With a little over a year’s worth of largely-successful experience under its belt, DarkFox Market is a proving to be a survivor, attracting more buyers and increasing in product listings faster than ever in 2021. The market has about 7,000 listings spread out across the usual categories, with the Drugs category taking up about 30% of total listings. DarkFox is highly searchable and filterable, and the UI seems built from the ground up.
The immediate difference that stands out at DarkFox Market is that you can actually see the product listings without having to log in. This includes being able to browse not only the featured listings but the contents of individual categories, as well. DarkFox’s decision to let people “window shop” before having to register an account has no doubt helped boost their popularity.
Another thing that’s different about them (but not necessarily good) is their annoying captcha system which sometimes involves trying to read the face of a clock and is easy to fail. Sometimes it’s easier than that, but expect to spend a few moments proving that you’re not a bot from time to time. Another thing that a lot of market users might not appreciate is the fact that this is a Bitcoin-only market.
Quick Facts about DarkFox Market
- DarkFox Market Link: http://mvwl4dlp732ke7oqp4tdu56gkbozurqykbl3ca6qc4x3t4rpxhe3hmyd.onion/
- Founded: 2020
- Number of listings: 7000+
- Listing categories: Drugs, Guides & Tutorials, Fraud, Digital Products, Software & Malware, Counterfeit Items, Erotica, Services, Hosting & Security, Miscellaneous
- Coins accepted: Bitcoin (BTC)
- Multisignature escrow: Yes
- Finalize Early (FE) Allowed: Yes (50% and 100%)
- Vendor bond: $150
Before Getting Started
Before attempting to use DarkFox Market URL or any darknet market, there are some basic skills that one needs to possess, related to cryptocurrency, security, and common sense protocols. You will need to have at least some understanding of the following before you can have a successful experience on DarkFox:
- How to obtain, receive and send Bitcoin.
- How to use a Tor browser.
- How to practice good OPSEC (operation security).
Another thing you may need to know to get the most out of DarkFox is how to sign for a multisignature transaction. Wallets like Electrum will not only allow you to sign for multisig transactions but provide you with your wallet xpub, needed for the market to generate the transaction.
If you’re big on privacy, it’s highly recommended you only access Tor from a computer that can’t be linked to your personal identity. This can be accomplished by using something like the Tails OS – bootable from a thumb drive – which leaves no record that a computer ever visited a website over Tor in the first place.
Last but not least, and as an example, one of the most basic OPSEC principles for darknet market buyers is never sending funds directly from an exchange to the market. This theoretically creates a link between you and suspicious activity via activity recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s especially bad if the exchange has your personal information, potentially submitted for KYC purposes.
There are ways to get around this problem (if you are attempting to fund your DarkFox account with coins bought at an exchange):
- Send them first to an intermediary address. Sending the coins to an address you control off-exchange is the very least you can do to break the direct connection between you and a darknet market. These days, exchanges are even demanding KYC from wallets outside their system, so even sending the funds two hops instead of one isn’t a bad idea.
- Send your funds through a Bitcoin mixer. Mixing services like ChipMixer are great for removing traces of your identity from your coin spending habits. This process is highly recommended for a serious buyer looking to send lots of money to a market – but don’t get fooled by fake mixing sites; they’re out there.
- Use a coinjoin-type wallet like Wasabi. Both Wasabi and Samourai wallets have great mixing services built-in, which do not require on outside control to the degree that ChipMixer does. These can be a bit costly but are ideal for anyone who wants a more decentralized mixing experience.
Even though DarkFox is a “JavaScript-free” marketplace, one thing you should do before loading DarkFox or any other darknet market is disable JavaScript from the browser. This can be accomplished a couple of ways, the most thorough of which is the following:
1. Type “about:config” into the Tor browser address bar.
2. Pass through the warning and click “Show All” to bring up Tor configuration options.
3. Search for the preference named “javascript”.
4. Set the “javscript.enabled” option to “false”.
Your Tor JavaScript will now be disabled every time you open the browser, until you manually reset the configuration setting to “true”.
Avoid Getting Phished
One of the most important things to be aware of is to make sure that you are always visiting an official version of the website, and never a fake. Darknet market users are frequently the target of phishing attempts, some of which involve fake links posted on innocent-looking websites. Logging in to these sites may not only result in loss of funds but the loss of anonymity and privacy, as well. One of the best ways to avoid logging on to a phishing site is always getting your link from a trusted darknet market link provider, such as DarknetOne. The links on this page can be found in PGP-verified text messages sent regularly by the market itself.
The market itself also frequently puts new links on its home page, in the News section of the General Info panel. You can see these links whether you are logged in or out of DarkFox.
How to Register an Account
1. First, find a verified link to DarkFox and visit the website using the Tor browser. Before arriving, there’s a chance you’ll have to solve one of the rather irritating captchas we mentioned earlier. After proceeding, the landing page should look something like this:
To get started, click the “Register” button toward the upper-right corner of the screen.
2. Create a username that isn’t associated with your IRL identity, enter a strong password (a mixture of upper/lowercase letters with numbers and symbols is recommended) twice, create a PIN number (used to confirm purchases and withdrawals), solve the captcha and press “Register”.
Don’t forget to store your login information in a safe place where you won’t forget where it is.
3. Next, you will be presented a 24 mnemonic that can be used to restore your account in the event you get hacked or otherwise lose control of it.
After saving the mnemonic in a secure location, press the button that says “I have written down my mnemonic” to continue. You will then be redirected to the login screen, where you will enter your username and password to log in.
4. After logging in, the first thing you’ll want to do is add a PGP key. This is necessary to receive encrypted communications from vendors and other market users. To do this, click your account name toward the upper right corner of the screen (to the left of the “Sign Out” button) to access your account settings.
You’ll notice that there is a relatively big array of settings options represented as menu tabs. Click on the one that says “PGP”. You will be presented with a big text box in which you will paste your PGP public key. Messages sent from other users will be encrypted with your public key, and message you send will (should) also be encrypted with their respective public keys (also made available in user profiles). The box should look something like this when correctly filled:
When you’re ready, press the “Add Key” button underneath the box to continue.
5. Finally, you need to confirm ownership of your public key by decrypting a message sent to you by the market. Copy the text now displayed in the PGP text box and use your PGP application to decrypt the message using the public key provided earlier.
The verification code will look something like this:
After the code has been entered, press the “Verify key” button to continue. You will then be transported back to the PGP setting page with your newly-added public key visibly displayed.
How to fund your DarkFox Market account
DarkFox is a bit old school in that they still have the regular account wallet system where all funds are deposited and held by the market until released; usually upon the conclusion a sale. They also only accept Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment option. To fund your account, click the Wallet menu tab, located beneath your account name toward the upper right corner of the screen.
Here you will see a Bitcoin deposit address to which you will deposit funds for later purchases. It is recommended that you only keep the minimum amount of BTC in your wallet as is necessary for near-term purchases, as darknet markets have an unshakeable habit of going down at the most inopportune of moments.
After sending BTC to the address shown in the Wallet screen, your balance will be updated after the transaction has received 2 confirmations. You can refresh the screen and await a status update or simply resume the market browsing process. Don’t send BTC to the same address twice as it may not be credited to your account. Instead, check the address each time before sending a second time as it refreshes between each deposit.
Browsing DarkFox Market
As we mentioned earlier, you don’t need to create an account in order to browse the market. Simply pass the initial captcha and take a look around at what the market has to offer before deciding it is worth registering an account.
Although it’s not as big as some other markets, DarkFox has a decent selection of listings, which currently stands around 6,000 in all. The categories (and subcategories) of product listings featured on DarkFox are as follows:
- Drugs (Barbiturates, Benzos, Cannabis, Dissociatives, Drug Precursors, Ecstasy, Opioids, Other, Paraphernalia, Prescription, Psychedelics, Recreational Chemicals, Reagents, Steroids, Stimulants, Weight Loss)
- Guides & Tutorials (Drugs, Fraud, Hacking, Other, Security)
- Fraud (Account & Drops, Cards & CVV, Data & Scans, Dumps, Personal Info)
- Digital Products (Accounts, Databases, E-Books, Leaks, Software Keys)
- Software & Malware (Botnets, Crypters, Exploit Kits, Exploits, Fraud, Malware, Other, Rats, Security Software)
- Erotica (Accounts, Other, Videos & Photos)
- Counterfeit Items (Clothing, Electronics, Fake IDs, Jewelry & Gold, Money, Other, Tobacco)
- Services
- Hosting & Security (Hosting, Socks, VPN)
- Miscellaneous
DarkFox’s listing filters are pretty comprehensive and let you narrow down displayed results by the following attributes:
- Keyword(s)
- Type (Digital, Physical, All)
- Price (min-max)
- Payment options (Finalize Early, Finalize Early 50%, Normal Escrow, Bitcoin Multisignature)
- Exclude vendors on vacation (Yes, No)
- Automatic fulfillment (Yes, No, Any)
- Items in stock (Yes, No, Any)
- Ships from (country)
- Shops to (country)
- Minimum vendor level (1-10)
Listings can be ordered by price, popularity, latest or oldest.
From the listings page, the following information is provided about each item:
- Price
- Vendor level
- Vendor’s amount of completed orders
- Quantity in stock
- Amount sold
- Ships from
- Shipping options
Clicking on the “View Offer” button at the bottom of each listing will bring you to the listing’s page.
Click on a vendor name to bring up more details about the vendor. DarkFox doesn’t carry a lot of rating information over from other markets for vendors, but they do tell you the total number of ratings and average rating they have imported from other markets.
Here you can see all of the basic information about the vendor; most important of which is their number of completed orders and average rating left by buyers. This information will help you get a sense of the experience and competence of the vendor. You can also see the number of disputes the vendor has had opened against them, and how many of those disputes they won.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s always better to order from the more experienced vendor when given a choice, even if you have to pay a moderately higher sum for the same product. The less chance you have of running into an issue with an incompetent or fraudulent vendor, the better. Making smart decisions from the beginning can save you a lot of time and money in the future.
Before placing an order with a vendor for the first time, make sure you have checked out the vendor’s information; specifically their shipping and refund policies. They might not actually deliver to your country, or not have the shipping option you want available. Also, you can read about any preferences they might have when it comes to leaving shipping information, or FE specifics, etc.
Multisignature transactions
If you want to be able to use multisig escrow on DarkFox, you’ll need to configure your account with a Bitcoin public key and withdrawal address. Supplying this information is necessary to sign off on transactions confirming refunds to your personal address, and with some coordination provide a method of performing a transaction between you and a vendor.
Enter an address to which you want to receive refunds as the withdrawal address. If you trust the market to always to what it is supposed to, then multisig may not be an absolute must. You need to have at least 1 transaction successfully completed using normal escrow before you will be able to use multisig escrow.
Placing an Order
Once you’ve found an item you’d like to purchase, enter the quantity you wish to buy and press the orange “Purchase” button, you’ll be brought to the order screen. From here, the first thing you’ll want to do is encrypt your shipping address with the vendor’s PGP key. DarkFox says that they will do this on your behalf anyway, but it’s considered good OPSEC to do it yourself.
To find the vendor’s PGP key, go to their vendor page and click on the “PGP” tab. Next, import their public key into your PGP client (such as Kleopatra), and use it to encrypt your shipping information. Paste the results in the “Message to seller” box.
DarkFox has four different payment options:
– Normal Escrow (payment is held by the market until the order is finalized)
– Finalize Early (payment is released to vendor after the order has been marked as shipped)
– Finalize Early 50% (half of payment is release to vendor after order is shipped)
– Bitcoin Multisignature (2 of 3 multisignature transaction required to release funds to vendor)
Most of the time you will probably be using Normal Escrow, with Finalize Early being reserved for trusted vendors.
Bitcoin Multisignature is for those who feel comfortable making multisignature transactions but would rather not have to trust the market itself. In case the market should for some reason go down, funds held in an order can still be released to the vendor or refunded to the buyer without the market’s involvement.
After reviewing your shipping and payment options, press “Purchase”.
You’ll next be brought to the order confirmation screen. Here you’ll review the details of the order and the final price you’ll be paying. If everything here looks good for you (including the total amount to be deducted from your wallet balance), enter your PIN and press “Confirm” to continue.
If you have enough funds, the order will be marked as paid, and the cost of the order will be removed from your balance. The vendor will be notified of your order and start preparing it for shipping. After the order has been shipped, the vendor will mark it as such.
If you have chosen FE as a payment option, funds should be released to the vendor as soon as they have marked the order as shipped.
If you have chosen regular or multisig escrow, funds don’t have to be released to the vendor until after you have received your product and determined it to be adequate. But don’t forget to finalize your order as soon as possible, as this is considered to be proper market etiquette.
If you don’t approve the quality of your order, it wasn’t what you expected, or you didn’t get it altogether, you can open a dispute on it. This can be done from the “Purchases” tab. Disputes must be made before an order is auto-finalized.
Conclusion
In all, DarkFox seems as decent as they come in terms of darknet markets. They have yet to attract a serious collection of veteran vendors who seem to be more content elsewhere, but this is only for the time being, and things could change in a hurry after the next closure. Customers on review sites hold a generally favorable attitude toward DarkFox, with a few comments noting that the admins there were more likely to look favorably upon buyers during disputes than many other markets.
Because DarkFox does seem to rely on outdated darknet market practices – such as being BTC-only and having a centralized wallet system – we urge you to take particular care when it comes to leaving funds on the market for lengthy periods of time, and be particularly mindful when funding your account with BTC. Remember, every transaction recorded by the blockchain is there forever – no need to tie your real life ID to it needlessly.
Finally, we recommend going small at first and working your way up to bigger orders as you develop more trustworthiness toward a vendor. A lot of the vendors on DarkFox are new, so you may be hard pressed to get the item that you want and where you want it without encountering meager choices as far as vendors are concerned. As long as the market continues to fulfill its duties and employ good security practices, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t grow in the future, bringing a rounder selection of listings for its categories.
Can you give me fox dark market contact info. Their site is down it won’t accept a captcha.