Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: stevebuzzell420 on October 13, 2012, 12:36 am
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Sup party peoples? 8)
First post ever - I have searched the forum and read through "The Complete All-in-One Guide on How to Anonymously Use Silk Road" so please don't hate:
First of all - I can't believe this place exists. It just seems too good to be true, you know? I bet you hear that all the time ^_^
So being a n00b I'm crazy paranoid. That's actually how I ended up here, I need the maximum assurance of security possible. I realize that there are no guarantees and that I am taking my fate into my own hands by transacting here. But hopefully you veterans can steer me in the right direction so I have a good experience.
When I do get around to placing that first order, I need to figure out how to take delivery in the safest way. My thought is this: I can't take delivery at my home, since there are people there who will receive the package while I'm at work, and I don't want them to see the products and ask questions. I frequently have packages delivered to my work - cycling stuff, mostly: a helmet, a pump, spare tires, etc. Stuff I order online. I work for a large corporation and we have a contracted company that runs our mail room. These people receive my packages, then they attempt to bring them to my office. If I'm away, they leave a notice and I come to the mail room and pick up my package. The Complete All-In-One guide suggests that after receiving the package, I should write "RETURN TO SENDER" on the package in big red letters and wait a day to see if the cops come for it. The thing is, if I am the one who goes to the mail room to pick up the package, that makes it seem less plausible. If I wait for the contractors to bring the package to my desk, then I sign for it, I guess I could write the letters then and wait... And if God forbid the cops DO come, I could say something like "I don't know what this is or who sent it, so I'm sending it back. I've just been to busy to run it back to the mail room."
I'm rambling - here are some specific questions:
*) Do any of you people out there take delivery to your office/workplace? Is there a better method I should be aware of, that doesn't involve me receiving the package at my home or involving a friend/family member?
*) Is it safer for me to order from a US provider, since the package would then ship from US to US and wouldn't have to clear international customs?
*) Any advice you have for a n00b is much appreciated.
Thanks party peoples - I'm excited but also apprehensive... If this actually works, then - WTF? That would be EXTREMELY cool!!!
-SB
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what are you ordering?
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Haven't decided yet... I want an opioid and my paranoia makes me assume that pills would be "safer", in terms of not being as smellable by dogs... But what do I know? So maybe Oxycodoone or something along those lines... Not too many at first.
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OK - after reading around some more, here's what I'm thinking now - please let me know if you see any red flags with this idea:
I rent my home. I frequently get mail for a previous tenant. She was a dentist, so she gets catalogs for dental implements. Maybe I have them ship to my house in her name...?
A couple things: It would have to be USPS so that it would go into my locked mailbox. Then I wouldn't have to sign for it and I could retrieve it from the box -HOPEFULLY- before my wife goes for the mail. But - I would need to know the day of arrival.
Can vendors do that? Ship via USPS -and- let me know the arrival date?
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Everyone uses USPS (within the US I mean, of course). It's my understanding that FedEx, UPS, etc. can open packages at their whim -- USPS cannot do so without first obtaining a warrant.
You can't really depend on a package coming a specific day. Some vendors are top-notch and arrival can be predicted pretty well, but in a nutshell you simply can't depend on getting it on any given day.
With express mail (the 1-2 day USPS service that provides tracking info), I suppose you could predict when it will arrive, but I wouldn't use express personally: fewer packages shipped via express means more scrutiny for each one, whereas standard or priority has such high volume it's very easy for things to get through (not that I'm much of an authority or anything, but I have done my basic homework about it).
I do not recommend using the previous tenant's name. I mean I really strongly recommend NOT doing that. If they put in a change of address, any real mail will be forwarded to his/her new address (like a package you ordered off SR). Junk mail will not, so it's possible you get some mail for them but other mail is getting forwarded w/o you even realizing it. Use your real name and home address. It's very suspicious if you don't, and the mail carriers do pay attention to that sort of thing. You want it to look like just another thing you bought on eBay, you know -- how many things do you buy on eBay and have delivered to your place of work?
The reality is this: if the package is flagged, taken out of the mailstream, and eventually opened to be inspected -- they might just seize the contents and not come looking for you. I read that they often don't bother if it's a small quantity, but who really knows. If they do want to bother arresting you, a previous tenant's name or your work address being on the box isn't going to protect you.
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Thanks for the frank reply. I think I'm too spooked to move forward at this point. There's a lot at stake with my job and my family.
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*) Do any of you people out there take delivery to your office/workplace? Is there a better method I should be aware of, that doesn't involve me receiving the package at my home or involving a friend/family member?
I would never have anything shipped to my workplace - I just feel it would be too open to chance. All you need is one inept vendor with bad packaging that's partially open and revealing it's contents to spoil your day. And why can't you receive packages at home? Is it due to the family members that live with you?
*) Is it safer for me to order from a US provider, since the package would then ship from US to US and wouldn't have to clear international customs?
Most people feel Domestic shipping is much safer than international. I've done both and as long as you pick a great vendor with excellent stealth (I received a package that customs sniffed/opened but didn't find the real goods inside) you shouldn't have any problems.
*) Any advice you have for a n00b is much appreciated.
Realize that everything in your life is a calculated risk - you weigh risk versus reward before making your decisions. That being said, SR is less risky than it's made out to be. Yes, people don't get their shipments... but I would guess that percentage is very low. People who have bad experiences tend to be more vocal about it than people who have good experiences.
That being said, what about ordering a small amount - 1 gram of something, 1-2 pills, that sort of thing. You'll almost never get punished for having small amounts of drugs for personal use. I can't imagine that if you ordered a small amount for personal use and it got intercepted, the cops would be interested in arresting you. They're all about taking out dealers in the chain, not users.
That being said, welcome to SR. I've found it to be a useful tool, since I gave up all my connects years ago.
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MODS: Please move this thread to the "Shipping" sub-forum if you see fit ^_^
Getting ready to take the plunge. I've gone to great lengths to protect my anonymity: Liberte, BitCoinFog, GPG...you all know the deal.
Now you mean to tell me that I add the product to my cart and provide my REAL NAME and address to the vendor? Does anyone else do this?
I have determined that I'll take delivery at home (I "lost" my wife's mailbox key so I now have the only key ;-)
I won't have to sign for anything. It will be delivered to a locked, residential mailbox.
What are your last thoughts: good plan / bad plan? Suggestions?
I was advised NOT to use the name of a previous tenant and there are threads that say you should NOT misspell your own name or give a fake name, but just give them your legit, real name just like you do for eBay and Amazon... Whaddya think?
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MODS: Please move this thread to the "Shipping" sub-forum if you see fit ^_^
Getting ready to take the plunge. I've gone to great lengths to protect my anonymity: Liberte, BitCoinFog, GPG...you all know the deal.
Now you mean to tell me that I add the product to my cart and provide my REAL NAME and address to the vendor? Does anyone else do this?
I have determined that I'll take delivery at home (I "lost" my wife's mailbox key so I now have the only key ;-)
I won't have to sign for anything. It will be delivered to a locked, residential mailbox.
What are your last thoughts: good plan / bad plan? Suggestions?
I was advised NOT to use the name of a previous tenant and there are threads that say you should NOT misspell your own name or give a fake name, but just give them your legit, real name just like you do for eBay and Amazon... Whaddya think?
Looks like you've got the plan down right. Just make sure that when you add the product to your cart and send the vendor your name and address that you encrypt it with their public key and put the encrypted message in the address box on the cart page. That way the only person that can decrypt your address is the vendor. And at that point it comes down to trusting that the vendor will destroy the address when he ships the package, and that they don't keep around clear text copies of all their customers addresses. The weak link in this chain is the vendor and the shipping. A trustworthy vendor should have no qualms about receiving encrypted addresses and deleting them afterward.