Skip to main content

Adapting to Local Conditions: Similarities and Differences in Anonymous Online Market Between Chinese and English Speaking Communities

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime (ICDF2C 2020)

Abstract

In this paper, we have conducted a comparative analysis of anonymous online market between Chinese and English speaking communities. First, we collect public data of multiple Chinese and English anonymous online markets. Then, we conduct a comparative analysis of the Chinese and English anonymous online markets from three aspects: market operation mechanism, market security mechanism, and goods sales situation. We find that Chinese and English anonymous online markets are both affected by factors such as market demand and relevant laws and regulations, and there are differences in the goods sales situation. In contrast, English anonymous online markets are relatively mature in market operation mechanism and market security mechanism, while Chinese anonymous online markets are still on their developing stage. We finally discuss the impact of law enforcement agencies’ crackdown on Chinese and English anonymous online markets, as well as the focus and methods of Chinese and English anonymous online market governance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Fullz is a slang term used by credit card hackers and data resellers which means full packages of individuals’ identity information. “Fullz” usually contains an individual’s name, Social Security number, birth date, account numbers and other data.

References

  1. Pretty Good Privacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy. Accessed 29 Apr 2020

  2. Requests-HTML: HTML Parsing for Humans (writing Python 3)! http://requests-html.kennethreitz.org/. Accessed 29 Apr 2020

  3. SeleniumHQ Browser Automation. https://www.selenium.dev/. Accessed 29 Apr 2020

  4. Silk Road (marketplace). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk Road (marketplace). Accessed 29 Apr 2020

  5. Welcome to Stem! Stem 1.8.0 Documentation. https://stem.torproject.org/. Accessed 29 Apr 2020

  6. Why does my 3-year-old son have a bad credit history? Dark web world surge. http://tech.sina.com.cn/csj/2019-02-27/doc-ihrfqzka9518025.shtml. Accessed 11 Apr 2020

  7. Aldridge, J., Décary-Hétu, D.: Not an ‘Ebay for Drugs’: the cryptomarket ‘Silk Road’ as a paradigm shifting criminal innovation. Available at SSRN 2436643 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Bancroft, A., Reid, P.S.: Concepts of illicit drug quality among darknet market users: purity, embodied experience, craft and chemical knowledge. Int. J. Drug Policy 35, 42–49 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Broséus, J., Rhumorbarbe, D., Morelato, M., Staehli, L., Rossy, Q.: A geographical analysis of trafficking on a popular darknet market. Forensic Sci. Int. 277, 88–102 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Buxton, J., Bingham, T.: The rise and challenge of dark net drug markets. Policy Brief 7, 1–24 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Calis, T.: Multi-homing sellers and loyal buyers on darknet markets (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Christin, N.: Traveling the silk road: a measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on World Wide Web, pp. 213–224 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Clarkson, W.: Hash: The Secret and Chilling Story Behind the Drug’s Deadly Underworld. Not Avail (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dingledine, R., Mathewson, N., Syverson, P.: Tor: the second-generation onion router. Technical report, Naval Research Lab Washington DC (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Dittus, M., Wright, J., Graham, M.: Platform criminalism: the ‘last-mile’ geography of the darknet market supply chain. In: Proceedings of the 2018 World Wide Web Conference, pp. 277–286 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Enright, C.K.K.L.B., Savage, G.M.V.S.: The Heisenbot uncertainty problem: challenges in separating bots from chaff (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Leontiadis, N., Moore, T., Christin, N.: Measuring and analyzing search-redirection attacks in the illicit online prescription drug trade. In: USENIX Security Symposium, vol. 11 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Martin, J.: Drugs on the Dark Net: How Cryptomarkets are Transforming the Global Trade in Illicit Drugs. Springer, London (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137399052

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Nakamoto, S.: Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Technical report, Manubot (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Norbutas, L.: Offline constraints in online drug marketplaces: an exploratory analysis of a cryptomarket trade network. Int. J. Drug Policy 56, 92–100 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Rhumorbarbe, D., Staehli, L., Broséus, J., Rossy, Q., Esseiva, P.: Buying drugs on a darknet market: a better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data. Forensic Sci. Int. 267, 173–182 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Scourfield, A., et al.: Synthetic cannabinoid availability on darknet drug markets–changes during 2016–2017. Toxicol. Commun. 3(1), 7–15 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Soska, K., Christin, N.: Measuring the longitudinal evolution of the online anonymous marketplace ecosystem. In: 24th \(\{\)USENIX\(\}\) Security Symposium, \(\{\)USENIX\(\}\) Security 2015, pp. 33–48 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Van Hout, M.C., Bingham, T.: ‘Surfing the silk road’: a study of users’ experiences. Int. J. Drug Policy 24(6), 524–529 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Van Hout, M.C., Bingham, T.: Responsible vendors, intelligent consumers: silk road, the online revolution in drug trading. Int. J. Drug Policy 25(2), 183–189 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Van Wegberg, R., et al.: Plug and prey? Measuring the commoditization of cybercrime via online anonymous markets. In: 27th \(\{\)USENIX\(\}\) Security Symposium, \(\{\)USENIX\(\}\) Security 2018, pp. 1009–1026 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  27. van Wegberg, R., Verburgh, T.: Lost in the dream? Measuring the effects of operation Bayonet on vendors migrating to dream market. In: Proceedings of the Evolution of the Darknet Workshop, pp. 1–5 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Zhou, G., Zhuge, J., Fan, Y., Du, K., Lu, S.: A market in dream: the rapid development of anonymous cybercrime. Mobile Netw. Appl. 25(1), 259–270 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-019-01440-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. This work is supported by the NSFC fund (Grant No. U1936121) and BNRist Network and Software Security Research Program (Grant No. BNR2019TD01004).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianwei Zhuge .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Zhou, G., Zhuge, J. (2021). Adapting to Local Conditions: Similarities and Differences in Anonymous Online Market Between Chinese and English Speaking Communities. In: Goel, S., Gladyshev, P., Johnson, D., Pourzandi, M., Majumdar, S. (eds) Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime. ICDF2C 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 351. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68734-2_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68734-2_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-68733-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-68734-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics