Cannazon, one of the largest dark web marketplaces used to buy marijuana products, has announced the permanent shutdown of the world's largest dark web marketplace for marijuana after a major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack took the site offline for an extended period of time.
Marijuana remains illegal in most parts of the world, and Cannazon's operators only serve non-U.S. customers. Users who wanted to purchase cannabis-related products needed to first sign up for an account and be able to pay for their goods in two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin or Monero.
In an official announcement, the operators of the dark web marketplace Cannazon said that the DDoS attack was not the reason for the shutdown, but that it provided an opportunity to shut down the site, which was the plan all along.
Administrators posted the announcement on Nov. 23, 2021, on Dread, the largest English-language dark web forum, which reads, "No dark web marketplace will be here forever, and we are officially retiring. Massive DDoS attacks are a very good opportunity to reduce the number of orders and we decided to take the marketplace partially offline after that. This is why the marketplace was unreachable and not fully functional in the last days. By doing this, we could ensure that the number of orders was minimized and that all paid orders were shipped".
A prolonged DDoS attack caused the site to shut down
The site suffered a massive DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack earlier this month, which is not uncommon in the dark web trading marketplace.
Administrators reduced the number of orders and took parts of the marketplace offline to mitigate the problem, but this caused a stir in the community, fearing an impending exit scam.
An announcement posted on Dread apologized for the lack of transparency in the way administrators handled the situation and stated the following.
"We are very sorry that we have had to keep you in the dark for the past few days. In our opinion, this is the best way to prevent some vendors from trying to exit the scam and hurt you and the community." The webmaster wrote in the closure announcement.
"If a vendor fails to obtain all of his signed Bitcoin multi-signature transactions, he can do so from a crypto message that will be posted on Dread later this week."
With the shutdown of Cannazon, it would not be surprising to see other sites created using the same name under the new Tor address. However, it is likely that these are operated by scammers with the goal of defrauding members of the original site.
It is not unusual for fake clone sites to appear when large, well-known dark web platforms go offline.
Buying drugs on the dark web is unreliable
If you think that buying marijuana from the dark web is an easy way to circumvent the drug laws in your country/region while remaining anonymous behind a VPN or Tor, then you've dodged most of the risks involved.
First of all, most of these platforms, including Cannazon and CannaHome, operate on a membership basis. As a result, all users reveal bits and pieces of information during registration. If their servers end up in the hands of law enforcement, buyers can be identified.
Second, the likelihood of being scammed when placing an order is always high, even in marketplaces where administrators promise a high degree of transaction security.
Third, any drugs shipped to you may contain dangerous toxic substances or may be completely different from what you think you are paying for. As a result, consuming them may pose a serious risk to your health.
Finally, buying drugs online is illegal in many countries/regions and can result in fines and imprisonment.
Three dark web v3 domains that Cannazon used to use
http://cannazo73ou34ev3vnvuq75wb2ienpcztqudkdozpuitvykqhvtiffyd.onion
http://57iwpifn5xr7bim3lm4lywjuz45za4cbwusyerh362jiqnoraijzh2id.onion
http://7ympuwybhdedjddibndoroyur3frvc27bo5ipicgozywejsdq7wvvbqd.onion