What to Do When Your Market Exit Scams (and Where to Go Next)
Recognising an Exit Scam Early
An exit scam rarely happens without warning. The usual pattern:
- Withdrawals start taking longer than normal
- Support tickets go unanswered
- Admin accounts go silent on community forums
- The signed canary is late or stops entirely
- All mirrors eventually go dark at once
Temporary downtime looks different: the market returns, admins explain what happened, and withdrawals clear.
Immediate Steps
- Stop depositing. The moment you see delayed withdrawals plus a late canary, treat the market as compromised. Do not add funds "to finish an order".
- Withdraw what you can. If withdrawals still process, pull your balance to your own wallet.
- Do not trust "recovery" offers. Anyone messaging you offering to recover funds for a fee is a secondary scam.
Switching to an Alternative
This is why you keep a shortlist. Move to an alternative you have already vetted — ideally one with multi-signature escrow, which limits how much an operator can steal. Verify the alternative's current .onion via PGP before depositing, start with a small test order, and rebuild from there.
After the Switch
Diversify. Keeping balances spread across two vetted markets rather than one reduces how much any single exit scam can cost you.