Woman who spent a day on the dark web reveals the incredibly horrific things she saw on there
Topics: Crime, Drugs, Technology
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
Topics: Crime, Drugs, Technology
As I'm sure you can expect, you can find some pretty dark things on the dark web...
Millions of people across the globe are said to access the dark web on a daily basis for a range of different reasons.
Journalists might use it to speak to whistleblowers who wish to remain anonymous, while law enforcement also use it to track any online illegal activity.
One hacker of 30 years has previously opened up about some of the concerning things they saw over the years, one of the worst being a hospital being hacked.
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The guy told VICE: "I've watched hospitals get encrypted. People are left with a choice: do I pay to decrypt the data or risk lives?"
Elsewhere, YouTuber Austinvro saw a chatroom called 'red rooms' which allegedly had livestreams where people watch torture and degradation for payment.
Now journalist Kim Komando has followed suit and has done her own research into the dark web to see what she stumbled upon.
Writing for Mail Online, Kim urged people to stay off the dark web if they don't know what they're doing.
"What I discovered in my brief time on the network was disturbing," she warned.
"I saw that it puts all the tools for death and destruction within arm's reach of anyone with the technical skills to try and obtain them."
Kim continued: "One of those ultradark corners was devoted to the distribution of material involving child sexual abuse and pornography. Sadly, I found this type of illegal content to be fairly easy to track down once you enter into the dark web."
These naked images weren't limited to children, and there were reportedly a lot of images of adult women as well.
Kim also found deepfakes of celebrities, which scammers reportedly use as a means of blackmailing people for money.
She saw one image of MrBeast. The post promised the first 10,000 buyers of the photo a new iPhone.
Another worrying she came across was different sites 'regularly peddling assault rifles, illegal personal defense weapons and accessories for both'.
Drug marketplaces were rife on the dark web too, with things like MDMA and Viagra being available to buy online.
Even poisons were listed for sale for thousands of dollars per unit.
"For those who don't wish to commit a crime on their own, I found hitmen services for hire in corners of the dark web that were even more difficult to find," Kim continued to pen.
"One site in particular had a list of rates posted for arson ($10,000 to $20,000), assassination ($10,000 to $50,000), assault ($1,000 to $5,000) and kidnapping ($15,000 to $25,000)."