What’s the price tag on malicious tools in the dark web market?

The peak periods of online shopping scams

November and December are the peak months for retail sales, mainly because everyone starts looking for Christmas presents. Online shopping statistics show that Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain the busiest spending days of the year. As the retail sales and holiday fever starts to spark, hackers gear up with malicious tools way before the discount hysteria hits the online shops.

Some dark-minded hackers looking to steal sensitive user information create fake online shops, scamming and phishing kits, and cookie grabbers themselves. Others buy these scamming and phishing kits, tutorials, fake shop websites, and even personal lessons on executing these scams on the dark web.

Internet scam statistics show that fake online shops are among the most successful online scams. Nearly 84% of people targeted by a fake shopping website engage with it and almost half end up losing money. This means high profits for cybercriminals because convincing fake online shop layouts mimicking legitimate businesses are available on the dark web for as little as $5 — or even for free.

“Scammers impersonate major platforms such as PayPal, Amazon, Shopify, various banking websites, and even Netflix to target their customers. Their kits for creating these fake shop pages include various features promised by their creators, such as customizability — due to their use of HTML coding — and promise easy setup. These pages feature card verification details and strong anti-bot systems. Additionally, they are designed to block website scanning and have the capability to bypass OTP (one-time password) and 2FA systems, all while being designed to evade detection,” says Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN.

Cookie grabbers — a malware sellers' goldmine

Various malicious tools float around the dark web for sale, allowing freelancer cyber thieves to get into cybercrime without doing any sophisticated hacking or interacting with the seller. However, there’s a niche for full-time scammers on the dark web, too. Anyone seeking subscription-based malware-as-a-service can get it for as little as $100-150 per month, while phishing kits are usually free. On top of the variety of tools for creating scams on the dark web, cybercriminals can easily find tutorials and even get tech support through Telegram channels and forums — it’s all surprisingly accessible.

“Phishing kits found on the dark web are usually free, fake website layouts start at $50, and malware-as-a-service subscriptions cost about $150 monthly. The priciest items, such as cookie grabber pages, cost $400 or more. But, just like with anything else, you can also find discounts for these items,” says Warmenhoven.

Cookie grabber pages are some of the priciest scam kits on the dark web. They’re designed to grab cookies from your browser. Hackers then use those cookies to break into your accounts, steal your identity, or even drain your bank account.

“NordVPN research has revealed that over 54 billion cookies were found for sale on the dark web, highlighting the scale of this issue. You may not realize that if a hacker gets hold of your active cookies, they don’t really need login credentials, passwords, or even multi-factor authentication to log in to and take over your accounts. The most commonly stolen personal information from cookies includes names, email addresses, cities, passwords, and addresses,” says Warmenhoven.

How to protect yourself from online shopping scams

There’s no single solution for avoiding online shopping scams, but the tips below can help. The more precautions you take, the harder it is for cyber thieves to get to your data.

• Learn how to spot phishing. Educate yourself about the most popular phishing techniques. Phishing emails and SMS text messages often contain malicious URLs or attachments infected with malware.
• Avoid shady downloads. Avoid downloading software, apps, or updates from unofficial sources — get them from app stores or official websites instead.
• Use Threat Protection Pro™. This NordVPN feature blocks malicious sites, checks downloads for malware, and stops trackers, protecting you from data collection and theft.
• Regularly delete cookies. Clear your browser cookies from time to time to minimize data that hackers can steal and exploit.
• Set up two-factor authentication. Enable multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security to your accounts. Even if someone gets your credentials, they won’t be able to access your accounts without your biometrics or smartphone.
• Use a dark web monitor. If your credentials get leaked on the dark web, tracking them down yourself is almost impossible. A dark web monitor will scan the dark web for you and let you know if your email or password pops up in a leaked database.