🚫 Avoiding Scams Guide

Four patterns account for most of the money lost on darknet markets. Phishing sites steal login credentials through cloned pages, covered in depth in the anti-phishing guide. Exit scams happen at the platform level — the market itself vanishes with everyone's escrow balance, the way Empire Market did in August 2020. FE (finalize-early) scams work at the vendor level: a vendor talks a buyer into releasing payment before the package ships, then never ships it, which is precisely the protection escrow exists to remove. And selective scamming is the slow-burn version — an account builds months of genuine positive reviews, then starts defrauding a fraction of buyers while the reputation score keeps everyone else's guard down.

A vendor who insists on finalizing early is the single strongest warning sign there is — legitimate vendors don't need it, because escrow already guarantees they get paid once you confirm delivery. New vendors specifically requesting it should be an automatic pass, since most markets already restrict FE for accounts without an established track record, meaning a new vendor pushing for it is trying to route around a rule that exists for exactly this reason. Beyond that, watch for a cluster of negative reviews that's recent rather than historical (a sign of a selective-scam pivot), listing photos that are obviously stock images rather than the vendor's own product shots, any push to move the conversation to an outside messaging app, and pricing meaningfully below what every other listing for the same item charges — underpricing is a common way to move volume fast right before disappearing.

None of these habits are exotic; they're just consistently applied. Use escrow every time, with no exceptions for a vendor who "seems trustworthy" — trustworthiness is exactly what a selective scammer spends months manufacturing. Test a new vendor with a small order before committing to a large one, even if the listing and reviews look flawless; the cost of being wrong on a small order is a rounding error, on a large one it isn't. Keep every conversation inside the market's own messaging system, since that's the only record a moderator can actually review if a dispute becomes necessary. Treat urgency — "price goes up in an hour," "only one left" — as a pressure tactic designed to shortcut your judgment, not a real constraint you need to act on immediately. And report a vendor the moment something feels off, even before you're certain; a report that turns out to be nothing costs a moderator a few minutes, one that goes unmade because you weren't sure yet can cost the next buyer their entire order.