Dark Web Facts: Myths & Truths

The dark web is shrouded in controversies, with a vast majority of Internet users not even aware it exists. Yet, many bad things that happen around us have their root from the dark web, such as protest, terrorism, and dealings in weapons.

The Dark Web is Different from the Deep Web

I have had a chat with a good number of persons, and I can tell you that an overwhelming number of persons think the dark web is synonymous with the deep web. The two are even used interchangeably. If you are one of such person, then you need to have a rethink.

The dark web is a part of the web where criminally minded people hang out either to transact on drugs and weapons, buy credit details, personal details of real people, hire hitmen, exchange all sorts of illicit porn, and many other things you can even think of.

On the other hand, the deep web is just that part of the Internet that cannot be accessed by search engine crawlers and, as such, can be found via search engines. This includes many academic research web pages, pages hidden behind Captcha, heavily Ajaxified web pages, and orphaned web pages, among others. It might interest you to know that emails, online banks, and any other web pages that are hidden either behind a paywall or login are part of the deep web.

Standard Browsers Cannot be Used to Access the Dark Web

For most Internet users, the likes of Google Chrome, Opera browser, and Mozilla Firefox are the browsers they make use of. These browsers work only for the surface and the deep web. For those that access the dark web, they know that these browsers are pretty useless.

You will need a specialized browser known as The Onion Router (TOR) Browser to use for accessing the dark web. Aside from being a browser, this browser is also an anonymous network running on volunteer computers across the globe. With this browser, websites cannot get your real IP address. it is this browser that provides users of the dark web the anonymity to carry out their criminal acts unexposed.

The Dark Web is Small in Size but Huge in Impact

There is an ongoing argument on the exact size of the dark web. However, there is an agreement that it makes up less than 5 percent, with the deep web being 90 percent and the surface web having the rest. Even though it is quite small, it cannot be ignored.

Terror groups around the world use it; many protests have their root from there, human experiments, and many unthinkable things. Security agencies all have their eyes on it despite its small size. To give you an idea of how huge it is, it has been stated that half a million dollars are generated daily on the dark web.

Fiat Money Isn’t Accepted on the Dark Web

You can have as many dollars as you want, but you need to know that that isn’t accepted as a means of exchange on the dark web except in few cases. Users of the dark web, both sellers and buyers are wary of their privacy and knowns the easiest way to reveal their identity is by using regular means of payment. For this reason, they use cryptocurrencies.

Yes, for you to buy anything from the dark web, you will have to keep some cryptos handy. The advantage of using crypto over traditional money is that the transactions are private – you cannot tell the identity of a sender, and a receiver of crypto as anonymity is one of the key features of cryptos.

Little wonder many governments around the world are either trying to block cryptocurrency or regulate them. Bitcoin is the most popular crypto and used heavily on the dark web. However, it is not the only one. Dark web users also accept other cryptocurrencies, including Monero and Litecoin.

The Dark Web is Full of Scam

The dark web is highly unregulated, and everyone is on his own. You have to do your own due diligence anytime you are making a purchase. This is because you can easily be scammed, and if that happens, you cannot turn to anyone for help. To make matters worse, cryptocurrencies are the mode of payments and can never be reversed nor the identity of the scammer exposed.

The hitman scam is one of the most popular scams on the dark web where scammers would pose as hitmen, and unsuspecting users would pay them to help assassinate someone. In most cases, people that pay hitmen end up disappointed as the tasks are never executed.

Many of the Horrible Stories You Hear Are Real

Some of the stories that emanate from the dark web are scary. You will hear stories of human cannibalism, humans used as guinea pigs for experiments, selling bank accounts with money in them, and a lot more, and you will think they are just made up. In reality, most of these happen.

One thing you need to know is that the dark web is the dark part of the Internet that criminals and Internet users with bad intent live with confidence. You will actually see videos of how to cook humans and inhuman experiments carried out on humans. Another horrible experience is forced and underage pornography that other users would pay to watch. Bad things happen on the dark web that you might think are fiction but are actually real.

Web Pages are Anonymous and Hidden in the Dark Web

Regular websites are not anonymous; you can have access to their real IP address and get details of the owner using the WHOIS checkup tool. While Internet users can pay for WHOIS protection, government agencies can still access it. Websites on the dark web are not like them.

To start with, just as your own real IP address is hidden using TOR, the websites also have their IP address hidden. Also important is the fact that except you know the site exists, you cannot stumble on it by mistake. This is because they are not on any search engine and wouldn’t even be accessible using your regular browser.

The domain names are not branded and not memorable – they are usually made of long strings of letters and digits with .onion extension in other to make it difficult to guess or stumble on it by mistake.

People Pay to Watch Others Being Tortured

Does the heading beat your imagination? Well, it might interest you to know that it happens. There is a section of the dark web known as “Red Rooms.” In this section, you can see videos of people in a room being tortured, and interestingly, the videos are not free – you have to pay for them in other to access them. And how much do people pay? Well, this depends largely on many factors. However, one of the most popular cases is that of pedophile Peter Scully who put up a website where users would watch children being tortured. Users pay as much as $10000 to have access to his video. Well, Peter Scully has been put to justice in the Philippines.

Your Identity is Probably On Sale on the Dark Web

Now, this is scary. I am not saying it with certainty, but there are cases of people buying identities from the dark web. Scammers and fraudsters are the target buyers. Take, for instance, someone somewhere in Africa and buys your identity and masquerades as you with your social security number, ID card, contact, and personal information. The sellers have their ways of getting their hands on this without you even knowing, and the worse part, it is actually cheap. An identity can be bought for just $1200. If you think this is scary, then you need to know that you have not heard it all. You can buy the login details (password included) for an individual bank account that contains money.

You Are Not Safe

There is no good neighborhood on the dark web, and the chances of your computer being compromised by malware are very high. The rate of malware on the dark web is alarming, and in many cases, you wouldn’t even though – all that’s required is one wrong click, and you have gotten your computer compromised. Compromised computers could be used as proxies. It could also provide them with a backdoor to remotely access your files which would be sold to a random stranger on the dark web.

It is for this reason that it is except you know what you are doing, it is not advisable to access the dark web. In other to search for a solution, you can earn yourself problems. As some would say, the best way to protect yourself from attacks on the dark web as a newbie is not to even visit at all.

This is because you don’t know what’s what and what could get your system compromised, your identity and data stolen. The bottom line is, you are not safe on the dark web, and you need to learn about security on the dark web and follow all of the guides judiciously to avoid getting.

That’s all Interesting Facts about Dark Web before your Access it!

The above are basic facts about the dark web that you should know – and let the kids in your life know about.