This hypothesis may sound explainable considering the exit scheme happening in March 2024 with Incognito Marketplace. Therefore, after a month, he began to post images with training provided to some law enforcement agents in order to appear clean on a basic OSINT check or if any traces from Darkweb could lead to him. However, the gambler’s fallacy to conduct an exit scam and extort the loyal members of Incognito may have caused his downfall. The marketplace has been active since July 1, 2023, and has been among the top five infamous marketplaces providing shopping for illicit goods in the darkweb, offering more than 16 categories of narcotics and over 1000 products. Compared to other marketplaces, it offered innovative and a much more user-friendly interface. Among these features one could find Direct Pay, implying buyers could use their wallets instead of those provided by the marketplace.
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Described by Attorney General Pam Bondi as a historic blow to the digital drug trade, the operation targeted individuals in the United States, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It marks the most significant JCODE operation to date, building on years of enforcement actions and marketplace takedowns, including Kingdom Market, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Nemesis. “The bank enabled buyers and sellers to stay anonymous from each other,” federal officials said. On the other hand, based on his illicit background and willingness to make money, Riu-Siang Lin could have been a well-placed insider for Chinese intelligence in the Taiwanese embassy, and why not a first point of access in the Taiwanese MFA network for APT espionage operations.
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He envisioned Incognito as a global marketplace that combined the best features of its predecessors while addressing their weaknesses. Another incredible detail of the case is the way in which the administrator(s) of Incognito Market (presumably including Lin) “exit scammed” vendors on the site. Specifically, in February 2024 Incognito users reported withdrawal issues with their BTC deposits – meaning that Incognito would not allow vendors to withdraw funds. According to TRM, deposits to Incognito dramatically decreased but still continued during this time period. U.S. agencies like the FBI, DEA, IRS-CI, and HSI worked alongside Europol, the U.K.’s NCA, and law enforcement from over a dozen countries.
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Lin’s decision to implement a banking system within the market also had a profound impact on the dark web’s economy. By keeping transactions within Incognito’s ecosystem, Lin effectively created a closed-loop financial system, similar to those used by legitimate online platforms. This gave Incognito a competitive advantage, as users didn’t have to worry about moving their funds in and out of external wallets, which often exposed them to risks such as law enforcement tracking or theft from other hackers.
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In return, Incognito provided an infrastructure for secure (albeit illegal) transactions and acted as an escrow intermediary between buyer and seller. This approach mirrored the playbook of earlier darknet markets and contributed to Incognito’s rapid growth. Lin’s background in blockchain technology allowed him to innovate beyond what had been done before.
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All transactions were conducted in cryptocurrency—primarily Bitcoin and Monero—allowing customers and vendors to move funds without using traditional financial rails. Monero’s privacy features in particular obscured sender, receiver, and transaction amounts, posing challenges to investigators tracing flows. One poignant trend is the increasing involvement of international law enforcement and harsher legal consequences, as evidenced by Incognito’s case. Each high-profile bust – from Silk Road to AlphaBay to Incognito – serves as a learning experience for agencies.
Incognito Market wasn’t just another player in the dark web economy—it was a game-changer. The market’s user-friendly interface, combined with its robust security features, attracted a diverse range of users, from small-time buyers looking for recreational drugs to large-scale vendors dealing in high volumes of illicit goods. The market’s reputation for reliability and security quickly spread, and soon, Incognito was competing with—and in many cases, surpassing—It appears the response got cut off midway.
At that time, the project administration threatened to publish a complete dump of 557,000 orders and 862,000 hashes of cryptocurrency transactions by the end of May. They understood that the administrators had already committed an exit scam, as they could not withdraw their money. The exit scam contributed to a growing sense of distrust among users in the darknet ecosystem. As more users experienced losses, they became wary of engaging with other platforms, leading to a more cautious approach to online transactions. Following the collapse, users became more vigilant in their dealings on darknet marketplaces, leading to a greater emphasis on safety protocols and risk management. Additionally, he could also face a maximum sentence of life in prison for narcotics conspiracy, up to 20 years of imprisonment for money laundering, and up to 5 years for conspiring to sell adulterated and misbranded medication.
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While Bitcoin’s public ledger allowed for some degree of traceability, Monero posed a more significant challenge due to its privacy features. Monero’s use of stealth addresses and ring signatures made it almost impossible to determine the sender or receiver of funds. The first major breakthrough in the investigation came in late 2023, when an undercover agent made a crucial purchase on Incognito Market.
Credible reporting from the referenced agencies, in addition to contributions from ATF; Army CID; CBP; Department of Treasury’s FinCEN and Office of Foreign Assets Control; and NCIS enabled domestic law enforcement actions in support of Operation RapTOR. Local, state, and other federal agencies also contributed to investigations through task force participation and regional partnerships. Although Incognito Market did not sell narcotics directly, it provided a dark web platform connecting customers with vendors. Overall, Incognito is a somewhat clunky but effective darknet marketplace filled with digital goods and scam-related products.
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Incognito Market has priced its extortion for vendors based on their status or “level” within the marketplace. Incognito Market deals primarily in narcotics, so it’s likely many users are now worried about being outed as drug dealers. Creating a new account on Incognito Market presents one with an ad for 5 grams of heroin selling for $450. On March 12, 2020, before Incognito Market launched, LIN emailed himself a rough diagram of a darknet marketplace.
- The variety of goods available on Incognito was staggering, but it was the market’s reputation for security and reliability that kept users coming back.
- LIN was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport on May 18, 2024, and will be presented in Manhattan federal court before U.S.
- In addition, in November 2023, an undercover law enforcement officer received several tablets purporting to be oxycodone purchased on the Incognito Market.
- It incorporated features like branding, advertising banners, and even customer support to foster a “seamless” user experience.
- Overall, Incognito is a somewhat clunky but effective darknet marketplace filled with digital goods and scam-related products.
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Lin allegedly used those funds to pay employees and for computer servers – as well as collecting millions of dollars in profit. The platform provided a user experience that matched those offered by modern e-commerce sites, complete with vetting and registration of sellers, advertising, customer service faciities and a slick UX. A federal district court judge will determine Lin’s sentence after reviewing the U.S. Notably, the diagram indicated “vendor,” “listing,” “pgp key,” and “admin review,” all of which are features of (Incognito Market),” the complaint said.
His teachers recognized his potential and recommended that he apply to National Taiwan University, one of the country’s most prestigious institutions. From a young age, Lin showed an aptitude for technology, quickly mastering computers and programming languages. His parents, both educators, nurtured his talents, encouraging him to pursue his passion for technology.
The Center investigates large-scale cybercrime threats and provides expertise on cybercrime investigations to the field. It also uses global law enforcement networks, like Europol, to combat cybercrime threats. Since its inception in October 2020 until its closure in March, Incognito Market sold vast quantities of illegal narcotics, including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamines, globally via the dark web site that could be reached through Tor web browser. As DOJ noted, the conspiracy involved laundering darknet proceeds through exchanges and peer-to-peer brokers. TRM has identified structured withdrawals from the market to personal wallets and then to services with less stringent KYC. Designed to resemble a legitimate e-commerce platform, Incognito offered a slick user experience with branding, advertising, and customer support.
