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AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

justice.gov

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Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#51

Post by xj9 »

s73ver wrote: post #28

Or, you know, just don't do illicit things.

sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use? moral outrage? the sign of a decaying society? untold secondary consequences?

the problem is, people use drugs a lot. the war on drugs hasn't changed that in the least. we may have social issues, but as a "relatively upstanding and taxpaying citizen" who also happens to enjoy certain drugs on occasion, i ask. how exactly is my drug use impairing my ability to function in society? i get up and write software all day, why do you care if i get high when i get home?

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#52

Post by xj9 »

peterwwillis wrote: post #37

They confiscated "millions of dollars" in cryptocurrencies. A similar darkweb site that just got taken down had 2 million euros in cryptocurrency confiscated. The US federal (not state & local) government will spend over 27 Billion dollars in 2018 on the war on drugs. This site was around 11,739 times smaller than that annual budget. The global drug market was estimated at over 350 Billion in 2009, making the site ap…

replace one cartel with another

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#53

Post by omurphy27 »

hackerboos wrote: post #30
Veelox wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a little bit of an exaggeration, there are going to be a lot of people that will get caught and a lot that will get away. The point of the statement is to reduce confidence in dark net markets so they are more likely to fail.

Hansa has already taken AB's place.

Apparently law enforcement seized Hansa a month earlier and were using it as a honeypot: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/07/after-alphabays-demise-c...

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#54

Post by glbrew »

unabridged wrote: post #44
gwicks56 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. In any case involving TOR, I would not dismiss the possibility of parallel construction.

Tor hidden servers with large traffic aren't too hard to find when you can see the entire internet and can shape traffic. I think the future is a reputation network/market built on top of something like ethereum.

Exactly! Nation-state actors can find hidden services! TOR was not built for this type of activity. Why aren't more people mentioning this?

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#55

Post by rankam »

eugeneionesco wrote: post #48
cody8295 wrote: post #9

Condolences to any users/vendors who lost coin because of the takedown. Anybody have info on how the admin was found? Was the method of DDoSing Tor nodes used to force traffic into honeypot'd Tor nodes?

Yeah man, those poor poor vendors who make money on addicted users...

What are your thoughts on alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies that make money from addicted users?

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#57

Post by djmobley »

Miner49er wrote: post #12

"'The so-called anonymity of the dark web is illusory,' said Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg of the DEA." I wonder if this is true, or simply hyperbole. I'm extremely curios on the technical details of this bust. Edit: It appears that some info can be found here https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/982821/downlo... . Look at the section "Alexandre Cazes: Alphabay's Founder and Operator" It looks like t…

He seemed to be pretty careless about flaunting his wealth. These forum postings are referenced in the forfeiture complaint (NSFW):

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...

Interestingly, the forum owner posted last week claiming he had suddenly passed away:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#58

Post by glbrew »

eugeneionesco wrote: post #48
cody8295 wrote: post #9

Condolences to any users/vendors who lost coin because of the takedown. Anybody have info on how the admin was found? Was the method of DDoSing Tor nodes used to force traffic into honeypot'd Tor nodes?

Yeah man, those poor poor vendors who make money on addicted users...

Poor poor vendors who provide safety and reputation protection to addicts who would otherwise be in alleys.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#59

Post by alasdair_ »

Romanulus wrote: post #14
B1narySunset wrote: post #6

This won't stop people who want drugs from buying them. What it'll do is prevent some people from buying them from reputable sellers with positive feedback. Now they might have to find some shady dealer who could be selling them rat poison.

Why is 'selling poison instead of drugs' even a logical scare-tactic? Wouldn't even the shadiest of dealers want to keep their customers/hosts/victims around to, you know, keep bleeding money?

>Wouldn't even the shadiest of dealers want to keep their customers/hosts/victims around to, you know, keep bleeding money?

Not really, no.

For example: spike heroin with fentanyl, user dies, other users flock to that dealer who supposedly has extremely high quality heroin.

This tactic doesn't work as much now that the fentanyl epidemic is widespread and known but it certainly happened in the past.

Also, many dealers are addicts themselves. If they run out of money and need more drugs, what's the chances they will sell some bullshit and claim it's something else? What if they get into some other kind of trouble and need fast cash?

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#60

Post by peterwwillis »

siliconc0w wrote: post #45

You have to think eventually the criminals will evolve proper OPSEC - there is simply too much money to be made. Also, you really should be living in a place with no extradition - Thai police picking you up is a bad place to be. Vietnam is close by and has no extradition - a much better choice for aspiring criminals.

This is overgeneralizing. A lot of criminals have good OPSEC. But then again many don't, possibly because they're not very technically proficient, or they don't fear getting caught, like many other criminals.

Also, often there are very simple solutions to potential problems from bad OPSEC practice. If they had just bribed the local police they could avoid getting caught, or get out easier. Just ask John McAfee!

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