Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: LouSpooner on February 01, 2013, 09:45 pm
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Found 1 Feb 2013: clearnet link: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-silk-road-is-showing-cracks
"It always sounded like a hoax, didn't it? Silk Road: an Internet website where you can buy any drug in the world? Yeah, right. But it's real. It was almost two years ago that we first heard about the site, which hosts everything from Adderall to Ketamine, LSD to MDMA and tons and tons of weed. After it started to pick up a ton of press and exposure, we all thought that certainly the Silk Road would get shut down. It's super illegal to sell drugs or even to help people sell drugs. But it didn't. Silk Road survives to this day. However, with the arrival this week of the first conviction of a Silk Road-related crime, you have to wonder if Silk Road's days might be numbered after all."
So, are we doomed? Is it good that the masses think that Silk Road is 50% police and 50% sellers about to be busted?
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Did you read the whole article?
Despite the many layers of anonymity and firewalls involved in the Silk Road experience — encrypted transfers of the anonymous currency Bitcoin, for instance — Howard got caught last summer from the simplest mistake. He had a shitload of drugs sent to his house. Though it's unclear what tipped them off — drug dogs? snitches? some sophisticated cyber crime task force? — police intercepted a number of packages bound for Howard's home, opened them up, and ended up finding a total of 46.9 grams of pure MDMA and 14.5 grams of cocaine.
PGP - USE IT. I don't see where either the Farmer's Market or this guy were using it. This dude may have been, but something else could have tripped him up. International order maybe? Who knows? Don't freak out yet.
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It doesn't say if this guy ordered from an International source, but in my opinion that magnifies the risk ten-fold.
46.9g of MDMA sent through customs, is a sizeable amount to conceal, no matter how good the stealth packaging is.
It also doesn't say if this chap used PGP.
In my view, lazy people who don't take advantage of the precautions available, are asking for trouble. Especially if you get large amounts sent to your own house.
Personally, I only order small amounts from domestic sellers, I filter my bitcoins, and I always encrypt my delivery addresses. Probably the safest way imo.
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First conviction? I would think there would be a lot more than 1 silk road conviction. If not it makes me feel a lot better about using this site haha.
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I have a hard time getting worried reading this when someone is dealing in RL as well. On the street you know 95% of the people who get busted lower in the chain do anything to save their asses. You also never know if he was just plain stupid and told some of those "trusted" few busted folk by which way he was receiving product. We also don't know if packages did not arrive prior to the ones they intercepted and he was being sloppy using the same drop.
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46 grams is not that much mdma...its not even 2 zips....if it was vacuum sealed it would have been about as thick as a magazine.
that wasnt his issue.
he got ratted out
has a big mouth
or ordered 10 packages to his house in the same week under a different name and it looked really weird
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1 person fucking up doesn't affect the security of the entire site. The people who are careful and safe will continue to be just fine.
EVERYONE should be using PGP.
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definitely a case of a vendor getting sloppy. no cracks shown thus far
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Exatly
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From another article on the guy: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/secret-website-harboured-drugs-smorgasbord-court-hears-20130131-2dlw3.html
"Most were sent from the Netherlands; two were from Germany."
I'd say anything coming from the Netherlands would be red flagged automatically. I have no idea what Aussie mail laws are though; can everything coming from the Netherlands just be searched?
"...Howard also viewed a YouTube video and bought from the website after he "put himself out there as a purchaser" and that he had to "prove himself for people to be able to supply him."
I don't know what that all means, but it doesn't sound good.
"...raided Howard's home on July 12..." But "...registered an account with in April until July 17..." So was he out on bond/bail the 12-17th?... still logging on? Why did his registration end the 17th???... it's not like accounts close after 5 days of inactivity.
And from another article: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/01/silk-road-crackdown
"Prosecutor Morgan Brown made it clear that the authorities had a lot of information about Howard from the Silk Road, including access to his profile, which he registered under the name Shadh1 in April 2012. He set up a vendor's account offering up cocaine and speed and saying that he is looking to "branch into more as I get more coin back in my pocket"." So only one account?...
Besides him being obviously a bit sloppy (text messages and all), in reference to LE having access to his SR account:
A) He just told LE
B) His girlfriend told LE (her being all emotional in court etc.)
C) LE busts him, puts a keylogger on his computer, then lets him out on bail (I cant find if he made bail or not)
D) TOR browser was just left open while logged into SR when he was busted (sloppiness)
I don't see how else LE would gain access to his account. Unless they're lying.
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From another article on the guy: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/secret-website-harboured-drugs-smorgasbord-court-hears-20130131-2dlw3.html
"Most were sent from the Netherlands; two were from Germany."
I'd say anything coming from the Netherlands would be red flagged automatically. I have no idea what Aussie mail laws are though; can everything coming from the Netherlands just be searched?
I know people who have had legal packages seized coming from Netherlands. I think those packages are being looked at more closely than others for sure.
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feds going after big fish not that fool tryna get high with his friends. They just made an example out of him. Vendor account = heat bottom line
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From another article on the guy: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/secret-website-harboured-drugs-smorgasbord-court-hears-20130131-2dlw3.html
"Most were sent from the Netherlands; two were from Germany."
I'd say anything coming from the Netherlands would be red flagged automatically. I have no idea what Aussie mail laws are though; can everything coming from the Netherlands just be searched?
"...Howard also viewed a YouTube video and bought from the website after he "put himself out there as a purchaser" and that he had to "prove himself for people to be able to supply him."
I don't know what that all means, but it doesn't sound good.
"...raided Howard's home on July 12..." But "...registered an account with in April until July 17..." So was he out on bond/bail the 12-17th?... still logging on? Why did his registration end the 17th???... it's not like accounts close after 5 days of inactivity.
And from another article: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/01/silk-road-crackdown
"Prosecutor Morgan Brown made it clear that the authorities had a lot of information about Howard from the Silk Road, including access to his profile, which he registered under the name Shadh1 in April 2012. He set up a vendor's account offering up cocaine and speed and saying that he is looking to "branch into more as I get more coin back in my pocket"." So only one account?...
Besides him being obviously a bit sloppy (text messages and all), in reference to LE having access to his SR account:
A) He just told LE
B) His girlfriend told LE (her being all emotional in court etc.)
C) LE busts him, puts a keylogger on his computer, then lets him out on bail (I cant find if he made bail or not)
D) TOR browser was just left open while logged into SR when he was busted (sloppiness)
I don't see how else LE would gain access to his account. Unless they're lying.
Shadh1 was very lax in his security, so much so that actually posted his PGP PRIVATE KEY on his vendor's Homepage as well as his Public Key, for all to see, and despite other members sending him PM's to take it down, he defied their requests saying he knew what he was doing.
Here is a link to read up on it. - http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=31481.msg355706#msg355706
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I hope that all is because he was too confident and careless.
Please follow what you are doing and be careful, look around the corner, if you know what I mean.
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The cops are grandstanding because of a bust that has little to do with them cracking anything about SR. At least that's how it looks from here. I guess it buys some politician some thumbs up and good will from constituents who don't look closely.
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I just figured out PGP this weekend and reading this article I got to say, I feel A WHOLE LOT better SILK ROAD.
As long as you take the right precautions.
No pull out method here, wrap it up twice and give her a morning after.
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I would say that the only cracks are sloppy vendors...
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Seems like a good old case of somebody getting sloppy/unlucky
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I would say that the only cracks are sloppy vendors...
I would mostly agree.
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Hope he didn't have incriminating information about buyers on his computer
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Did you read the whole article?
Despite the many layers of anonymity and firewalls involved in the Silk Road experience — encrypted transfers of the anonymous currency Bitcoin, for instance — Howard got caught last summer from the simplest mistake. He had a shitload of drugs sent to his house. Though it's unclear what tipped them off — drug dogs? snitches? some sophisticated cyber crime task force? — police intercepted a number of packages bound for Howard's home, opened them up, and ended up finding a total of 46.9 grams of pure MDMA and 14.5 grams of cocaine.
PGP - USE IT. I don't see where either the Farmer's Market or this guy were using it. This dude may have been, but something else could have tripped him up. International order maybe? Who knows? Don't freak out yet.
I thought that PGP was only to stop SR from "seeing" addresses transmitted from buyer to seller. That said, I'm going to really try it out now (I was daunted - looked complicated).
Anyway, some things to keep in mind: the guy could've been on a watch list already, he was ordering pretty large amounts, the seller might've not been stealthy, he was browsing through a clearnet browser via proxy... and of course, journalists can be sensationalist dicks. I remember at least once when Vice distorted information. SR is right up their alley, and since it's so mysterious to the average person, you could get away with saying almost anything.
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This article is so stupid.
They have a graph charting the commissions SR makes ... so put 2 and 2 together Vice ... they make thousands a day in a 6% commission and they police have made ONE arrest
Journalism these days, I swear ...