German Authorities Take Down Another Online Criminal Marketplace

German Authorities Take Down Another Online Criminal Marketplace

Time Stamp: March 26, 2024 9:43 AM

Tyler Cross


Tyler Cross

Published on: March 26, 2024

German authorities continued a successful chain of busting online criminal marketplaces. This time, they seized the infrastructure for Nemesis Market.

For years, Nemesis Market operated on the dark web, accessible through the Tor browser. Criminals traded drugs, equipment, and cybercrime services like ransomware models. The market was based in Germany and Lithuania and saw a rapid growth spurt after forming in 2021, spurring an investigation by Germany and international law enforcement agencies.

On March 21, officers took control of the marketplace’s website and replaced the homepage with a warning screen reading “THIS PLATFORM HAS BEEN SEIZED.” They scraped as much data as they could from the site to use as a basis for further criminal investigations into the users and sellers on the platform.

They also recovered 94,000 euros worth of assorted cryptocurrency.

“The shutdown and prosecution are another blow to underground economy actors operating on the darknet and demonstrate the effectiveness of international law enforcement in the digital space,” said the Public Prosecutor General’s Office Frankfurt am Main -ZIT- and the Federal Criminal Police Office in a press release.

This is just the newest marketplace that German police seized. Recently, officers took down another known as CrimeMarket.

The bust on the crime market included the recovery of more than a kilogram of assorted narcotics and over 600,000 euros of cash and assets. They also recovered a large amount of data they stated would be used to take down other hackers and marketplaces.

Before taking down CrimeMarket, German authorities worked alongside international agencies to bust the prolific LockBit ransomware gang. Unfortunately, that case wasn’t without retaliation. After taking down LockBit’s website, the criminals regrouped to launch a series of devastating attacks on critical infrastructure in various countries around the world, including the US, Canada, and Britain.

Having secured a vast amount of data from Nemesis Market, German authorities hope to take down more criminal groups this year.

Time Stamp:

More from Safety Detectives