How bad is the problem of the dark web? It depends on what your focus is: malware, illegal trading, etcetera. In addition the deep web is like an enormous ocean and many hundreds of times bigger then the surface web.
On the positive side it’s a safe place where people can exchange information and ideas without fear of government interference. This is especially important if journalists are trying to get news out about events that might include human rights violations. Of course with privacy comes responsibility and many merchants we’ll use the advantages that the dark web provides in order to transact in goods and services that are not allowed on the surface web.
How do they get away with it? They use onion routing that allows them to hop from Torr node to Tor node with an encrypted connection. In addition most payments are made via cryptocurrency and are virtually untraceable especially if the crypto has been tumbled using something like a Bitcoin mixer.
There are all kinds of things that have been traded via dark web links including drugs, fake ID’s, credit cards where a higher balance will merit a higher price, PayPal accounts, and doxing, which is basically finding out background information of a person’s whereabouts.
Most of the websites on the dark web are written in English, followed by Russian and French. Some of them in bed various suspicious links that may lead to malware injections so it’s always better to use both a VPN as well as a sandboxed environment if you plan on downloading things from a dark web link. There are some things that are obvious scams like the Bitcoin multiplier and other silly attractions, but the dark web and deep web are enough of a problem for law enforcement agents that they actively set up stings in order to try capturing or identifying criminal elements. As far as most people are concerned, this is where the ransomware minions hang out and trade confidential info like passwords, private documents and other information gained from keyword loggers or database hacks. It’s not illegal to browse the dark web and there are many legitimate sites there as well such as the BC, Facebook, and even Twitter.
In conclusion dark web links are not necessarily a problem if one goes looking for the right thing.