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German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

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Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#71

Post by AnHonestComment »

justinclift wrote: post #66
malwarebytess wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An idea: much of the time the way dark net vendors are taken down involve the IRS. Did you know that you can legally report illicit income, legally, with ostensibly no negative consequence? >Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity. https://www.irs.gov/…

Be that as it may, the "parallel construction" thing by various agencies make it a hairy prospect. eg "legally" report stuff there, and strangely enough anonymous tips to your local LEO officer would probably happen. ;)

You don’t say what it’s for.

Just making unaccounted income isn’t a crime. In more practical terms, the cops already see your electrical bill/weird mail/strange call pattern/questionable cash transactions from other sources — why add tax evasion as an extra charge?

The world is a rough place; a lot of people overlook mild infractions if you pay them their cut.

The US government is better than par, but they have their own games that go on.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#72

Post by juskrey »

thinkloop wrote: post #2

In theory it is possible to run a bitcoin tor marketplace anonymously, but in practice, given a long enough timeline, mistakes will happen and chances of getting caught approach 100%. I wonder what mistakes were made here.

Yeah, there is a huge asymmetry: a lawbreaker has limited tolerance to errors (one will suffice), a law enforcer has basically unlimited error resource.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#73

Post by grenoire »

de_nied wrote: post #45
Shared404 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The model would be something like User --> VPN --> Tor --> Market Assuming the VPN is trustworthy and you don't connect to Tor without it, the VPN would cover up the fact that you used Tor at all. If you normally use the VPN, but forget it one time, you are now exposed.

A VPN would not cover up the fact that you used Tor at all. Assuming you're actually utilizing SSH through sock proxies and using a VPN, you can still be fingerprinted and tracked. There are already existing databases that have established profiles for various sites. Your ISP can easily see if you're connecting to one of those sites based on the type of data you're sending. Regardless if it's encrypted. On the other…

>I'm not sure why you would ever use a VPN service.

Geolocking. That seems to be the only 'accepted' technical answer.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#74

Post by aunetx »

martin_a wrote: post #70

"the largest market" always reminds me of "Bin Ladens right hand". Obviously the next one becomes the largest, but nevertheless it's like they kill at least one of those markets a month. Probably legalizing weed would stop most of that more effectively than all those police operations after month of preparation.

I guess so, but the problem is that weed is not the only thing that is sold on these markets...

So even if legalising it would make those markets lose profits, they still have a lot of nasty things to sell -- so taking them down is still the best thing to do for the moment, IMHO.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#75

Post by pengaru »

martin_a wrote: post #70

"the largest market" always reminds me of "Bin Ladens right hand". Obviously the next one becomes the largest, but nevertheless it's like they kill at least one of those markets a month. Probably legalizing weed would stop most of that more effectively than all those police operations after month of preparation.

Uhhh... weed is not even close to the most purchased drug via the dark web. Certainly not in plant matter form.

They'd have to legalize all the club/party drugs to make a dent; pills and powders, lsd.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#76

Post by Tenoke »

adenozine wrote: post #67

As more of the "largest darknet marketplace"s are taken down, it kinda becomes less and less impressive whenever some law enforcement agency does it. This one seems to have decent volume by BTC and other crypto, but it's not really anything earth-shattering. In the scheme of things, I don't see there being any major ground made in preventing people from selling dope online. It's nearly trivial to ship it anonymously…

No, they don't prevent people from buying drugs online but they sure make it less safe and more filled with bad actors by interfering with the reputational nature of them.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#78

Post by MrDresden »

ebilgenius wrote: post #27
alasdair_ wrote: post #22

The article mentions the us irs were involved. For a german marketplace run by an Australian. Any idea why?

Looks like the FBI and DEA were involved as well as several other country's police agencies, with Europol acting as coordinator. Lots of money moving across countries means lots of taxes probably not being paid, hence the IRS.

Well the IRS would only have been involved if the money flowed into the US and/or to a US citizen.

They have no jurisdiction abroad

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#79

Post by martin_a »

pengaru wrote: post #75
martin_a wrote: post #70

"the largest market" always reminds me of "Bin Ladens right hand". Obviously the next one becomes the largest, but nevertheless it's like they kill at least one of those markets a month. Probably legalizing weed would stop most of that more effectively than all those police operations after month of preparation.

Uhhh... weed is not even close to the most purchased drug via the dark web. Certainly not in plant matter form. They'd have to legalize all the club/party drugs to make a dent; pills and powders, lsd.

So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly.

As a German, I can, with no problem whatsoever, go into the next supermarket and buy enough alcohol and cigarettes to severly hurt myself. No one gives a shit, probably because the state earns money when I do so.

Either we find (all) drugs bad, or we stop being such liars in regards to this.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#80

Post by TrackerFF »

seibelj wrote: post #23

No matter what anyone says, I believe with every fiber of my being that simple drug dealing is a victimless crime. Free people choose to purchase and consume drugs to their own detriment (benefit). All violence related to the sale of drugs is ancillary to the fact some drugs (but not others - alcohol, marijuana, caffeine for starters) are illegal. https://freeross.org/

The problem with black markets - of pretty much any kind - is that they soon attract most things illegal. A good chunk of the population would probably be OK with them only selling weed, but then you have stolen credit cards, weapons, and what not. And the more unscrupulous the seller is/becomes, the worse it gets.

It's like with small-town drug dealers. Kids seek them to purchase weed, but then after a while the dealer is trying to push other stuff on them.

If anything, the world needs to legalize a lot of drugs, properly regulate them. Keeping things illegal will only result in all things illegal being centralized, and more available to those seeking those markets.

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