being sold for 75 dollars, Instagram hacked account for $45 and Gmail IDs dropping from 156 dollars to just 80 dollars.

However, the dark web is growing with listings of hacked cryptocurrency trading accounts and wallets such as Coinbase, LocalBitcoins, Kraken, Cex and more. The LocalBitcoins account verified by the US was previously sold for 350 dollars have now gone up to 610 dollars.

The trading methods have also changed on the dark web over the past couple of years. Sellers are taking tips from vendors online and also offering certain deals. The traders have now a better sense of privacy and security on how to trade on the dark web and using Monero as a form of payment and communicating only through PGP encryption.

The dark web is a clear example on how valuable your data can be and how easily can it be exploited by others. It is better to take care of your information online and not provide unnecessary grants of accessibility to suspicious looking websites online.

Photo: ValeryBrozhinsky / Getty Images/iStockphoto

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