The Hidden Wiki: how it all works
Surely every one of you who came across the TOR network, heard about The Hidden Wiki. The Hidden Wiki is the main directory of .onion resources in many different areas. What is important is noted by the creators - the placed links in the catalog do not undergo any censorship, but in reality this is not the case, but more on that later. Many who first begin to use the TOR network initially turn to the Hidden Wiki and start exploring the Onion network from here. In this article, I’ll tell you how the Hidden Wiki deceives users and monetizes all its traffic.
Initially, the first versions of the Hidden Wiki appeared in 2005-2007 and were located at 6sxoyfb3h2nvok2d.onion . Later in 2009, the Hidden Wiki was restarted and its address became kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion . In March 2014, the domain was hacked and redirected everyone to the Doxbin site, and in November 2014, the site showed a message about the arrest of the domain. After these events, the site moves again and becomes available at zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion , where it remains to this day. It is about this version of the Hidden Wiki that I’ll talk further. And now the site is experiencing new times and its new version is already available at gxamjbnu7uknahng.onion . It is on this version that the Russian Wikipedia is currently leading. I also want to note that throughout the existence of The Hidden Wiki, there were many clones and copies of this site that were not related to the main directory. It is also not certain that the current version of The Hidden Wiki is owned by the same people who created it. It is possible that every move by The Hidden Wiki was associated with a change in its major owners.
I will consider the version of zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion, which was available from the end of 2014 to the current time, and which is now slowly dying. Considering that redirection from the kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion domain now leads precisely to this version, and the kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion domain has been primary since 2009, it is possible with 99% probability that the 2009 version and 2014 have one owners.
On the Hidden Wiki site, the main page of the site is closed for editing. In order to be able to edit it, you must register and enter the autoconfirmed users group. The administration of the resource initially stated that from the moment of registration until joining the autoconfirmed group it takes 24 hours. In mid-November 2014, when I registered a user on the Hidden Wiki, I received autoconfirmed status by the end of December 2014. Then the process of obtaining the status took ~ 1 month. The status was obtained automatically just as time passed. From July-September 2015, The Hidden Wiki administrators decided not to let new people to the opportunity to make changes to the Wiki and the account registered in November 2015 is still in the status of not confirmed.
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After completing the registration stage in December 2014, I posted several links to my resources in the Hidden Wiki directory. To some of the links in the description, I indicated that I was ready to use Escrow (the guarantor for conducting the transaction). My links were successfully posted, but it was this description that was removed, the resource administration explained it this way: "All users of the Hidden Wiki should be on an equal footing . " To my question why the links placed in the first positions have the opportunity to write about Escrow, but I don’t, I haven’t been explained to me.
Immediately after the New Year, January 10, 2015, all my links start to be deleted from the Hidden Wiki by users who are not known to me, attempts to restore them to nothing lead, the administration does not pay any attention to what is happening. Immediately on the page of my Hidden Wiki profile, the user Balkanm writes me and asks to contact him at torchat at ayertivdautoe3fc . Balkanm is one of the administrators in the Hidden Wiki:
In the TorChat correspondence, they put tough conditions on me: I have 24 hours to translate 5 BTC, the administration will instead place my references at positions 8 through 11 and promises full protection and protection against vandalism, and in case of refusal, all my links will be deleted . 5 BTC at that time was about $ 1500. At the same time, the administration stated on official pages that it does not charge for the placement of links and there is no censorship in the Hidden Wiki. I agreed and fulfilled the conditions.
Later I managed to find out the following things.
All the links that were placed on the first places in the Hidden Wiki belonged to Balkanm. Balkanm owned a card sale shop (http://slwc4j5wkn3yyo5j.onion/ - Premium Cards), an electronics store (ftec4org3hcpnoir.onion - Apple Palace), its Escrow service BigEscrow (k5vbzl3ucwsjf2ye.onion), and so on. For 50% of the amount of each sale of my Balkanm offered me the services of your Escrow service. The money of the buyer, of course, was proposed to be divided among themselves. It has long been clear that the administration of the Hidden Wiki is engaged in deceiving naive users. Also, one of the proofs that all these services belong to one person was the unexpectedly found mod_status on these fraudulent sites. It was clearly visible that all these services are contained on one server:
The scheme worked simply: administrators had quite a lot of traffic from new users who had heard of the Hidden Wiki as the largest proven resource, and decided to monetize this traffic. We added our resources to the first place in the catalog (counterfeit money, cards, drugs, etc.), and created a fake Escrow service. Users themselves offered to use the services of this Escrow service. By my rough estimate, Balkanm’s monthly income was more than $ 50,000. In addition, you can add revenue from the patronage of new users.
In June 2015, all my links from the Hidden Wiki were deleted again. The administration no longer wanted money, many other links from other users were removed, and non-specialized and not very profitable sections (pedophilia, drugs, etc.) were also deleted. Since June 2015, the administration has ceased to give new users the right to edit the main page. The main reason is that they did not want to have competition, and wanted to get as much money from new users on their resources. Zayaya was appointed a new moderator, the main task of which was the removal of new links placed by old users, although he was not included in the administrative group.
Recently, another wiki was created at gxamjbnu7uknahng.onion , links to which are now actively appearing and being deleted in the old wiki. By whom and for what purpose another Hidden Wiki was created is not yet known. Whether it was a split within the administration of the previous wiki or was the new wiki created by disgruntled owners of onion resources, losing traffic, while remains a mystery.
The conclusion from all this suggests one thing: do not trust anything that is placed on the Hidden Wiki, in most cases it is a scam, and Escrow services that should help you save your money, only help to steal it faster.
A bit of history
Initially, the first versions of the Hidden Wiki appeared in 2005-2007 and were located at 6sxoyfb3h2nvok2d.onion . Later in 2009, the Hidden Wiki was restarted and its address became kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion . In March 2014, the domain was hacked and redirected everyone to the Doxbin site, and in November 2014, the site showed a message about the arrest of the domain. After these events, the site moves again and becomes available at zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion , where it remains to this day. It is about this version of the Hidden Wiki that I’ll talk further. And now the site is experiencing new times and its new version is already available at gxamjbnu7uknahng.onion . It is on this version that the Russian Wikipedia is currently leading. I also want to note that throughout the existence of The Hidden Wiki, there were many clones and copies of this site that were not related to the main directory. It is also not certain that the current version of The Hidden Wiki is owned by the same people who created it. It is possible that every move by The Hidden Wiki was associated with a change in its major owners.
The Hidden Wiki - A Big Scam
I will consider the version of zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion, which was available from the end of 2014 to the current time, and which is now slowly dying. Considering that redirection from the kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion domain now leads precisely to this version, and the kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion domain has been primary since 2009, it is possible with 99% probability that the 2009 version and 2014 have one owners.
check in
On the Hidden Wiki site, the main page of the site is closed for editing. In order to be able to edit it, you must register and enter the autoconfirmed users group. The administration of the resource initially stated that from the moment of registration until joining the autoconfirmed group it takes 24 hours. In mid-November 2014, when I registered a user on the Hidden Wiki, I received autoconfirmed status by the end of December 2014. Then the process of obtaining the status took ~ 1 month. The status was obtained automatically just as time passed. From July-September 2015, The Hidden Wiki administrators decided not to let new people to the opportunity to make changes to the Wiki and the account registered in November 2015 is still in the status of not confirmed.
')
After completing the registration stage in December 2014, I posted several links to my resources in the Hidden Wiki directory. To some of the links in the description, I indicated that I was ready to use Escrow (the guarantor for conducting the transaction). My links were successfully posted, but it was this description that was removed, the resource administration explained it this way: "All users of the Hidden Wiki should be on an equal footing . " To my question why the links placed in the first positions have the opportunity to write about Escrow, but I don’t, I haven’t been explained to me.
Balkanm
Immediately after the New Year, January 10, 2015, all my links start to be deleted from the Hidden Wiki by users who are not known to me, attempts to restore them to nothing lead, the administration does not pay any attention to what is happening. Immediately on the page of my Hidden Wiki profile, the user Balkanm writes me and asks to contact him at torchat at ayertivdautoe3fc . Balkanm is one of the administrators in the Hidden Wiki:
In the TorChat correspondence, they put tough conditions on me: I have 24 hours to translate 5 BTC, the administration will instead place my references at positions 8 through 11 and promises full protection and protection against vandalism, and in case of refusal, all my links will be deleted . 5 BTC at that time was about $ 1500. At the same time, the administration stated on official pages that it does not charge for the placement of links and there is no censorship in the Hidden Wiki. I agreed and fulfilled the conditions.
Later I managed to find out the following things.
All the links that were placed on the first places in the Hidden Wiki belonged to Balkanm. Balkanm owned a card sale shop (http://slwc4j5wkn3yyo5j.onion/ - Premium Cards), an electronics store (ftec4org3hcpnoir.onion - Apple Palace), its Escrow service BigEscrow (k5vbzl3ucwsjf2ye.onion), and so on. For 50% of the amount of each sale of my Balkanm offered me the services of your Escrow service. The money of the buyer, of course, was proposed to be divided among themselves. It has long been clear that the administration of the Hidden Wiki is engaged in deceiving naive users. Also, one of the proofs that all these services belong to one person was the unexpectedly found mod_status on these fraudulent sites. It was clearly visible that all these services are contained on one server:
The scheme worked simply: administrators had quite a lot of traffic from new users who had heard of the Hidden Wiki as the largest proven resource, and decided to monetize this traffic. We added our resources to the first place in the catalog (counterfeit money, cards, drugs, etc.), and created a fake Escrow service. Users themselves offered to use the services of this Escrow service. By my rough estimate, Balkanm’s monthly income was more than $ 50,000. In addition, you can add revenue from the patronage of new users.
Redistribution of the market and greed
In June 2015, all my links from the Hidden Wiki were deleted again. The administration no longer wanted money, many other links from other users were removed, and non-specialized and not very profitable sections (pedophilia, drugs, etc.) were also deleted. Since June 2015, the administration has ceased to give new users the right to edit the main page. The main reason is that they did not want to have competition, and wanted to get as much money from new users on their resources. Zayaya was appointed a new moderator, the main task of which was the removal of new links placed by old users, although he was not included in the administrative group.
Recently, another wiki was created at gxamjbnu7uknahng.onion , links to which are now actively appearing and being deleted in the old wiki. By whom and for what purpose another Hidden Wiki was created is not yet known. Whether it was a split within the administration of the previous wiki or was the new wiki created by disgruntled owners of onion resources, losing traffic, while remains a mystery.
The conclusion from all this suggests one thing: do not trust anything that is placed on the Hidden Wiki, in most cases it is a scam, and Escrow services that should help you save your money, only help to steal it faster.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/357160/
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