Dread forum’s administrator call DarkFox dark web marketplace a “scammer’s paradise”, with some comments stating that DarkFox is an absolute spam site

DarkFox, a controversial and problematic dark web marketplace that opened in early 2020, has now been issued a stern warning by the Dread community, the largest forum on the dark web, to carry out an immediate overhaul and resolve customer issues or risk being permanently banned from promoting on Dread. But for many users on the DarkFox dark web marketplace, the warning still came too late, as many were duped by undelivered fake orders.

Paris, the administrator of the Dread dark web forum, posted a lengthy official warning on the forum's DarkFox dark web marketplace "subdread" on Monday, telling everyone that the DarkFox dark web marketplace had been overrun by scammers who had been clogging its support page's dispute processing system with spam for months, creating an insurmountable backlog for the dark web marketplace's sparse staff and leaving almost all legitimate disputes unresolved.

The result was a wave of complaints against the marketplace on Dread and elsewhere about orders never received and disputes never processed, leading Paris to restrict the subdread functionality of the DarkFox marketplace. This means that all future posts on that marketplace subdread will have to be manually approved. In addition, the URL for the DarkFox marketplace was removed from the Dread forum, highlighting the complete loss of confidence in the operation of that marketplace on the Dread forum.

In addition to the backlog of disputes that have left many customers feeling scammed, Paris' complaints about DarkFox include a recent lack of communication from administrators and inactive vendors still showing up as active on the marketplace (along with their item listings.) Paris also notes that it is apparently easy for scammers to pose as legitimate vendors who are not on the marketplace, acting as impostors and seemingly free to prey on new buyers with impunity.

"Let it be a growing fire under your ass," Paris wrote to DarkFox administrators in a public post on Dread, referring to his call for penalties and demands to do better on that marketplace. "If you take some action and communicate what is happening, you can regain people's trust in you. Silent treatment will only make people more and more angry with you."

DarkFox has been the target of criticism from the dark web marketplace community for much of its existence, and was recently found to contain fraudulent offerings in only certain categories of services.

"The Darkfox marketplace has proven to be an absolute spam site." A recent review of the marketplace on clearnet began by saying. "I had a purchase that never arrived. Opened a ticket, no response. Opened another one, nothing. There was no one there and the scammers knew it."

A perusal of other recent reviews shows that the marketplace has been subject to complaints from the dispute handling system for months - at least since March of this year.

Multiple v3 onion links for the DarkFox dark web marketplace are below.

http://p5eg3xsssjglu6tvwfazp2nqqwfpah55wr3ljil2bezp5shix5ruqsqd.onion
http://57d5j6hfzfpsfev6c7f5ltney5xahudevvttfmw4lrtkt42iqdrkxmqd.onion
http://557ssqsc5py54w7ofwnlw2j2guohklywb52ymfw5v6glbyibqravwkyd.onion
http://4xt3tygdbhijffgafkpyvzyftpmtq75w5kgch3emkb5c7mjii462klid.onion
http://gykafhjweddhrbm5zn6zwi5gwxd3zzdjjiqxx7ebp27b4xpf3b2lggad.onion
http://ste6sk22hcb76kw5hkyp2czf6nerj56lgvufkcpj6olx4v5mlqhri4id.onion

Darkeye, a dark web site, said in its latest review of the market.

you have to be careful with them they are scammers
this market cheated me with more than $ 353 dollars
And no matter how much ticket I sent them, they never responded, they only closed the tickets without any explanation, they blocked the option of being able to withdraw the money from my account or buy and they never explained the reason and no matter how much I wrote to them, they never responded

see here the sample for yourself
https://prnt.sc/24t6dy3

you have to be careful with them they are scammers

In his announcement, Dread administrator Paris stated.

I do not know if it is incompetence, laziness, compromise, or if the incentives to let scammers run rampant is in the admins favor but it's enough for a limitation. Darkfox Market will now be limited. This means the subdread is under dread staff moderation (posts are manually approved) until such a time where faith in the admin's competence is restored.

Let me outline the reasons behind this limitation.

Starting a couple months ago there was some reports of scammers running wild and trying to extort buyers. This for a growing market is common when the bond fee is relatively low and listing publishing has no review. Generally market admins get it sorted out when they clean out the scammers and organize the site more to protect the buyers and vendors.

That is not what happened here. What has happened is a nearly daily report of new buyers (some with proof some without) using darkfox market and not getting a successful transaction done. Disputes are not getting answered. If you look at /u/DarkFoxMarket's admin's profile his posting activity has really taken a dive. That is not to say he is completely inactive. Most of his recent activity is cleaning up this subdread from all the posts like /post/c60c58af5a58bf41c3bf /post/736224160d3bcb60f4db or /post/fe58f9de968cdb998f05 and then not doing anything to address them.

Recently there was a report from a reputable vendor WHO NEVER EVEN VENDED ON THE MARKET having a profile with the correct PGP key, full FE privileges, and over 20 sales. How the fuck in the world does that happen? And why does it take multiple days to get sorted?

After basically a full scrape of the site a few things came apparent. Old vendors who are now overall inactive or compromised are still left up, there is minimal disputes compared to the negative feedback, tons of enabled listings from vendors who are inactive for months sometimes over half a year, many MANY multiple multiple listings of the same thing (at times only with a different image) (example see licarter NOW BANNED), lots of vendors but most has no history on other markets (know recon has a limited set of history though).

Over two weeks ago I talked with darkfox's admin to see his perceptive. He said the market was getting targeted by a group of scammers and that is why all these things are happening. That there is automated spam creating waves of tickets and messages on the site. That there was automated vendor purchasing and listing creating happening with thousands of listings at first, but then they transitioned to lower listing counts. So I gave it time. Growing pains that will be fixed by a change in the bond amount, listing approval process, and checking image hashes so removed listings couldn't get re-uploaded kind of idea. A day or two worth of development work if that.

Almost a month past and yet I see no change. My disappointment is as high as I believe your distaste in me right now for making this post /u/DarkFoxMarket. But I do hope you understand why my hand was forced in this regard. When even a vendor starts to get pissed at you for letting scammers use his name you must know that you fucked up.

Let this be a growing fire under your ass. If people are automating their spam, work on a new captcha (the irony is not lost on me I swear the dread update is coming so soon). Spend a day and clean up the listings. Disable vendors listings who are gone and are not coming back. Get it back on track to restore confidence that you can even get it back on track. You can get the faith in you back if you do some actions and communicate what is happening. The silent treatment is only getting people more and more pissed at you.

Simply put get your shit together man. Get it sorted or you simply won't be welcome here anymore.