We reported on Monday that the dark web’s AlphaBay has been seized by the government. Also included in that was the seizure of the Hansa Market. There were a lot of questions surrounding the Hansa Market as it was not well known in tech circles. It turns out that the Hansa Market was a honeypot site set up by Dutch Police in order to lure in many of those that were buying and selling illegal goods on the AlphaBay site. This is a very good read over at Krebs.



Earlier this month, news broke that authorities had seized the Dark Web marketplace AlphaBay, an online black market that peddled everything from heroin to stolen identity and credit card data. But it wasn’t until today, when the U.S. Justice Department held a press conference to detail the AlphaBay takedown that the other shoe dropped: Police in The Netherlands for the past month have been operating Hansa Market, a competing Dark Web bazaar that enjoyed a massive influx of new customers immediately after the AlphaBay takedown.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Dutch Police Operated Hansa Dark Web Market Sting