Empire Market is a market built to resemble the now-defunct Alphabay market. As of this post, the market as 3,500 listings. Empire Market accepts Bitcoin, Monero, and Litecoin.

Empire Market staff member Se7en posted an updated warning about phishing links amidst the ongoing battle between the marketplace and scammers stealing thousands of dollars from users by spreading malicious links. The links, as noted in previous warnings, send unsuspecting users to a phishing proxy that looks and acts like the real market.

Empire Market users, like the users of every darkweb marketplace targeted by phishers, continue to make the same mistakes when logging into Empire Market. These mistakes could be mitigated if the market’s users followed some of the appropriate steps outlined by the market itself.

Below are the steps required to open a vendor account on Empire Market and begin selling any products less those forbidden by the market. The vendor bond costs $500.

Empire Market temporarily dropped offline on June 28. People spreading phishing links on Reddit and other forums made a lot of money. The unexpected downtime had some of the most reliable sources questioning the status of the market. This is simply a public service announcement that Empire Market is back online and that dark.fail has working mirrors.

In a public paste, one of the most prolific entities responsible for phishing Empire Market users pointed out how easily he—or anyone with the ability to run a proxy—could bypass the marketplace’s “anti-phishing features.” The former Empire Market mod demonstrated how even when presented with the correct Empire Market address, the end user ignores the legitimate Empire Market link in the 2FA message.

In June, a Dread user uploaded a picture of supposed evidence that the largest darkweb marketplace, Empire Market, planned to exit scam on July 7, 2019. The screenshot—purportedly between a vendor and the administrator of Empire Market—is likely the work of someone actively spreading misinformation about the marketplace.

In which a Former Empire Market moderator sheds light on the drama surrounding a potential Empire Market exit scam, attacks against other markets, and shady business tactics.