Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: azucker10 on July 07, 2013, 03:36 pm
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So I have been on SR for a little while and I have done multiple purchases. I understand how it all works. Now for my real question is that I have a vendor wanting to do transactions outside of SR and has given me a new Tor Email but no PGP key. They have asked the I communicate through PGP encryption and I know this vendor has been trustworthy over SR in the past. Is this a scam or do they want me to communicate through Tor Mail. I have their old PGP encryption and email but it does not match their new one. HELP PLEASE
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What do you mean by transactions outside of SR? They want you to send payment to a separate bitcoin address, not through the SR escrow system?
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No they want me to work outside or SR completely. They said they dont want to deal with Bitcoins. It says working with money orders to a PO Box and all communication through PGP encryption which i can't do since there is no new public key?
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Ok, then it's worse than I thought.
Here's what's wrong with this situation.
1. Out of escrow transactions are against SR rules, and if you are caught (which you probably will be at this point), you and the vendor will be banned from SR.
2. Using money orders could get you and the vendor identified, at least more easily than using bitcoins and making transactions on SR. If he asks one of his customers to send a money order to a PO box and that customer turns out to be LE, they will probably be able to identify him. In order to get himself a reduced sentence, he could turn over info about you. It's much less safe than using bitcoins for any type of transaction, and using SR, where the transactions don't exist in the block chain.
3. There is no resolution center when you did this. If you send someone a money order and don't get your package, what are you going to do? You're shit out of luck.
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Right I believe that is against SR's terms, which makes sense. I would just use the vendor's SR public key. The vendor obviously has the corresponding private key, so it doesn't really matter where the message originates from.
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Okay thanks. I have yet to contact the vendor out of SR in fear that something like that could happen. I rather find a new vendor to do business with then do something that could compromise myself. Thanks for the help and I will make sure to stay away from this vendor. If the moderators want to PM me and I can give them the vendor name I would be fine with doing that. I don't want to do anything thats going to get me kicked off....SR is awesome and has a great system in place.....now bitcoins just need to follow with all the recent problems
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My advice, it entirely depends on your relationship with the vendor. Some vendors I have done really really large transactions with and wanted to go even larger but SR became more of a limiting factor at that point. If the vendor and the buyer have a good enough relationship there's no reason why they can't expand and treat SR as a ground to connect with long-term reliable connections.
With this said, I have taken relationships with vendors on SR and turned them into real life connects. Some of these vendors which I am now on a first name basis with and frequently travel to their home state and purchase large quantities directly from them/the supplier. SR is what you make it. It is a safe market place and is always advised that you stay in escrow, but there are times when a relationship has opportunity to grow and it is up to the people involved if they want to expand it.