A review of the HackTown website that sells cybercriminal courses on the dark web
Before review HackTown, there’s background information that you will need to know in order to gain some understanding about what to expect as you plan to kickstart your cybercriminal career by accessing the tutorials and courses that have been listed on the website.
HackTown was established sometime in the year 2019 with the aim of teaching people about cybercrime and how existing cybercriminals can hone their skills to become successful at their trade. The idea behind the platform’s formation has taken the design of a typical online learning institution such as a university where learners are able to pay a fee in order to access a range of courses and learning materials to their benefit.
The success and relevance of the website can be traced back to HackTown’s mission and vision. In an interview that we conducted with the HackTown admin, we learnt that its founder was a successful cybercriminal who had amassed considerable experience in the field and this motivated him to establish a platform where users could start their careers and sharpen their knowledge and skills.
For anyone looking to use HackTown to their advantage, they will need to purchase membership (which currently stands at $250) that goes into buying, testing and auditing products that are listed on the website for users to purchase. In addition, the cybercrime products that have been listed on HackTown will have to be bought by users separately – the prices range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on a number of factors that would place the value of some products over others. With that background, let’s shine a spotlight on the HackTown website in the following sections.
The Home Page
Figure 1: HackTown’s landing page
HackTown’s landing page has done a great job of providing an overview of what the cybercriminal university is all about. There are six tabs that open up to forum, courses, armory, reviews, register and login options.
Still on the homepage, users are greeted by a welcome message that provides some insight into some of the things that they will need to know in order to gain a full understanding about how HackTown works – the information includes the platform’s programs of study which include Carding Diploma, Cybercriminal Degree, and Future Courses. Clicking on the above programs of study will direct you the list of courses under each category. Here’s what you should know:
Carding Diploma will teach you everything you need to know about credit card fraud and is designed around real-world experiences.
After finishing this diploma you’ll have the knowledge, skills, and the resources to commit credit card fraud.
Cybercriminal Degree covers advanced topics introducing you to Operational Security (OPSec), Wi-Fi hacking, Man-In-The-Middle (MiTM) attacks, creating malicious Word Documents, online scams, phishing, and includes how to hack an individual or business for profit or pirating. This degree will prepare you for your career in cybercrime as an efficient and effective attacker. Future Courses will enhance your cybercriminal skills giving you more of advantage as an attacker.
You will be shown step by step on how to operate anonymously online, how to hack Wi-Fi networks around you, and how to compromise an individual or organization with malware (RAT, ransomware, steal data, etc.) along with how to commit online fraud and then some. Each course is relevant to a specific topic geared towards hacking for profit or committing online fraud which are designed to build you up from ground zero to eventually arming you with the knowledge needed to become a professional cybercriminal.
Still, on the homepage, the platform has provided a sneek peak into some of the cybercriminal courses that are on offer, in addition to information about the availability of HackTown on the dark web’s main discussion forums (Dread and CryptBB) where you will be able to learn more about what users are saying are saying about the cybercriminal university. The Main Tabs
Take note that paid members are able to gain access to the various services, unpaid ones will only be able to view previews of what HackTown has to offer – apart from the free courses of course. Nonetheless, the forum tab can be used to gain access to the discussions and support topics that would help any user navigate through any difficulty they face. The courses tab provides a list of cybercriminal courses to choose from. HackTown has been gracious enough to provide four free courses that a user can access before they are able to make the decision to purchase membership after having seen the value of the courses provided on the site (See screenshot below)
Figure 2: The courses available on HackTown.
The armory has a list of tools that a cybercriminal would need in order to pull off attacks where necessary. AT the time of writing this website review, the main items that can be bought on the platform include RATs, ransomware, password stealers, accounts and credit cards. Take note that you will need to be a paid member in order to access these tools on the platform.
The Reviews tab opens up to a window showing that HackTown has been recognized in metions made by users talking about the platform across various notable channels including Dread, Forbes, Tape and telecoms. Once you click on the Register tab, you will come across important information about what you will need in order to be able to become a member of HackTown and “join the dark side of hacking for profit”. The membership information can be seen in the screenshot below:
Figure 3: HackTown membership information.
The Courses
At the time of writing this review, HackTown’s courses are categorized into nine units outlined below (four of the courses are actually free to non-members). HackTown has done the good job of making sure that all the courses are updated to 2022 circumstances, and provided some information about the intended audience for each individual course. Apart from the word content that a user will have to read in order to graduate from the cybercriminal university, some of the learning materials that are found in the courses include screenshots, pictures and videos.
• Fraud (carding) about how to commit credit card fraud.
• ACT 0 (OPSEC) that teaches about how anyone can enhance their Operational Security (OPSEC) to avoid getting hacked by threat actors and law enforcement agents.
• ACT I (WiFi Hacking) that focuses on how learners can compromise WiFi networks.
• ACT II (Network and Man-in-the-middle Attacks) about how to hack others while connected on their WiFi network.
• ACT III (Word Up) equips learners with the knowledge and skills about how they can hack people using a malicious Ms Word document with the aim of infecting their computer system with a RAT, ransomware and any other malware.
• ACT IV (Online Scams) is specialized for training about how to carry out online scams, in addition to providing key insights into the kind of infrastructure that will be required in order to pull off a successful scam.
• ACT V (Phishfood) is about phishing attacks and how they can be used by learners to gain unauthorized access to target online accounts such as social media profiles.
• ACT VI (Ride The Snake) provides a “start to finish” course outline about how a learner may hack an individual, company or institution.
• ACT VII (The Tale of a RAT) teaches about Remote Access Trojans (RATs) and how to deliver malware to intended targets effectively. Using the Carding Course as an example, you will be able to access eight chapters of learning that’s packed with dense information about how to kickstart a career in cybercrime as well as honing the already-exiting skills.
Figure 4: The Carding Course on HackTown has eight chapters.
We encourage you to visit HackTown and check out the courses on offer for yourself. Final Thoughts
We appreciated the general outlook of the HackTown website and how easy-to-navigate it is when considering that users will not have to download lengthy PDF files in order to learn the ropes of modern cybercrime. The use of colour codes (such as green for free courses) has gone a long way to make the website visually appealing and simple to use for anyone that may not be the regular dark web user. Feel free to visit the website and begin your cybercrime journey.
Official link: http://hacktowns3sba2xavxecm23aoocvzciaxirh3vekg2ovzdjgjxedfvqd.onion/
