Silk Road forums
Market => Rumor mill => Topic started by: Gigles on May 07, 2012, 12:07 pm
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The last two weeks have been pretty crazy for this place. I personally got burned for $600 from Tony, and an order canceled by USD.
The activity in the Rumor Mill, and the explosion of conspiracy theory spouting troll accounts (TBBSecurity and eeee come to mind, but there seem to be dozens of them), has been pretty unprecedented.
At this point is it a safe assumption to make that some type(s) of LEO organization is actively trying to take down Silk Road by creating havoc and paranoia on this forum? This might have been a planned attack, or they might have simply jumped on the opportunity created by the paranoia and confusion post Tony/Noriega scam fallout.
The only other logical reason I can see for this seemingly relentless barrage of paranoia-inducing and conspiracy-touting trolling is that some sort of Silk Road competitor (Black Market Reloaded? idk) is trying to crack SR's current dominance.
In my opinion DPR and SR administrators need to make a significant public announcement. They need to let us know if they (and I would guess they do) have any special insight into the scams and pronounced trolling incidents of the last two weeks. I have faith in Silk Road's longevity, I just think it would help the community out if the administrators would be more communicative about what exactly has happened / is happening (in their assessment), and what they are doing about it. And what we can do about it.
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Just wanted to re-post this thoughtful and detailed assessment of the events of last few weeks, by the great and long-lasting vendor Anarcho47. Hope it helps some people catch up to speed (it can be very difficult to follow everything that's been going down here recently).
"My guess is most of this will be settled off within a week or two and the community will just live with its scars. Hopefully the insane amount of trolling that has been going off dies along with it.
Tony will still be either a scammer or busted (with what's going on in the H scene locally out in Vancouver right now, my guess is that his connect probably planned to fuck off and he just said "fuck it" and ran with everyone's money - there have been bodies up that way recently over H and some serious shake-up of which groups get to move things). He could have been busted, but milking out his cash advance and putting SPR mid-high four-figures out of pocket, as well as migrating a buyer base off-site to his own private store and then shutting it down after tens of thousands in orders ran through don't stack up well for the busted case.
TheRealUSDirect will end up being a scammer or guy-whose-idiocy-burnt-buyers as well. He's shielded himself with his fan-base (those who received samples or the prelim product to build cred) by attacking one of the most reputable people/moderator on the entire Road (Nomad), claiming he was hacked and his coins stolen. The holes in his story are unfortunately gaping as it's one thing to phish a password but entirely another to get your hands on a PIN (which is also required to change the autowithdrawal address). The BTC amounts claimed to have been stolen don't check up either, as he's claiming $3400 was stolen by NB but people checking up are seeing less than half that hitting the donation address. Not to mention that it's impossible to actually prove those coins were sent without getting the transaction log from the account page and posting the amount and receiving address, which cannot be done and only DPR could release it (which would violate security).
To further place a close-range buckshot wound in his story, the items he marked shipped many days before he was "hacked" weren't actually shipped and he's been refunding his in-escrow stuff. I've had FE sheet buyers messaging me non-stop because I've been following and commenting on that thread, and they are telling me that they haven't received a refund. He's using a tormail addy with a brand new PGP key and I'm advising anyone and everyone to stay the fuck away from that because if you are a sheet buyer it's suddenly worth LE's time to come knocking once they've got your shipping information.
I don't think USD intentionally started out meaning to scam anyone, but what I do think is that he pre-sold a batch or two out and his connect fell through or shorted, in turn leaving customers flapping in the wind and out of pocket. In escrow buyers will likely get a full or partial refund (nothing to lose if he didn't ship what he said he shipped, right?), but FE's are going to be really hit and miss. And this is a best case. Deep down I think it was just a scam that didn't milk enough for him so he's trying to backpedal and keep his seller status.
Noriega also turned out to be one-who-is-without-testicles. Stay away.
After all of this, I'm still kicking. I was here long before any of these idiots showed up to try out selling on the road (which you have to treat like a fucking career if you want to do it right), and I will be here long after the their bullshit has dried out and blown away in the wind. There are some of us good dinosaurs left, but you have to look hard, and if you have any doubts don't FE (for me, included, even though i'm holding to my very long-standing policy on buyer stats).
We'll make it out the other side. Just have to let the trolls eat themselves and the gaping wounds heal up and scar over. Time. The great healer."
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DPR should say that the tony situation was a scam and is a great example of why not to finalize early. As for or the trolls they well could be LE.
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hahaha! tit would be a funny method if they were trying to bring the road down by trolling.
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The market will sort itself out as it always has.
These are minor hiccups.
SR/DPR has done more than his due diligence in warning people... Its right on every order confirmation page.
People need to start taking personal responsibility for their own educated voluntary actions.
As to the LE causing a rukkus, ignore it. Problem solved. If they dont post a link to the news articles of SR people getting busted, it didnt happen.
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I believe some of the trolls are LE, i received a couple of personal threats from tbbsecurity about how im gonna get busted and such. plus no one has the time to make 5 new accounts a day and post constantly with each account.
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plus no one has the time to make 5 new accounts a day and post constantly with each account.
This. You have to think of the motivation for this huge amount of trolling.. Only potential suspects I can think of are LEOs, rival onion websites, and psychopaths. Although these forums have definitely seen a few of the latter, the first option seems the most likely.
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i think so too, plus tbb was encouraging people to go to the police to turn vendors in. some people were actually considering doing it.
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i think so too, plus tbb was encouraging people to go to the police to turn vendors in. some people were actually considering doing it.
How could they turn the vendors in, even if they wanted to?
V.
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they were telling people to reveal how they paid the vendor or some shit like that. wasn't really taking the trolls too seriously.
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i like to think the government doesnt troll forums. I think if it was feds doing the crap on the forum it would be alittle more believeable and a little less immature. More then likely most of the retards that have sprung up are moonbear. I think the tony thing has pissed off alot of people and some of which were certainly drug addicted kids which has led to large amounts of trolling. little kids think since tony fucked them up they are allowed to fuck everything else up. I think most people who followed the H thread on here must have realized all the kids who had become hooked on H and they need somewhere to direct their anger so have turned on the forum.
If you were on the forum right after the tony thing you saw the huge amount of butt hurt kids trolling the forum. they certainly were not feds. Now that its been awhile only the real crazy trolls have lasted. Soon enough they will be gone too. just got to wait it out and ignore them.
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TBB was openly asking a vendor in one thread for the addresses of any buyers who scammed him.
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well that makes alot of sense. now u're gonna get some negative karma for pointing that out :)
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The holes in his story are unfortunately gaping as it's one thing to phish a password but entirely another to get your hands on a PIN (which is also required to change the autowithdrawal address).
I just want to reiterate that a keylogger could easily snatch USD's PIN. We have the silk road address pretty down pat so phishing is actually less likely than a keylogger. So if USD's account was compromised there's no doubt that his PIN was as well. (That's an if.)
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Look folks, like it or not LE is here and will remain here. They have no problems making account after account after account after account. They get paid well for it from our oppressors. You will see more and more trolling, because that is all they CAN do. Social engineering and psychological warfare. Grow the fuck up and ignore them.
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Has anyone ever seen any of these troll accounts post outside business hours? Off the clock?
They way they have their enforcers trained, you can bet a lot of them happily do this off the clock too out of pure pleasure and loyalty.
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*walks into thread and drops a box full of tinfoil hats on the ground*
GUYS!! GUYS!!! What if all the drugs on here are being bought up by LEO??!?!?! What if everyone who says they get drugs here are actually cops and the cops are buying it to make sure none of us have a fun weekend?!!?!?!
*deletes hard drive, burns down house*
Btw, does anyone know the hidden url to the tactical nukes that are for sale on the Armory's board? I bought a few last week, but I lost the url. (god damn auto erase history)
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Most people do not even use the forum so if they are they are going about it the wrong way :)
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The most effective strategy LE could use would be to scam people.
This would not only harvest addresses (folks buying larger amounts could face distribution charges) and also destroy confidence in the system here at SR.
Trolling will not accomplish much.
Anyone consider T76 was LE?
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*walks into thread and drops a box full of tinfoil hats on the ground*
GUYS!! GUYS!!! What if all the drugs on here are being bought up by LEO??!?!?! What if everyone who says they get drugs here are actually cops and the cops are buying it to make sure none of us have a fun weekend?!!?!?!
*deletes hard drive, burns down house*
Btw, does anyone know the hidden url to the tactical nukes that are for sale on the Armory's board? I bought a few last week, but I lost the url. (god damn auto erase history)
nice one !!! 8) ;)
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Look folks, like it or not LE is here and will remain here. They have no problems making account after account after account after account. They get paid well for it from our oppressors. You will see more and more trolling, because that is all they CAN do. Social engineering and psychological warfare. Grow the fuck up and ignore them.
+1
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No, I don't think its LE.
LE operate methodically, carefully, and with calculation.
They gather evidence slowly, remember they are trying to get convictions in a court of law. They build their case, they glean info as much as they can, and they get more and more evidence and try to build a picture of the network as a whole.
Then when they feel it is time and they have enough evidence, they strike at once, brutally.
They wouldn't fuck around trolling a few threads on the forums.
As you rightly said, that is the business of psychopaths.
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i like to think the government doesnt troll forums. I think if it was feds doing the crap on the forum it would be alittle more believeable and a little less immature. More then likely most of the retards that have sprung up are moonbear. I think the tony thing has pissed off alot of people and some of which were certainly drug addicted kids which has led to large amounts of trolling. little kids think since tony fucked them up they are allowed to fuck everything else up. I think most people who followed the H thread on here must have realized all the kids who had become hooked on H and they need somewhere to direct their anger so have turned on the forum.
If you were on the forum right after the tony thing you saw the huge amount of butt hurt kids trolling the forum. they certainly were not feds. Now that its been awhile only the real crazy trolls have lasted. Soon enough they will be gone too. just got to wait it out and ignore them.
+1
Feds know how to fucking spell! And have some sort of understanding of the English language.
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The coke and mdma I got from him kind of sucked, but I understand it didn't always suck. Not to mention all the H he's sold over the seven months he was a vendor here during his ascent to the number one position on the road...
7 months? more like 3... do you know something we don't? *dons the foil hat*
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No, I don't think its LE.
LE operate methodically, carefully, and with calculation.
They gather evidence slowly, remember they are trying to get convictions in a court of law. They build their case, they glean info as much as they can, and they get more and more evidence and try to build a picture of the network as a whole.
Then when they feel it is time and they have enough evidence, they strike at once, brutally.
They wouldn't fuck around trolling a few threads on the forums.
As you rightly said, that is the business of psychopaths.
Yes. Pychopaths and addicts going through H withdrawal. LE? Not so much for the reasons mentioned.
LE would want you to be confident in SR. They know confidence breeds carelessness. And when they have enough evidence, then they would pounce. That would do far, far more damage to SR that stupid obvious trolling could ever do. They wouldn't waste their time trolling in such a hilarious manner. They know that the majority wouldn't be deterred by the trolling and mostly because the majority don't use or even read the forums. And once a troll is exposed (not a hard thing to do) anything they say is discredited by virtue of their troll-hood.
Though, it is odd that a lot of vendors are out of stock or on vacation. Could just be that time of year.
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*deletes hard drive, burns down house*
+1
Even with high burn accelerants you never know what will survive the fire. Clean/sterilize the entire house including the computer before burning.