Exploring the Illegal Market beneath Google Reach- The Underground Market on Dark Web

Statistics indicate that in cases of credit and debit card fraud in India, from April 2009 till September 2019, fraudsters have siphoned off Rs. 615.39 crores.  In the last three months of 2019, Rs 129 crores got stolen, it can be more as India has not kept the record in cases of cybercrime amounting to less than 1 lakh. In the United Kingdom, statistics reveal that such cases registered totaled £671.4 million in 2018, and the fraud in 2019 under the Un-authorized financial crimes is £824.8 million indicating a need for deeper insight into the data collection process followed in India. Such high value of fraud signals that the underground market that primarily deals with such financial fraud products is on the rise. Literature relating to such research area had focused mainly on the organization and structure of the Dark web forums. The majority of studies on the dark web & market are on literature review, expert interviews, or data from forums/markets that eventually close. This paper provides an insight into active marketplaces with active trading of illicit products. The research utilized a mixed-method approach. The findings present data analysis for Dark Web market growth and the presence of working reputation systems based on first-hand data followed by the researcher’s conclusion.