Deep Web Vendors Are Hawking a Hodge-Podge of Spy Gear

We all know that it's possible to buy drugs on the deep web, along with a cornucopia of other black market wares. But more recently, I've noticed another type of product popping up on the hidden Internet's bazaars, such as one called 'Agora': surveillance and anti-surveillance items.

Although some of these items are available elsewhere, be that in dedicated shops or off normal websites, an obvious advantage of purchasing them with the anonymity provided by Tor and Bitcoin is that users won't set off any alarm bells when they collect parts for their safe-house or spying mission. Typing "buy phone jammer" into Google, or having a record of a card transaction from GPS Blockers Inc., isn't ideal if you're trying to keep your purchases under the radar.

Several products are clearly aimed at dealers of illicit goods, perhaps even those who sell on Agora itself or similar marketplaces.

One item I found was a pocket-sized GPS tracking device, aimed specifically at those who deal in illegal goods. “Large scale dealers could hide it in a bag and be able to track down their shit if it's stolen!” writes 'GoombaShop', the item's vendor.

Another of GoombaShop's products is a motion detector that sends a text message to you once it detects an intruder. It also has a built in microphone so you can listen to whoever has activated it. “Put it with your stash and be alerted if anyone messes with it!”

Other products are aimed at those who may want to make sure that they aren’t being surreptitiously recorded; there's a large selection of anti-surveillance tech on top of the secret trackers.

'Stiffstyles' offers a bug detector. “We all have mates who spend hours peeking thru the blinds thinking the police helicopter or whatever is coming for them,” the vendor writes. The item can be used, “At best [to] find out if ya shit is being bugged, at worst u can shut the loopers up that think every fucken thing is bugged!!”

A variety of sizes of telecoms and data transfer blockers are also on offer. Some fit into the cigarette lighter slot in a car to block the vehicle's GPS signal, which can, “Prevent car of government, intelligence agency, famous person, principal etc, from being tracked,” according to the listing.

Others are portable boxes ("smaller than a pack of Virgina Slims,” says one listing) that can be planted pretty much anywhere and block cell phone signals on the move—especially useful if you are in transit and need to remain undetected. One product comes with the recommendation that it can be used in a “special place which need special protect.”

A review for one of the blockers says “pretty much jams wifi signal and 3g i'm cool with that cause i be on 3g. A++++.” Judging by the user's comments, they are using it to stop any signal from their device leaking and giving away its location.

But these devices aren't necessarily just aimed at increasing their user's level of privacy. They are high-powered tools that can circumvent commercial networks and are considered illegal in some countries. In a listing for a car GPS blocker, the vendor warns that, “Owning these in Australia can come with severe penalties so be careful how you use it.”

One vendor, 'Fake', who despite his name had a venerable reputation on the Black Market Reloaded site, sells what he describes as an “extreme phone satellite jammer”, which is “the world's most advanced and efficient phone / satellite signal shielding instrument Specially designed for bomb removal and VIP protection.” Fake ships his products from China, and he also sells a dual-sim, “anti-interception” phone. These are available on the clearnet, but the transfer is processed via PayPal; a service that anyone trying to operate so securely would likely want to avoid.

It's difficult to determine what exactly these products are being used for without knowing who's purchased them. Perhaps they are groups with designs that echo cartels setting up their own surveillance apparatus to disrupt law enforcement, or just individuals who want to jam drivers' cell phones around them.

Regardless, anyone who wants to keep a very, very close eye on their property, without leaving physical or digital footprints when they go to buy the tech, knows where to go.