Olivia Glad
Honorable
What is the deep web? If you don’t know, consider yourself lucky. The deep web consists of hidden websites that you need a special browser and a direct link to access. It’s completely anonymous, so obviously, some seriously heinous stuff goes down there. Selling and buying drugs is the most innocuous thing you can do on it.
These aren’t just stories of the deep web - these are deep web horror stories as well as a scary dark web story or two. We dug through the bowels of the Internet to find first-person experiences of some seriously messed up stuff that happened on the deep web. Just be glad we did all the research and compiled all these stories in one place for you. Now you don’t have to worry about being on an FBI watch list because you were researching these things yourself.
(Before you dive in, here's two things you need to know: Tor is the browser you need to browse the deep web, and the hidden wiki is a kind of portal to different websites.)
1)Recipes for Human Meat
Reddit user baconboyloiter reports,
"In CompSci, we often got bored and dicked around. One day we ran into the deep web. The most disturbing site we found was a comprehensive guide for cooking women. We're not talking about a short joke here. This page had information on what body types to use for specific cuts, how to prepare these cuts, and how to cook the girl so she lives as long as possible. It horrifies me that people way worse than the freaks on Criminal Minds exist.”
2)Five Guys
Reddit user cletch says, "Was on Tor, browsing da usuals. Go out to eat foods at the Five Guys. Come back. More Tor. Find a picture of me eating at Five Guys.”
3)Hello, Mr. [Your Last Name]"
Reddit user Bigwiseguy55 reports, "I posted a comment on a video, and when I went back to that page to watch the video later, someone replied to my comment saying: ‘That is very astute of you Mr. (insert my last name).’
"I didn't internet for like a week. My last name is not a common one.”
4)We See You
From Reddit user fake_fakington:
“This was back before Google. Web pages were, for the most part, still very basic HTML with Javascript. Hardly anyone used CSS. Only discussion boards and some banking sites had anything approaching mature front-end/back-end combinations. Etc. Early 'Net. Real 'deep web' story, not just one about illicit activities online.
"I was browsing random blogs, Geocities sites, and the like, just going from link to link. Eventually I came upon an odd page - it appeared to be random thoughts from different people, but for the time, it was very well-designed. The messages seemed to be cryptic in nature, like several people trying to pass secret notes. I started through the source, and hidden in the comments of a javascript were various IP addresses.
"I gathered all of the IPs in a text file and began enumerating. Some were routers with banner messages I could telnet to - almost all at universities ('Warning! This is a secure system at University of Bla Bla....'). The default Cisco credentials from back in the day worked on most of them, but I didn't poke around. A few of the IP's were web servers with little to nothing on them, mostly Apache on Linux or some BSD, at least one IIS server I can recall.
"I finally came upon a web server with a huge directory of HTML files and TIFF images, with a few smaller subdirectories containing the same. nslookup returned no reverse records for the IP. A VisualRoute traced it as far as Colorado. The HTML files appeared to be records a psychologist or similar mental health professional would keep. The images were of faxes, apparently of both military and medical nature.
"As I browsed from a subdirectory back to the parent, at the top was a new HTML file named something like '1-.HELLO-THERE.html.' The time stamp was from right that minute. I opened it, and in plain text was the message 'we see you.' No quotes, all lowercase. About 15 seconds later the server dropped.”
5)Don't Click "Random"
Reddit user neverlurking77 learned their lesson:
"On the deep web once upon a time, I was browsing tor. I paraded myself over to the hidden wiki and hit the random button a few times. What happened next scared the everloving shit out of me. There was a webpage that took longer to load (even by tor standards) and when it finally loaded, in giant black letters on my screen it said 'YOU BETTER START RUNNING.' Needless to say I almost shit my pants. Anyway haven't been back since, yada-yada.
"2/10 would not browse again.”
6)One Hitman, Please
From Reddit user IAmASharkFin: “A website advertising a hitman, his services costing increasingly more bitcoins based on the type of target. I don't remember the exact amounts, but the order went something like this, from least to greatest: civilians, police, politicians, children. Shudder."
7)Close Call
From Reddit user Semper_Fi_Cerberus:
“It was my third time on the deep web and I was just looking around at sites. I found this one guy's home page and on the sidebar I saw a link that said 'For journalist and people new to the deep web'. I clicked on it, hoping that it was interesting and helpful information. A new page opened and a picture started to load. Thank god for my slow Internet because all that loaded was the head of an old asian [sic] man with blood on his chin. I quickly closed the tab before the rest of the image loaded. To this day I wonder what the whole picture was but at the same time am thankful I didn't see it.
8)A Mysterious Job Opportunity
Reddit user rom65536 says,"I found a posting for someone with both 'RN credentials and combat experience.' They were offering $255K for six months of being 'out of communication' and 'aboard a ship.' Contact info was a PO Box in Washington DC.”
"TLR My slow internet probably saved me from seeing a gruesome picture”
9)DIY Vasectomy Kit
Reddit user busty_crustacean says, "[I saw a] DIY vasectomy kit [for sale] on SR. it was a kit of weird dentist tool looking hooks and some tube thing. $20.”
10)Wizard Talk Radio
Says Reddit user coffeemchire: "I found a radio station on Tor that was just people talking to each other, thinking they were wizards. But I can't find it any more sadly.”
These aren’t just stories of the deep web - these are deep web horror stories as well as a scary dark web story or two. We dug through the bowels of the Internet to find first-person experiences of some seriously messed up stuff that happened on the deep web. Just be glad we did all the research and compiled all these stories in one place for you. Now you don’t have to worry about being on an FBI watch list because you were researching these things yourself.
(Before you dive in, here's two things you need to know: Tor is the browser you need to browse the deep web, and the hidden wiki is a kind of portal to different websites.)
1)Recipes for Human Meat
Reddit user baconboyloiter reports,
"In CompSci, we often got bored and dicked around. One day we ran into the deep web. The most disturbing site we found was a comprehensive guide for cooking women. We're not talking about a short joke here. This page had information on what body types to use for specific cuts, how to prepare these cuts, and how to cook the girl so she lives as long as possible. It horrifies me that people way worse than the freaks on Criminal Minds exist.”
2)Five Guys
Reddit user cletch says, "Was on Tor, browsing da usuals. Go out to eat foods at the Five Guys. Come back. More Tor. Find a picture of me eating at Five Guys.”
3)Hello, Mr. [Your Last Name]"
Reddit user Bigwiseguy55 reports, "I posted a comment on a video, and when I went back to that page to watch the video later, someone replied to my comment saying: ‘That is very astute of you Mr. (insert my last name).’
"I didn't internet for like a week. My last name is not a common one.”
4)We See You
From Reddit user fake_fakington:
“This was back before Google. Web pages were, for the most part, still very basic HTML with Javascript. Hardly anyone used CSS. Only discussion boards and some banking sites had anything approaching mature front-end/back-end combinations. Etc. Early 'Net. Real 'deep web' story, not just one about illicit activities online.
"I was browsing random blogs, Geocities sites, and the like, just going from link to link. Eventually I came upon an odd page - it appeared to be random thoughts from different people, but for the time, it was very well-designed. The messages seemed to be cryptic in nature, like several people trying to pass secret notes. I started through the source, and hidden in the comments of a javascript were various IP addresses.
"I gathered all of the IPs in a text file and began enumerating. Some were routers with banner messages I could telnet to - almost all at universities ('Warning! This is a secure system at University of Bla Bla....'). The default Cisco credentials from back in the day worked on most of them, but I didn't poke around. A few of the IP's were web servers with little to nothing on them, mostly Apache on Linux or some BSD, at least one IIS server I can recall.
"I finally came upon a web server with a huge directory of HTML files and TIFF images, with a few smaller subdirectories containing the same. nslookup returned no reverse records for the IP. A VisualRoute traced it as far as Colorado. The HTML files appeared to be records a psychologist or similar mental health professional would keep. The images were of faxes, apparently of both military and medical nature.
"As I browsed from a subdirectory back to the parent, at the top was a new HTML file named something like '1-.HELLO-THERE.html.' The time stamp was from right that minute. I opened it, and in plain text was the message 'we see you.' No quotes, all lowercase. About 15 seconds later the server dropped.”
5)Don't Click "Random"
Reddit user neverlurking77 learned their lesson:
"On the deep web once upon a time, I was browsing tor. I paraded myself over to the hidden wiki and hit the random button a few times. What happened next scared the everloving shit out of me. There was a webpage that took longer to load (even by tor standards) and when it finally loaded, in giant black letters on my screen it said 'YOU BETTER START RUNNING.' Needless to say I almost shit my pants. Anyway haven't been back since, yada-yada.
"2/10 would not browse again.”
6)One Hitman, Please
From Reddit user IAmASharkFin: “A website advertising a hitman, his services costing increasingly more bitcoins based on the type of target. I don't remember the exact amounts, but the order went something like this, from least to greatest: civilians, police, politicians, children. Shudder."
7)Close Call
From Reddit user Semper_Fi_Cerberus:
“It was my third time on the deep web and I was just looking around at sites. I found this one guy's home page and on the sidebar I saw a link that said 'For journalist and people new to the deep web'. I clicked on it, hoping that it was interesting and helpful information. A new page opened and a picture started to load. Thank god for my slow Internet because all that loaded was the head of an old asian [sic] man with blood on his chin. I quickly closed the tab before the rest of the image loaded. To this day I wonder what the whole picture was but at the same time am thankful I didn't see it.
8)A Mysterious Job Opportunity
Reddit user rom65536 says,"I found a posting for someone with both 'RN credentials and combat experience.' They were offering $255K for six months of being 'out of communication' and 'aboard a ship.' Contact info was a PO Box in Washington DC.”
"TLR My slow internet probably saved me from seeing a gruesome picture”
9)DIY Vasectomy Kit
Reddit user busty_crustacean says, "[I saw a] DIY vasectomy kit [for sale] on SR. it was a kit of weird dentist tool looking hooks and some tube thing. $20.”
10)Wizard Talk Radio
Says Reddit user coffeemchire: "I found a radio station on Tor that was just people talking to each other, thinking they were wizards. But I can't find it any more sadly.”