We have always seen Vice City as a top-tier Darknet Market. However, things have taken a wrong turn as multiple notable Darknet vendors have confirmed their withdrawals aren’t processing. This has marked up a discussion on the Dread Forum, and it seems that no Vice City staff is responding as to what the issue may be. All of this points to a likely Exit Scam, so we’re warning you until further notice!
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Vice City Market Issues
Vice City is one of the largest English Darknet Markets. The Bitcoin-only market started back in 2020, and has one of the most unique user interfaces matching that of GTA’s Vice City in-game online marketplace. The market particularly helped those who were looking for either drugs or digital/fraud items. But at this time, we’re not sure of their future.
On April 24th, Dread user u/7-eleven, a verified FE-Vendor from Vice City with over 2K completed orders, reported that he had issues with Vice City. He claimed, “Deposits disabled, market inaccessible, no withdrawals “
“We have not received our payments from days ago. Going on 72 hours without a withdrawal, usually it arrives within 24 hours. No word from support on market or here on Dread. We have spoken to multiple people experiencing the same issue.
As of last night, we were unable to even initiate a withdrawal as Vice City threw an error message. So we have coin stuck on the market and coin missing. When attempting to connect to the market today, I noticed our private mirror was not working. That almost never happens. We also weren’t able to get past the captcha on the main URLs.
I’m not sure if something is going on behind the scenes, but now would be a great time for Vice City support to chime in and provide us with an update. /u/ViceCity ?????”
“Deposits disabled, market inaccessible, no withdrawals ” by Dread user u/7-eleven
“Bummer if it’s another exit scam considering we actually quite liked this market. From what we can see all private mirrors are disconnected and we still cant get past the captcha on the main links. Still no word from the admin and still no payment received.”
u/7-eleven further elaborated in the comments
In the comment sections, others popped up to say they’ve had various ticket issues, and that when they withdraw, they’re receiving an error that says “There are Tor connection problems, please try again later.” (though unlike the usual error).
With Opening the Megathread, u/Dontlaugh explained the following
u/dontlaugh created a public service announcement about “Vice City Market Issues.” This came after several reports of Vice City withdrawals and deposit issues. Some users are claiming that they aren’t receiving their withdrawals, and users are no longer able to deposit any tokens to their account (perhaps the biggest sign to say this isn’t an exit scam.)
Unfortunately it appears that there are multiple reported issues of Vice City with withdrawals and deposits. due to this we’re opening up conversation here for all those affected. at this stage we have nothing confirmed but are investigating and will keep you posted on any new information that comes through. Please see /u/paris ‘s response here: /post/924de087996243b48083/#c-a19b4199b142e2ec94
please post any issues with the market here. Please keep it to experiences and avoid unnecessary FUD. Again – please stick to /d/superlist markets in the future and we will generally have more up to date information in these situations. stay safe and take care – dl and the DNM Team.”
u/Dontlaugh on d/DarkNetMarkets
The problem has been validated by Dread head admin u/Paris, who claimed that “I have received some reports from vendors that their withdrawals have yet to arrive. We will be keeping an eye on this for the current moment.” and u/ViceCity has yet to respond with his last message being sent five days ago. We should note that their head admin has never been interested in help through forums, as he would often go months without messaging on Dread.
Further Indications
An anonymous user by the name “u/Adlerangriff” ( a throwaway account) came forward on Dread claiming he found evidence to say that Vice City was in the process of an exit scam.
He claimed that there were Logs suggesting the market was “going through changes that will eventually lead to the markets demise” and believed that either the market was in the process of an exit scam or an LE Take over.
Without providing much more information, he explained that he was “100% certain something was about to happen.” This type of post that holds no backing would usually be past as simple FUD. However, with recent circumstances. Many are believing it may be true. This was even the post that u/Paris came forward to explain he had received various reports on Vice City.
Conclusion: Get Your OpSec Inplace
If u/Adlerangriff is even remotely correct and that LE has taken over Vice City. It’s imperative that you ensure all your OpSec is in place and that you remove any evidence of a connection to the darknet market. However, you should have done this already.
If Vice City is exit scamming, this will be quite disappointing as it’s easily one of the most stable and simple markets out there. In its three years, it’s grown to become a prominent market for good reasons. If you’re a vendor, keep an eye out for other markets as some (such as M00nkey) have already offered “refugee” to Vice City vendors to find a new home.
Hey there, I’m a dark web geek who’s been around for the last 8 years. More precisely, I’m livedarknet’s senior content writer who’s been writing about darknet marketplaces, tutorials, and cybersecurity stuff for educational purposes.