Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: clarencegibbons on June 22, 2013, 12:35 am

Title: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: clarencegibbons on June 22, 2013, 12:35 am
Just wondering if Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors on here? If they did, you'd think it'd be relatively easy for them to nail down where the "goodies" were being shipped from, and start surveillance of post offices/blue boxes in that area.

     Maybe I'm just unduly paranoid?  Reason I ask, is I have a buddy who's interested in starting a vendor account on here, and trying to cover all the bases to stay one or more steps ahead of John Q. Law. 

   I know driving an hour or two from your home base to drop shipments would be advisable, and changing up the direction N,W,E, S . That you travel to mail packages would be advisable, just wondering if anybody else has any recommendations for minimizing the risk of getting pinched?
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: ReD EyE on June 22, 2013, 12:48 am
Yes they would THE anal probing fuckers that they are, dont ever leave prints if vending, on or of line. ;D
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: TriedItAll on June 22, 2013, 12:56 am
I think there is no questions that LE is both buying and selling on SR.  The question is are you large enough for them to care about?  My guess is that if they are trying to hunt someone down, it is probably the top sellers making a ton of money and moving massive amounts of product.  There just isn't the funding to go after every small to medium vendor on SR.  They have enough trouble catching the big boys.  It seems like all they can do is wait until they slip up once like receiving moneygrams directly or something like that.

That being said, I think if you stay a medium or small-sized vendor, you keep your stealth up to speed with the latest methods, and are diligent about finding secure and unique drop-offs, using wisely chosen return addresses, and keep your finger prints off everything, you can safely maintain being a successful vendor.  I think one of the keys is to not be greedy.  If you are doing well, be happy with that and don't try to expand faster than you can in a safe way.

Then the best bet once you have a healthy customer base is to go into stealth mode.  This will keep your customer-base limited and will take you out of the SR public eye, and this will certainly be beneficial in avoiding issues and attracting attention.

Best of luck.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: TheKandyShop on June 22, 2013, 01:52 am
They most defiantly would be but there wouldn't be much they can do just because of the masses amounts of mail that comes through the good vendors change up there stealth regularly and packaging.
They could start tracing back similar items but I'm sure there will be tons of mail that gets through the more people ordering the Bette chances for everyone :)
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: fotwentee on June 22, 2013, 02:14 am
The vendors I go through here has good shipping stealth.  I'm impressed how the package looks outside and how it's placed inside.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: catalan on June 22, 2013, 02:16 am
Just wondering if Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors on here?
Almost certainly.

Quote
If they did, you'd think it'd be relatively easy for them to nail down where the "goodies" were being shipped from, and start surveillance of post offices/blue boxes in that area.
I'm not sure about "relatively easy" - it would require a fair bit of resource to backtrack a test purchase through the postal network... whilst they may well invest such resource in trying to track down large-scale vendors, they'd probably be more inclined to invest that resource in trying to shut down SR itself than direct it toward small-scale vendors.  Or perhaps just use intelligence gathered from test purchases to identify (and intercept) future shipments by their packaging.

Quote
Maybe I'm just unduly paranoid?  Reason I ask, is I have a buddy who's interested in starting a vendor account on here, and trying to cover all the bases to stay one or more steps ahead of John Q. Law.
I'm not sure one can ever be TOO paranoid.

Quote
I know driving an hour or two from your home base to drop shipments would be advisable, and changing up the direction N,W,E, S . That you travel to mail packages would be advisable, just wondering if anybody else has any recommendations for minimizing the risk of getting pinched?
If you are going to travel, don't just travel randomly N/W/E/S as you suggest: it wouldn't take too much effort to plot all the mailing locations on a map and notice that they are centered on your actual location.  Far better to choose a false location and deliberately center random mailing locations around that.  But beware of cameras and vehicle tracking etc.  Querying a vehicle database for information on which registration plates have been seen within the vicinity of "these mailing locations" at "these dates and times" is pretty trivial - albeit, again, probably more effort than the average plod-led investigation would invest in trying to track most vendors.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: /I_Surf_Worm_Holes on June 22, 2013, 03:44 am
   I know driving an hour or two from your home base to drop shipments would be advisable, and changing up the direction N,W,E, S . That you travel to mail packages would be advisable...

i have read it here in this forum that it is not advisable to send a package from a zip code that does not match the return address zip code on the package itself.

i.e., why would i drive 47 miles away to send a package? and wtf would i do that on the reg? just sayin.... drawing board.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: TriedItAll on June 22, 2013, 04:39 am
   I know driving an hour or two from your home base to drop shipments would be advisable, and changing up the direction N,W,E, S . That you travel to mail packages would be advisable...

i have read it here in this forum that it is not advisable to send a package from a zip code that does not match the return address zip code on the package itself.

i.e., why would i drive 47 miles away to send a package? and wtf would i do that on the reg? just sayin.... drawing board.

so true, it is really an art form pulling everything off safely, but i think if someone knew how to do it without any risk, they probably wouldn't post it in this forum and would keep it to themselves, am I right?
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: Lorimer on June 22, 2013, 04:59 am
   I know driving an hour or two from your home base to drop shipments would be advisable, and changing up the direction N,W,E, S . That you travel to mail packages would be advisable, just wondering if anybody else has any recommendations for minimizing the risk of getting pinched?

Except that this would increase your risk of getting pinched, or at least of the packages getting pulled for investigation. Discrepancies between return addresses and the zip code a package is sent from are a major red flag.

And yeah, you could use false return addresses in the neighborhood of the area you'd be sending from, but this brings other problems. What happens when the package is returned? It's far better to have a return address that's legitimate and at least somewhat within your control, as any vendor will tell you that buyers do not always give their true names and addresses, which means that packages will get sent back. If it's returned without trouble you've got your drugs back and you've avoided an investigation - no harm, no foul. Putting a false return address on the label means either that the wrong person will open it (and call the police as a result, meaning you'd have to hope your prints aren't on anything inside and that you'll need to avoid that general drop for a year or two), or (at best) that you're out the shipment.

Best way to minimize risk? Be smart and think things through.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: GlenRunciter on June 24, 2013, 12:07 am
Don't overthink all of this.  Remember postal employees have lives too and they mostly just want to finish their damn shift.  I think the biggest risk factor is a funky smell emitting from the package.  Make sure your vendors use Mylar packaging or some sort of sealed packaging. 
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: TriedItAll on June 25, 2013, 12:03 am
Don't overthink all of this.  Remember postal employees have lives too and they mostly just want to finish their damn shift.  I think the biggest risk factor is a funky smell emitting from the package.  Make sure your vendors use Mylar packaging or some sort of sealed packaging.

valid point here
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: GrimWaldo on June 25, 2013, 01:32 am
...sure they do. I've smoked with a cop before.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: Zapdosss on June 25, 2013, 02:49 am
Fresh to SR, but anyone with a brain can agree that this can possibly be the case currently. The world of illegality is so strange.

~Z
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: AmandaBynes on June 25, 2013, 03:15 am
I don't know how LE could successfully pull off a sting operation by posing as a vendor. How would they find the evidence that the person whose address was sent over SR was that SR user in question?

I think it's undoubtedly more likely they would pose as SR purchasers, but even then, there's only so much evidence they could possibly accrue with this method. Post offices pick up mail from dozens, even hundreds, of post boxes. In the one case I've heard of an SR vendor being busted, I believe they were just caught in an unrelated traffic stop.
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: weather420 on June 25, 2013, 03:22 am
Yes.....
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: Choniven on June 25, 2013, 03:25 am
I'm sure they would, but as long as you do everything properly (read up on forum topics) you should be fine
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: noumen0n on June 25, 2013, 04:06 am
LE doesnt have the resources to go after every vendor. The top ones who are moving major bulk are targeted and watched closely. LE isnt going to bother doing a CD on the 1 gram of weed you bought :P
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: TriedItAll on June 26, 2013, 03:08 am
LE doesnt have the resources to go after every vendor. The top ones who are moving major bulk are targeted and watched closely. LE isnt going to bother doing a CD on the 1 gram of weed you bought :P

remarkably good point, not worth the $ it will cost them to try to raid you.  You would need to move at least lbs of weed, or kilos of powders before they would ever think twice about you.  Best to stay under the RADAR
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: gwern on June 26, 2013, 03:27 am
To answer OP: yes. Better yet, it is highly likely they're a vendor already. The Farmer's Market bust was done initially via an agent selling to other Market members, and the recent bust of Casey Jones/Truckin/Hughes (http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=176320.0) is consistent with Hughes having bought from a SR seller. (Hughes is reportedly out on bail, so that raises the interesting question - what vendors did he buy from, paying with ~11btc...?)
Title: Re: Anybody think LE makes purchases from vendors?
Post by: TrustedTrader on June 26, 2013, 04:22 am
I think they know its too difficult. Regardless of the pressure they get to crack down on SR they are most likely still focusing on street crime and more traditional drug busts because they don't want to reinvent the wheel to catch a "bad guy". They are too busy eating donuts to learn about encryption. But take every precaution because the risk is still always present. Just don't be stupid.