Grams was a

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

for

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Toronto, Canada ** Toronto Raptors * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor ...

based

darknet markets A darknet market is a commercial website on the Dark Web, dark web that operates via darknets such as Tor (anonymity network), Tor and I2P. They function primarily as black markets, selling or brokering transactions involving Illegal drug trade, d ...

launched in April 2014, and closed in December 2017. The service allowed users to search multiple darknet markets for products like

drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...

and

guns A gun is a device that propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). Solid projectiles may be ...

from a simple search interface, and also provided the capability for its users to hide their transactions through its bitcoin tumbler ''Helix''. The services used a custom

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

to scrape listings from several markets such as Alpha Bay and others, to return search listings. The site is described by the Global Drug Policy Observatory to have "transformed how people search the hidden web". In May 2014 the site added ''Gramwords'', a service similar to

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

AdWords Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users. It can place ads in the res ...

search sponsorship system for vendors. Additionally their profile system allows for cross-market vendor contact details and reviews to be held centrally. Later that year in June the creators released ''Grams Flow'', a clearnet to Tor redirection service serving various dark net sites and in November, a banner

advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with the advertiser' ...

for Tor sites, ''TorAds'' which has not yet had much success. 'InfoDesk' allows central content and identity management for vendors, reducing the complexity of around maintaining presences on multiple markets. On December 9, 2017, the Grams administrator left a PGP signed message on the Reddit subreddit r/Grams stating that all Grams services, including the Helix tumbler, would be shut down on December 16, 2017.

Helix

In June 2014, Grams released ''Helix'' and ''Helix Light'', a market payment service with an integrated bitcoin tumbler. The site was also available on the clearnet via ''Grams Flow''. In August 2017, it was noted that an elaborate darknet

phishing Phishing is a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, adware, or ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticate ...

scam appeared as the top Google search result for "how to mix bitcoins", directing users to a fake version of the Grams Helix Light website that would steal their bitcoins. Due to the enduring popularity of the site, and relative ease of replicating the first few digits of a .onion address, a number of illegitimate copies of the original Gram hidden service have been created. These include a scam version of flow, the search engine, and even copies of the drug marketplaces indexed. Several competing scams have replicated the "grams7e" portion of the address and are listed on links aggregators as if they are the now defunct original site. Like the Helix scam, these sites defraud unsuspecting visitors of any money or personal details entered on the fake site or fake marketplaces it linked to.

Owner

On February 6, 2020, the FBI and IRS arrested an Ohio man, Larry Dean Harmon, who they alleged was the operator of Helix and Grams. Helix was said to have been partnered with

AlphaBay AlphaBay was a darknet market operating at different times between September 2014 and February 2023. At times, it was both an onion service on the Tor network and an I2P node on I2P. After it was shut down in July 2017 following law enforceme ...

, an illegal darknet market shut down in mid-2017. Harmon pled guilty in August 2021 and agreed to forfeit 4400 bitcoins as part of a plea deal, and faced up to 20 years imprisonment. Harmon's sentencing was initially deferred while he worked under a cooperation plea agreement, and finally in November of 2024 he was sentenced to three years in prison.

References

{{Tor hidden services Internet search engines Cryptocurrency tumblers Internet properties established in 2014 Defunct Tor hidden services Internet properties disestablished in 2017