Law Enforcement Seizes Dark Web Market After Moderator Leaks Backend Credentials (zdnet.com) 67
German police, together with Europol and law enforcement agencies from the US, the Netherlands, and France, have seized the servers of a dark web marketplace known as the Wall Street Market, on which users sold illegal products such as drugs, weapons, user credentials, and hacking tools, ZDNet reported Thursday. From the report: The site's seizure comes after a tumultuous two weeks for the Wall Street Market (WSM) and its users, during which the site's administrators have exit-scammed -- ran away with over $14.2 million worth of cryptocurrency from users and vendors' accounts. In this midst of all of this, one of the site's moderators -- named Med3l1n -- began blackmailing WSM vendors and buyers, asking for 0.05 Bitcoin (~$280), and threatening to disclose to law enforcement the details of WSM vendors and buyers who made the mistake of sharing various details in support requests in an unencrypted form. It is unclear if these extortion attempts succeeded, but days later, Med3l1n published the IP address (located in the Netherlands) and login credentials for the WSM backend on Dread, a Reddit-like community for dark web users. The IP address is in the same network range of another IP address that leaked from the Wall Street Market backend two years ago. Further reading: Feds Bust Up Dark Web Hub Wall Street Market.
Shocked, shocked I am! (Score:4, Insightful)
Imagine that, people who are running a black market for illegal items and ways to rip people off end up ripping people off and throwing their users under the bus. Next you'll be telling me that drug dealers don't get FDA approval for their merchandise!
jeez they are getting pretty good at this... (Score:5, Interesting)
To be fair gotta give credit where its due. The feddies are getting pretty good at taking down dark web sites. They probably have a whole division working on it though. I have never completely trusted Tor. Seems too easy to compromise when your adversary has so much money and power. Yes I know they claim this bust was not due to a Tor vulnerability but if they have compromised Tor obviously they can't admit that they have.
As far as the exit scam thing damn those are some evil fucks and I would love to see them spend the rest of their days behind bars. Assuming these allegations are true, they really really deserve it. It's so hard to trust crims these days. No honor among thieves and all that. I think this sort of thing is going to make it a lot harder for dark web sites to build trust in the future. Law enforcement must be celebrating for that reason too. Every time this happens it makes it more and more difficult for any sort of commercial dark web to exist at all.
Re: jeez they are getting pretty good at this... (Score:1)
At least in 2016 they voted against the known felon.
And weird how criminals who run sleazy criminal sites act like sleazy criminals. This is just bizarre! What is the world coming to when a bunch of scumbags cant trust another scumbag?
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Day 820: Any day now, They will haul him across the white house lawn in cuffs!! The AC told me! Any day now!!
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Deutsche Bank is into a lot of shady shit (look for Deutsche Bank Controversy in your favourite search engine) that probably started even before they financed the construction of the concentration camp in Auschwitz.
As a German I'd love to see them go down in flames for all the harm they've done to our own country, the EU, and the world. Of course my personal feelings towards them do not necessarily mean that something was foul in this particular instanc
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Whats the financial plan for a police case that has the planning for finding all users?
If thats all they have to do, then everyone who expected to stay hidden as a dissident should be re thinking the internet.
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Pen, paper, one-time pads.
Re: jeez they are getting pretty good at this... (Score:2)
"what must Communist nations, authoritarian gov and theocracies be doing on the web to track all dissidents?'
The same basic things we're doing to track all our dissidents?
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So start using it for legit traffic. Privacy is a human right.
If YOU let it be mostly used for criminal activity then the freedom activists who depend on it are going to have a harder time fighting their governments.
Here's my shop on Tor: http://kidsweet56b5kfvm.onion/ [kidsweet56b5kfvm.onion]
Lucky if they only go to jail (Score:3)
As far as the exit scam thing damn those are some evil fucks and I would love to see them spend the rest of their days behind bars
That's one of the more optimistic scenarios for these people. Keep in mind they are scamming / ripping off people who sell drugs and people who sell weapons.
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Don't forget that the investigators of Silk Road were convicted of multiple improprieties for their own gain when they had pwnd the system. Didn't prevent the prosecution. Who has the info and access to blackmail on this site during that two weeks?
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As far as the exit scam thing damn those are some evil fucks and I would love to see them spend the rest of their days behind bars.
If it makes you feel any better... these guys have a life expectancy of 2-4 weeks behind bars. Imagine how many millions of dollars some of these large criminal organizations lost- and then imagine their reaction when the people behind it end up getting caught. These poor souls will end up just like the guy behind AlphaBay: found dead in their cells from "suicide".
Not everything is black and white (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not everything is black and white (Score:4, Interesting)
You can't grow enough, modestly, at home, for simple ingestion? An "e-liquid" may be enticing, but the quality control of "illegal stuff bought on the dark web" is notoriously poor.
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"You tone was necessary" - Well at least your name is apt. Yes, you must be new here. You obviously don't know who you're talking to or what about lol. Did ANTIFA call you an idiot lol? What if... they were right? Discuss.
Ahem, FUCKING discuss, you idiot.
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An "e-liquid" may be enticing
Almost completely unrelated. But this reminds me of going past the DO YOU VAPE BRO stores and how a bunch of them all enjoy flying giant banners about their "WE SELL CBD OILS NOW!!!!!" and I always wonder how many people freak out about that. About thinking it's criminal OR that they think they are able to now break the law.
And speaking of growing your own, there was a guy I use to work retail with 10-15 years ago who was telling me he had a secret and to tell no one. The way it came up and how he kept