Insider info on agora scam

Up until onymous I was a moderator on agora dealing with disputes. They don't allow moderators to have public profiles so i don't really have any way of proving this so you can believe me or not, I just had to post this somewhere.

I had worked for agora for around 6 months. I was paid well for moderating disputes and everything was great up until the onymous busts and the SR2 takedown. I messaged agora shortly after to find out if we were affected, and he was understandably spooked as hell. He tried to reassure me everything was going to be ok, but I got the impression he wanted out. I don't know how much agora has made for him but enough to retire comfotably at a guess.

Then it happened. 2 days later I received a new message from "agora", but this was not the same guy I had been speaking to for months. We never exchanged personal details obviously but the tone and wording of messages was completely different. I became suspicious and started to ask questions about some things we peviously talked about. The next reply (and last message) told me I was no longer required and thanks for everything. Nice! thanks a lot agora but hey whatever.

I'm still trying to figure out what this means. I don't think agora was seized by LE as I'm positive agora was the sam guy for a couple days after the SR seizure. The only conclusion that makes any sense is they sold the site to someone else, but why not keep old staff? You can't run a site the size of agora on your own and I know what the fuck I'm doing.

It worries me that all we worked for to make agora a great site is going to be ruined by some idiot only interested in scamming for some quick bucks. You can take or leave any or all I said, but my advice is to not deposit anything and withdraw any funds if you still can.

Peace out!


Comments


[23 Points] Scimitar1:

Any proof ?

If not get the fuck out with your FUD.

If they wanted to scam, they'd bloody close withdrawals. Every single time deposits were not functional, on any market in the past 2 years, it turned out to be what the admins said.

It's not hard to provide proof for your claims so if they're lacking, scram.


[14 Points] Gomba1:

Guyyyz, Agora Is confirmed as Honeypot Now! Proof here:

http://i.imgur.com/onyhuHu.png


[13 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

Original agora or not?

I may be able to confirm. I made an agreement with whoever ran it at the start of the year that he's unlikely to forget, and its now been deleted from our messages.

Whoever it is, he's probably quite busy, but its worth a punt. I'll post a link to this post (which I imagine is going to get quite big and hang around for a while) and ask him to summarize what we agreed.

Since Onymous, every British Tor Vendor's Association member is trading on agora (ToYou Team - cocaine - was the last one to move). We don't have to do what it tells us, but we try to stick together as a block otherwise marketplace owners will start taking the piss and robbing us like last winter.

Do you remember what it was like between November and February? Every 5 weeks another marketplace walked off with our escrow and vendor deposit. nobody wants to go back to that again.

If any big, reputable american vendors are reading this...why don't YOU get organized too? There are some US vendors who have their own group of customers who've followed them from market to market, have still shipped when they know they're not going to be able to withdraw the bitcoin, and can bring enough customers wherever they set up to put a new marketplace on the map.

Marketplace owners are just jumped-up computer geeks. If a big-name vendor signs up, its like when Alice Cooper confirmed at Bill & Ted's rock festival - all the smaller bands confirm too. getting a Marketplace established is like organizing a rock festival

Here's a common scenario:-

"X-marketplace" has been going for a few months, with only a few MXE vendors who've been banned everywhere else. A solid cocaine source signs up to X-marketplace, offers a discount to customers who buy on x-marketplace rather than their current one, and suddenly lots of accounts from good, experienced darknet customers who understand bitcoin and escrow sign up. Next, the weed vendors from the same country set up - they're like the indie bands and they all have a few hardcore fans of their weed

Then everyone goes back to their main marketplace and forgets their accounts.

But they are still there.

the coke vendor only has to sell on there once or twice so is customers know he's also on x-marketplace. Then, one day disaster strikes at his current marketplace. overnight, x-marketplace becomes a big player.

Clever market owners become major players by attracting the emergency backup accounts of big vendors So if a group of reputable vendors negotiate with a hungry new marketplace, they can more or less dictate their terms. but their number one concern is always unfettered access to their own takings. This is like some powerful rock manager or booking agent saying "all my bands will perform. Their backstage rider is "No moet, no show-y. No chandon, no band on"

I'm guessing that's why withdrawals were fixed before deposits by Agora. Who I still trust if its the same guy.


[9 Points] missyanntx:

Then it happened. 2 days later I received a new message from "agora", but this was not the same guy I had been speaking to for months. We never exchanged personal details obviously but the tone and wording of messages was completely different. I became suspicious and started to ask questions about some things we peviously talked about. The next reply (and last message) told me I was no longer required and thanks for everything. Nice! thanks a lot agora but hey whatever.

I'm calling bullshit. Why in the fuck do you need to question to see if the person you're emailing with remembers previous conversations?

Are you not using PGP? I find it impossible to believe that they have someone's PGP, email account, etc but don't have access to old emails. Add to that - if you weren't using PGP when communicating with Agora, I can't even find the words. Beyond impossible.


[8 Points] RosyPalm:

i don't really have any way of proving this

Yeah, I pretty much stopped reading right there.


[8 Points] 0xb44d:

I know this is likely FUD, but were it not - having the admins switch out every so often is a great idea for OPSEC reasons

If the old Agora admins did get away, all the best of luck to them - it might have taken Onymous for you to leave, but just know that with each day you stick around the odds of you retiring to a concrete cell after an involuntary holiday in some shitty midwest state are high.

As for you OP - posting "proof" is easy - you just have to show us something that only an Agora moderator would know, like a screenshot.

Why are you no longer working there since Onymous? Why would Agora let moderators go at just the time they needed help with new users coming in and new admins (hypothetically) taking over? What did you do wrong to get yourself fired? How many bitcoin did you steal?


[6 Points] ShulginsCat:

Fact is OP doesn't know if it's a scam. All he knows is that something (or someone) changed.


[6 Points] nothercrazythrowaway:

everyone commenting here seems pretty 50/50 on whether they believe you. probably biased, depending whether they used Agora or not/had coin on there.

the story sounds kinda plausible but why no proof of some kind? could at least screenshot the convo with 'agora' or something. I've got no stake in this, just watching the dnm drama unfold, but how come this is your only post? I remember someone who i thought was /u/d_insider, who was a reg around here, but i guess not? or have you deleted things?

the truth will always come out eventually....


[5 Points] anyoneellselaughing:

Agora mod here.

Just wante dto let you guys know that we no longer accepts bitcoiin. We have transitioned to AlertPay.

Alternatively we accept payment in the form of egold.

Bitcoin is provel flawed and we find that methods from 2005 are the safest. YEs alertpay.com may not work anymore but trust us. Deposit money, all your money, every which way you can think of, and we'kll let you know shortly if you can use or withdraw it.


[3 Points] None:

Get the FUD out of here unless you have any proof, otherwise your just asking for a torn anus.


[3 Points] TerribleDNMAdvice:

I too am an Agora admin. It was all good till the scientologists took over. Fucking Tom Cruise.


[2 Points] Theeconomist1:

So a screenshot would be a hella long way to show you are telling the truth. So one thing that kind of sticks out - if you were let go, when did you lose access to the site? Or do you still ahve access to the site with the same account but no privileges? I'm not sure how that works with admins, but I'd have thought they'd have disabled your account immediately, but they apparently waited for you to read a message. So they delayed in disabling your account? Just curious. If I were in that position, I would have been taking screenshots.

A lot of people have been saying that Agora messages have a different tone, so what you say kind of confirms their fears. However, if one were spreading FUD, you could take a well known fear/suspicion such as that (seen that mentioned several times around here) and run with it so that it weaves well with what's out there.

That being said, if what you say is true, you'd have to know it'd be met with skepticism and rightfully so. Anyone can say shit. It'd be great if you could provide proof of some form - anything.


[2 Points] _TROLL:

I had worked for agora for around 6 months.

Get the hell out of here. If you were "fired just before Onymous", that means you joined as a moderator after the site had already been around 4 or 5 months. How exactly did you come to be hired in that position?

i don't really have any way of proving this

Of course you don't. :rolleyes: A single screenshot of a moderator control panel or something similar would silence everyone in this thread instantly, including me.

I'm with you on your last statement, no one should deposit anything, but your post is speculative trolling until proven otherwise. Especially if you never return to reply to anyone in your thread.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] gandalfmeds:

maybe feds nabbed agora and replaced him with honeypot agora!


[1 Points] kraner:

This needs to be upvoted


[1 Points] zeromqisabadchoice:

It's pretty hilarious that so many of you openly declare that you "trust" the supposed "legit" person running Agora, but not random threads like this. On the darkweb, trust is for idiots.


[0 Points] ScorchedTerran:

Here comes the sheep scam all over again. ...maybe...


[0 Points] agorafoaway:

I also thought for a while this wasn't the same agora. I think the writing was on the wall for a long time. I mean it's still in beta wtf? no new features just raking in as much cash as possible.

Do you think they are paying out a few withdrawals from the deposits and stringing it out as long as possible?


[1 Points] queryox1:

Never heard so much fucking FUD by a stupid YANK in all my life, shut the fuck up honestly.


[-1 Points] its_not_me_promise:

I appreciate the heads up. This rings true to me! You will be downvoted to oblivion because people can't handle that the mighty Agora may hath fallen. Stay safe


[-1 Points] None:

I really love how this post was immediately shot down by no less than 20 people, but if someone were to post the same thing about Evolution, I'm sure the comments would be pretty different. Everyone would start saying tht Evolution is a confirmed honeypot for the 1000th time, and that the admins are thieves, etc. and nobody should ever use it.

But here we are instead with a million Agora fanboys running to the rescue...


[-1 Points] ibuydrugsonline:

Put post calling Agora out as a scam

Hope it turns out as a scam so you can point and say "Hah! I told you so!"

??????????????

Profit!


[-3 Points] GraandWizzard:

OMFG I knew something fishy was going on. Thanks honestly for sharing this.