In South Korea, illegal webtoon platforms like Blacktoon have become notorious for causing both copyright infringement and financial harm.
Whenever authorities block access to these sites, operators immediately register new domains—often by simply changing a number in the domain name—to keep the service alive. This is a classic evasion tactic designed to bypass enforcement efforts.
A closer look at the site shows pirated versions of popular titles from major platforms like Naver and Kakao. Dozens of gambling advertisements are prominently displayed at the top of the page, revealing that the operators are violating copyright while profiting through illicit advertising and user exploitation. This cycle—piracy → ad revenue generation → new domain registration—is repeated indefinitely, undermining the legitimate webtoon industry while exposing ordinary users to security risks.
By using Criminal IP Domain Search and Criminal IP Brand, these fraudulent domains and their technical indicators can be detected quickly, enabling organizations to design more effective countermeasures.
How Illegal Webtoon Sites Survive Through Domain Rotation
- Intellectual Property Theft: Uploading and distributing unlicensed comics without permission, directly harming the rights and income of creators and publishers.
- Domain Rotation Tactics: Domains such as
blacktoon1[.]com → blacktoon2[.]comare generated repeatedly, with only the numeric suffix changing, to bypass domain blocking. - Financial Impact: Legitimate webtoon companies and creators suffer revenue loss, while operators profit from ads, fraudulent payments, and—in some cases—malware distribution targeting end users.
Domain Search Analysis of Blacktoon
Using Criminal IP Domain Search, several clear indicators were uncovered:
- Criminal IP Domain Search Report: https://www.criminalip.io/domain/report/33003447
- Recently Registered Domain: Created on July 8, 2025. Newly registered domains are frequently linked to phishing and illicit sites.
- Abuse Records: Classified as Critical (highest risk level) with 26 confirmed abuse histories.
- Subdomain Patterns: Variants such as
blacktoon[.]66,blacktoon[.]389continue to appear, confirming systematic domain mutation. - Linked IPs: Several associated IPs are flagged as Critical, requiring deeper infrastructure-level investigation.
Such findings can be expanded further with Criminal IP Asset Search, allowing defenders to track and neutralize not just individual domains but also the entire infrastructure behind them.
Detecting Piracy and Phishing with Criminal IP Brand
Criminal IP Brand automatically monitors illicit sites—from illegal webtoons to gambling and phishing portals—using global IP and domain intelligence. The system identifies new domains, correlates them with server and operator data, and provides actionable intelligence for takedown.
- Criminal IP Brand Analysis Result
For Blacktoon, the Brand analysis showed a sequence of subdomains from 387 through 394, each tied to new IP addresses, ASNs, countries, and registrars. This evidence highlights not just isolated domains but the broader operational infrastructure, which is crucial for effective disruption.Brand Protection & Security Recommendations
For Users
- Avoid illegal webtoon sites entirely—they pose both legal and security risks.
- Never click on ads or enter payment details on suspicious domains.
- Block suspicious sites at the browser or DNS level immediately.
For Companies & Brands
- Continuously monitor for typosquatting and fraudulent lookalike domains.
- Use Criminal IP Domain Search to track new registrations, suspicious scripts, and IP correlations.
- Report and request takedowns to registrars, hosting providers, and search portals without delay.
- Proactively warn customers through official websites and social media to prevent secondary victimization.
FAQ
Q1. Are illegal webtoon sites only a copyright issue, or do they also pose security threats?
Primarily, they infringe copyright, but embedded ad scripts and malicious HTML can spread malware or phishing attacks, making them a cybersecurity threat as well.
Q2. What information can be checked with Criminal IP Domain Search?
Registration dates, WHOIS, SSL/TLS certificates, IP correlations, script analysis, and even page snapshots—providing a forensic basis for tracking and response.
Conclusion
Illegal webtoon platforms like Blacktoon rely on numeric domain mutations to evade takedowns, fueling both copyright infringement and cybersecurity threats.
With Criminal IP Domain Search and Criminal IP Brand, organizations can proactively detect and block these fraudulent domains, safeguard their intellectual property, and protect users from hidden risks.
In relation to this, you can refer to Unmasking the IP Addresses of the Illegal Webtoon Site ‘Newtoki’ Hidden by Cloudflare.
This report is based on data from Criminal IP, a Cyber Threat Intelligence search engine. Sign up for a free Criminal IP account today to explore the search results mentioned in the report and delve into comprehensive threat intelligence.
Source: Criminal IP (https://www.criminalip.io/)
Related Article: