What is Cartel Market?
Cartel Market is a general-purpose darknet market with a vast array of different products. Apart from a wide variety of drugs, it has a lot of other categories: Fraud-related products, electronics, self-defense products, and even hosting. You can find the onion link for the Cartel Market to the right of this article.
The sign-up process requires a little more effort than most other sites, but it is well worth it considering the vast portfolio of the market. While you don’t need to state any email-address you will need to state a password, a 6-digit pin and then you will need to type in your 15-word mnemonic phrase for account recovery. You cannot copy & paste the phrase on the site so you will need to enter the passphrase manually.
Once you are registered, you have immediate access to the full market. On the left side, you will find the various categories: Fraud products (CC and CVV cards, dumps, bank accounts, etc), drugs & chemicals, guides & tutorials, counterfeit items, digital products, other physical items (from clothing to electronics), services, software & malware and finally security & hosting.
The fraud-related products contain what you expect: You can buy single credit and debit cards as well as dumps. in the “personal information” sub-category you can find SSN and DOB databases, full tax information, and more.
Cartel Market is also one of the rare sites that offer firearms. You can find those in the “Self-Defense section”.
Cartel Market also has one of the best interfaces, it is easy to browse and all products have detailed descriptions and pricing information right below the product image. Speaking of pricing: To deposit into your account you can use either Bitcoin or Monero – we recommend using Monero for enhanced privacy and anonymity. With the balance in your account you can also choose to participate in the lottery (can be found in the wallet section). There you have the chance to win small to medium cash prices each week by purchasing one or more tickets.
Security Recommendations
Same as with all darknet sites the usual security recommendations apply. Most importantly: stay anonymous. Use the TOR browser only and don’t use the TOR browser for any regular (non-darknet) browsing.
Before visiting the site with the TOR browser, you should switch off JavaScript (Options -> Privacy & Security -> Security Level -> Switch to “Safer”). Cartel Market is explicitly designed so that you don’t need JavaScript which allows you to increase your security by switching it off.
Ideally, you have a dedicated system or at least a dedicated VM for all your darknet activities. Keep your darknet PGP keys and other credentials limited to that system only, do not mix it with any activities that would expose your identity.
Treat your dedicated system like a work-system: Only install the software necessary for your operations do not install anything for entertainment or other purposes. Subsequently, resist the urge to browse Twitter, Reddit, or any other social media sites while you have downtime. For this always use your regular system.
For additional system security, we recommend you run a secure operating system like Tails or Whonix on your dedicated system for darknet activities. We also recommend using a VPN as an additional security measure since TOR will only anonymize your browsing sessions but not other traffic.
Especially when using any public WiFi hotspots you should always use a VPN when accessing the Internet since you don’t know whether the access point is compromised. A VPN ensures that all of your traffic, no matter what application, will always be strongly encrypted when passing the access point, this protecting yourself not only from eavesdropping but also possible identity theft.
Cartel Market Summary
Cartel Market is one of the best darknet markets if you are looking for a wide array of different products or just enjoy browsing darknet markets. Few sites offer that many categories and also have listed so many individual products. With the included search function you can also find any exotic items you are looking for rather quickly. An additional bonus is that the site supports Monero so you can pay truly anonymously. As always, when visiting any darknet vendor shop make sure to only use trusted links, such as the onion link for Cartel Market on the top right.