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

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121–130 of 332 posts

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

#121
post #118

I get how these market places are used for digital goods (malware, credit cards), but I don’t understand how people can trade physical goods on those. If they have to exchange products, they must either meet in person or use the mail, either is trackable by the authorities. I see how the seller can protect himself for local transactions. He could leave the goods hidden somewhere and tell the buyer where to go. But th…

Post can be sent relatively anonymously. Receiving is problematic but for small amounts of weed most drug users dont care.

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

#122
post #119
post #118

I get how these market places are used for digital goods (malware, credit cards), but I don’t understand how people can trade physical goods on those. If they have to exchange products, they must either meet in person or use the mail, either is trackable by the authorities. I see how the seller can protect himself for local transactions. He could leave the goods hidden somewhere and tell the buyer where to go. But th…

In germany, a common method is using dead-mans package stations from DHL using stolen one-time credentials to pick up the package.

Though if the seller is the police, the buyer is exposed.

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

#123

Anyone suspect this weeks major disruption to the tor network was related to this? 4 days ago: "All v3 Onion addresses unavailable": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25714424 This article says that police called their operation "Operation DisrupTor" in 2019.... edits: https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/tracking-tors-network-wide-v3-... suggests that it wasnt an attack although was written before the news.

I suspected something along these lines when I saw Library Genesis was down two days ago : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25750184 These are weird days.

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

#124

"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.

>but nevertheless it's like they kill at least one of those markets a month.

This isn't the case, it's been a loong time since the last big market takedown. LE takedowns are rare, exit scams are not.

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

#125
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol is a big problem in Germany: 3 million people with alcohol issues and 74,000 yearly deaths.² Weed is considered less of a problem by the scientific community. The logical conclusion: Increase taxes on alcohol and legalize weed. -- ² https://www.dhs.de/suechte/alkohol/zahlen-daten-fakten

From my experience talking to the people whose job it is to provide support and services to those who abuse substances. Most experts in substance abuse normally say Alcohol is the worst of all the substances. With many stating, it causes more havoc in families on scale than heroin. More people die because of Alcohol, not just from drinking it but from drink drivers, drunken fights, etc. The general violence caused by…

But note that all those statement are about the amount of harm in an environment where alcohol is legal, cheaply available in every supermarket, widely advertized, and its consumption socially accepted, even expected.

Can you really say in good conscience that other drugs wouldn't be worse if they became equally ubiquitous?

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

#126
post #119
post #118

I get how these market places are used for digital goods (malware, credit cards), but I don’t understand how people can trade physical goods on those. If they have to exchange products, they must either meet in person or use the mail, either is trackable by the authorities. I see how the seller can protect himself for local transactions. He could leave the goods hidden somewhere and tell the buyer where to go. But th…

In germany, a common method is using dead-mans package stations from DHL using stolen one-time credentials to pick up the package.

If the method is so common, don't people think that maaaybe... it's the police behind it? :D

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

#127
post #83
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The amount sold on these markets is tiny, however they are one of the safest ways to purchase drugs - with reviews, reputation, tests etc. Constantly interfering with the safest ways to buy drugs so people have to instead buy it from a random person in the real world with less guarantees, and more danger to everyone or from an online scammer that just popped up is not good at all. Further, the costs of these LE opera…

> up is not good at all

I think that's the point. As far as I understand their reasoning (although I don't agree with it), is that some people buy drugs when they are easily accessible over the internet, but wouldn't do so if they have to meet risky people in person AFK. Of course, people who want drugs will get drugs, somehow, and if it's safer, that'd be better. But they want people to move into the riskier meat-space as it's easier to keep track on people and eventually arrest them then.

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

#128
post #122
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In germany, a common method is using dead-mans package stations from DHL using stolen one-time credentials to pick up the package.

Though if the seller is the police, the buyer is exposed.

honeypots are not allowed in germany afaik. The police is not allowed to sell drugs or ask people for drugs and then take them in

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

#129

Anyone suspect this weeks major disruption to the tor network was related to this? 4 days ago: "All v3 Onion addresses unavailable": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25714424 This article says that police called their operation "Operation DisrupTor" in 2019.... edits: https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/tracking-tors-network-wide-v3-... suggests that it wasnt an attack although was written before the news.

Nah, the guy running this site was a moron and kept leaking his server IPs.

https://twitter.com/SttyK/status/1349034993893265408

https://twitter.com/5auth/status/1349358474476613633

https://twitter.com/SttyK/status/1349261670477045760

The owners previous identity was known for a long time on Dread (.onion reddit clone)

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

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the same logic. Weed isn't a contagious disease responsible for probably the majority of last year's deaths, and if you overdose on heroin, your neighbours' grandparents won't also die of a heroin overdose. There are plenty of problems with drugs, but that ain't one. Now, banning smoking in public, that I can get behind. I don't want none of that nasty second-hand smoke.

Well, directly there are no negative implications, but indirectly very many. I do not want to finance health insurance for drug addicts, for example. And yes, I agree, also smoking should be banned and the health insurance limited. Sorry, but not sorry for having a conservative stand. You _must_ accept my opinion instead of downvoting... I thought that Pluralism of Opinions is a valued concept in democracies...

Genuinely curious, how old are you? don't want the exact number rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 10 is fine.
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