Dark web criminals switch to popular apps to offer drugs, using bots and secret graffiti messages to complete business

Dark web drug dealers are embracing popular apps to peddle their products, often using street graffiti to promote their accounts to customers, and automated bots to speak with them.

The shift follows a crackdown on illicit online markets, with the introduction of encryption into apps that allows users to keep anonymous.

Cyber experts have observed this growing trend among the criminal underground, noting the innovative tactics gangs employ to evade police detection.

Speaking anonymously to The Independent, a dark web researcher who has infiltrated channels on the messaging app Telegram explained how automated bots are used to communicate with customers – both for convenience and to defer liability.

The researcher shared images of the channel names spray-painted on walls near transport hubs and other public places to be able to advertise the channels to potential customers.

Another major change in the manner these drug dealers operate is in the use of “dead drops” to distribute the product. This bypasses the dangers of meeting face-to-face, while also avoiding the chance of drugs being tracked or intercepted through the postal system.

Goods are instead hidden in publicly accessible places, such as for instance parks, before the location is sent to the customer once the purchase has been made. Semi-anonymous cryptocurrencies like bitcoin facilitate the payments.The dropgangs, as they’ve been dubbed, were first discovered operating in Ukraine but have since been observed in Russia, the Balkans and nearly all of central and eastern Europe.