Silk Road forums

Market => Rumor mill => Topic started by: CmdrKeen on September 10, 2013, 01:43 am

Title: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: CmdrKeen on September 10, 2013, 01:43 am
I'm posting this here because it'll get more eyeballs than on the security forums or somewhere else. Moderators, feel free to move it if you need (like you need my permission, haha). But it's a good lesson, and worth making sure people see...

The "Atlantis" links you see popping up in message forums, and even as items up for sale on SR are a scam.

I was stupid enough to attempt to register for an Atlantis account, using the same username/pass I have on SR, not thinking about it. It took all of 30 minutes for my SR account to be compromised, some of my orders cancelled, and about $0.40 btc withdrawn and gone.

Learn from my mistake, and don't use the same info on SR that you do for other sites. It cost me $0.40BTC  to learn this lesson. Hopefully y'all will read this and learn it for free.

Feel free to point and laugh. :(
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: Jack N Hoff on September 10, 2013, 01:46 am
You went to a fake Atlantis phishing website.  Please see the thread about this at the URL below.

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=130446
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: DudeRugs on September 10, 2013, 03:09 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck.. HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam. I have lost WAAAAY more money on SR than I have lost on Atalntis(so far zero BTC lost) and I dont call SR a scam. You have to be careful no matter what site you are using. Even BlackMarketReloaded is a place I used to use frequently. I am happy to see the competition because it will only end up benefiting the users when its all said and done. I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: P2P on September 10, 2013, 03:25 am
I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude

Mr. Rugs,

Applause on your waiting a reasonable time interval before returning, but a member like myself does not forget a member like yourself.
Welcome back, sir.

Sincerely,
P2P
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: fuckingACE on September 10, 2013, 03:34 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck.. HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam. I have lost WAAAAY more money on SR than I have lost on Atalntis(so far zero BTC lost) and I dont call SR a scam. You have to be careful no matter what site you are using. Even BlackMarketReloaded is a place I used to use frequently. I am happy to see the competition because it will only end up benefiting the users when its all said and done. I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude
The link being a phish attempt aside, I would like to know why out of all the other black market sites, Atlantis is singularly always the one to be called out as a scam or LE honeypot.. Possibly old rumors by now, I havn´t been keeping up, but out of all of the other sites I´ve never seen one consistently get the same accusations over and over again..
ACE
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: CabinBoyNathanial on September 10, 2013, 03:43 am
Just to add here, phish or not (I know it was one, I saw the links for days), you should never use the same login and pass on more than one site. ESPECIALLY when there is possible money loss at hand.

It may be easier and more convenient to have the same info, but as you can see, not such a great idea in action.
It is easier to remember a passPHRASE than trying to remember multiple difficult passWORDS.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: Jack N Hoff on September 10, 2013, 03:48 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck.. HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam. I have lost WAAAAY more money on SR than I have lost on Atalntis(so far zero BTC lost) and I dont call SR a scam. You have to be careful no matter what site you are using. Even BlackMarketReloaded is a place I used to use frequently. I am happy to see the competition because it will only end up benefiting the users when its all said and done. I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude
The link being a phish attempt aside, I would like to know why out of all the other black market sites, Atlantis is singularly always the one to be called out as a scam or LE honeypot.. Possibly old rumors by now, I havn´t been keeping up, but out of all of the other sites I´ve never seen one consistently get the same accusations over and over again..
ACE

You know how it is.  Someone says something and all the lemmings repeat it over and over as a certified fact. ::)  It happens A LOT on this forum and everywhere in life in general.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: convergedlight on September 10, 2013, 04:09 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck.. HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam. I have lost WAAAAY more money on SR than I have lost on Atalntis(so far zero BTC lost) and I dont call SR a scam. You have to be careful no matter what site you are using. Even BlackMarketReloaded is a place I used to use frequently. I am happy to see the competition because it will only end up benefiting the users when its all said and done. I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude
The link being a phish attempt aside, I would like to know why out of all the other black market sites, Atlantis is singularly always the one to be called out as a scam or LE honeypot.. Possibly old rumors by now, I havn´t been keeping up, but out of all of the other sites I´ve never seen one consistently get the same accusations over and over again..
ACE

If SR is the biggest black market site, and Atlantis the second biggest, it stands to reason the scammers will try to scam the largest audience (SR members) using the 2nd most attractive market as bait.  They can't use SR links as bait because the SR users already have the correct URL for SR.  It's just a numbers game and that is probably the most profitable configuration of parts for this scam.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: CmdrKeen on September 10, 2013, 04:36 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck..

Luck nothing. I was plain stupid.

Quote
HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam.
<snip!>

Obviously not knowing the "real" Atlantis URL (how can you tell the good from the bad?) I can't confirm or deny this.  However, I do believe that competition is good, and I'm all for it. The lower the vendor fees, the cheaper my drugs are.

And I _LOVE_ cheap drugs. :)

I just wish that there was a better way of getting the _RIGHT_ info out and combating this kind of thing. Unfortunately, this kind of thing isn't just a problem "down here", but it's  a problem on the clear web as well, and the only way to combat it is with edu-mah-cation.  ;)

I wasn't smart enough to double check, thinking that having "atlantis" in the URL was good enough.

Regardless - I hope that my experience is enough to enlighten some folks and make sure they double check the sites they are visiting, but more importantly that you're using unique username/pass combinations between the various sites  (BMR, SR, ATL and whatever else pops up down the line...)


Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: convergedlight on September 10, 2013, 04:46 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck..

Luck nothing. I was plain stupid.

Quote
HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam.
<snip!>

Obviously not knowing the "real" Atlantis URL (how can you tell the good from the bad?) I can't confirm or deny this.  However, I do believe that competition is good, and I'm all for it. The lower the vendor fees, the cheaper my drugs are.

And I _LOVE_ cheap drugs. :)

I just wish that there was a better way of getting the _RIGHT_ info out and combating this kind of thing. Unfortunately, this kind of thing isn't just a problem "down here", but it's  a problem on the clear web as well, and the only way to combat it is with edu-mah-cation.  ;)

I wasn't smart enough to double check, thinking that having "atlantis" in the URL was good enough.

Regardless - I hope that my experience is enough to enlighten some folks and make sure they double check the sites they are visiting, but more importantly that you're using unique username/pass combinations between the various sites  (BMR, SR, ATL and whatever else pops up down the line...)

The real URL is [CENSORED: scam link]rky4es5q.onion/.  Any other Atlantis URL is fake AFIAK.  The Atlantis forums URL is http://atlmlxbk2mbupwgr.onion/.  I tried it out but I never liked that they encourage you to let their website do the PGP encryption for you.  Seems a lot less secure if you go that route (yeah, you don't have to, but the site kind of gears you toward that).

HAH!  The scam filter even catches the real URL.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on September 10, 2013, 05:34 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck.. HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam. I have lost WAAAAY more money on SR than I have lost on Atalntis(so far zero BTC lost) and I dont call SR a scam. You have to be careful no matter what site you are using. Even BlackMarketReloaded is a place I used to use frequently. I am happy to see the competition because it will only end up benefiting the users when its all said and done. I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude
The link being a phish attempt aside, I would like to know why out of all the other black market sites, Atlantis is singularly always the one to be called out as a scam or LE honeypot.. Possibly old rumors by now, I havn´t been keeping up, but out of all of the other sites I´ve never seen one consistently get the same accusations over and over again..
ACE

You know how it is.  Someone says something and all the lemmings repeat it over and over as a certified fact. ::)  It happens A LOT on this forum and everywhere in life in general.

I don't think it helps their cause much when the scam phishing links also create an account on the real Atlantis site. I'm not 100% sure how that is possible but anyway you get my point.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: convergedlight on September 10, 2013, 05:47 am
Not laughing and sorry to hear about your luck.. HOWEVER, Atlantis is not a scam site. You were phished and some scammers caught you. As someone who uses SR and Atlantis it is frustrating to hear people calling Atlantis a scam. I have lost WAAAAY more money on SR than I have lost on Atalntis(so far zero BTC lost) and I dont call SR a scam. You have to be careful no matter what site you are using. Even BlackMarketReloaded is a place I used to use frequently. I am happy to see the competition because it will only end up benefiting the users when its all said and done. I have been with SR for close to 3 years now and a little competition is not going to stop this place. It is also nice to have an alternate place to browse or whatever for when one of the markets is experiencing down time(which they all do).

my 2 btc...

TheDude
The link being a phish attempt aside, I would like to know why out of all the other black market sites, Atlantis is singularly always the one to be called out as a scam or LE honeypot.. Possibly old rumors by now, I havn´t been keeping up, but out of all of the other sites I´ve never seen one consistently get the same accusations over and over again..
ACE

You know how it is.  Someone says something and all the lemmings repeat it over and over as a certified fact. ::)  It happens A LOT on this forum and everywhere in life in general.

I don't think it helps their cause much when the scam phishing links also create an account of the real Atlantis site. I'm not 100% sure that is possible but anyway you get my point.

I think the scam sites are not full duplicates; they are just transparent man-in-the-middle proxies so they will let you create an account as normal at the real site but save all the credentials you provide.  I think Atlantis was trying to combat this by trying to detect the proxies and adding warnings like "if this address is not such and such you're at phishing site", but it didn't work because I saw some phishing links after that time and the phishing sites just modified that warning message to match their phishing url.  It's obvious Atlantis won't gain much credibility unless they come up with a more effective way to prevent all the phishing links.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: JohnTheBaptist on September 10, 2013, 10:59 am
I'm posting this here because it'll get more eyeballs than on the security forums or somewhere else. Moderators, feel free to move it if you need (like you need my permission, haha). But it's a good lesson, and worth making sure people see...

The "Atlantis" links you see popping up in message forums, and even as items up for sale on SR are a scam.

I was stupid enough to attempt to register for an Atlantis account, using the same username/pass I have on SR, not thinking about it. It took all of 30 minutes for my SR account to be compromised, some of my orders cancelled, and about $0.40 btc withdrawn and gone.

Learn from my mistake, and don't use the same info on SR that you do for other sites. It cost me $0.40BTC  to learn this lesson. Hopefully y'all will read this and learn it for free.

Feel free to point and laugh. :(
30 mins, that's slow. Just a question, why didn't you just change one letter and try and use your imagination. Or just search the numerous threads about naive people like your self bemoaning the phishing link? If you can't be bothered taking care of your own security, you will find many people will.
Reminds me of an old Nigerian folklore tale; 
There are many people with lots of money and no brains....there are many people with lots of brains and no money....surely the people with no brains and lots of money...were made for the people with lots of brains and no money...gist being, if you're clever enough to make a scam work, you should be entitled to keep the spoils....but in your case they never even had to try...

Take it by the Y'all shout you're a redneck hick brainless trailor trash...no offence
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: AussieMitch on September 10, 2013, 11:46 am
Atlantis is not a scam, I've spent over 50K there and haven't been ripped off once, although I find their BTC prices are slightly lower than here. If you got ripped off it's because you put your SR details into a phishing link, you should always use completely different usernames and passwords for any site that handles your money.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: cirrus on September 10, 2013, 12:29 pm
It's amazing how many people not only fall for the Atlantis phishing scams, but who also use and share the same usernames and passwords for atlantis as they do with Silk Road.

Given that this entire system is set up through TOR and bitcoins which keeps it at least one step away from the public internet - it amazes me that people are still not following basic security steps to keep themselves safe.

Reusing passwords and usernames on two competing hidden drug-selling websites is almost as bad as responding to Nigerian princes through email with your bank account information.  Both appear on face value to be common sense, yet sadly enough some people still become victims.  It's YOUR responsibility, and yours alone to keep yourself safe while navigating through here.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: convergedlight on September 10, 2013, 05:21 pm
It's amazing how many people not only fall for the Atlantis phishing scams, but who also use and share the same usernames and passwords for atlantis as they do with Silk Road.

Given that this entire system is set up through TOR and bitcoins which keeps it at least one step away from the public internet - it amazes me that people are still not following basic security steps to keep themselves safe.

Reusing passwords and usernames on two competing hidden drug-selling websites is almost as bad as responding to Nigerian princes through email with your bank account information.  Both appear on face value to be common sense, yet sadly enough some people still become victims.  It's YOUR responsibility, and yours alone to keep yourself safe while navigating through here.

This is absolutely true.  Reusing usernames and passwords is a faux paux even on reputable clearnet sites.  For sites like this it's just a matter of time until you lose your coins if you do so.  Even if you are not phished, sites get hacked all the time, and all it takes is one of them to have their hashes cracked, or to store the passwords poorly, or even to store them well, but once the site is hacked it's modified to start saving the credentials at time of login.  You should never trust other people's websites to secure your info.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: heisenberg2.0 on September 10, 2013, 06:28 pm
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I think the scam sites are not full duplicates; they are just transparent man-in-the-middle proxies so they will let you create an account as normal at the real site but save all the credentials you provide.  I think Atlantis was trying to combat this by trying to detect the proxies and adding warnings like "if this address is not such and such you're at phishing site", but it didn't work because I saw some phishing links after that time and the phishing sites just modified that warning message to match their phishing url.  It's obvious Atlantis won't gain much credibility unless they come up with a more effective way to prevent all the phishing links.

You are totally correct in the first part of your post. We had a method for detecting the proxy but it's pretty much a game of whack-a-mole where as soon as we block the site one way the scammers find a workaround.

Unfortunately where these links appear most frequently is here on SR forums where we have no power to remove them and up until recently it seemed SR was happy to turn a blind eye or least only deleted them on my request. I contacted DPR to inform him SR users were loosing their funds to this scam and that a "bipartisan" response would be better for both sites long term.

Thankfully since then most of my recommendations such as the profanity/blacklist filter being updated to include possible concatenations of the phishing url have been implemented (Even though they seem to have censor the real url as well "[CENSORED: scam link]rky4es5q.onion")

- From what I have seen the links being posted in he newbie section have all but disappeared  and I commend the SR road mods for taking on my recommendations but I have to wonder in this case where did the OP find the fake link so that we can close one more door to the scammers.

Regards
H2.0

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Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: ProudCannabian on September 10, 2013, 06:57 pm
The vilification of Atlantis is easy to understand if you've been here awhile.
When they arrived it coincided with an attack on SR.  The forums had several accounts spring up to tell everyone about this "SR Killer" website, and all the vendors were offered deals to join.  Couple that with the oddity of providing a "verified vendor" service, and in-place encryption that offered to take care of encryption for you, made it all look more than a little fishy.

Really I think they've been a little too aggressive on the marketing front, and that makes them an easy target for people who think they're aggressive in other ways as well.

I won't use them simply due to the timing of their emergence and my loyalties, but that's not to say they aren't as safe as here or BMR.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: JohnTheBaptist on September 11, 2013, 10:59 am
It's amazing how many people not only fall for the Atlantis phishing scams, but who also use and share the same usernames and passwords for atlantis as they do with Silk Road.

Given that this entire system is set up through TOR and bitcoins which keeps it at least one step away from the public internet - it amazes me that people are still not following basic security steps to keep themselves safe.

Reusing passwords and usernames on two competing hidden drug-selling websites is almost as bad as responding to Nigerian princes through email with your bank account information.  Both appear on face value to be common sense, yet sadly enough some people still become victims.  It's YOUR responsibility, and yours alone to keep yourself safe while navigating through here.

This is absolutely true.  Reusing usernames and passwords is a faux paux even on reputable clearnet sites.  For sites like this it's just a matter of time until you lose your coins if you do so.  Even if you are not phished, sites get hacked all the time, and all it takes is one of them to have their hashes cracked, or to store the passwords poorly, or even to store them well, but once the site is hacked it's modified to start saving the credentials at time of login.  You should never trust other people's websites to secure your info.
Yes we know cirrus has just told us. So why are you copying his post?
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: convergedlight on September 11, 2013, 09:32 pm
It's amazing how many people not only fall for the Atlantis phishing scams, but who also use and share the same usernames and passwords for atlantis as they do with Silk Road.

Given that this entire system is set up through TOR and bitcoins which keeps it at least one step away from the public internet - it amazes me that people are still not following basic security steps to keep themselves safe.

Reusing passwords and usernames on two competing hidden drug-selling websites is almost as bad as responding to Nigerian princes through email with your bank account information.  Both appear on face value to be common sense, yet sadly enough some people still become victims.  It's YOUR responsibility, and yours alone to keep yourself safe while navigating through here.

This is absolutely true.  Reusing usernames and passwords is a faux paux even on reputable clearnet sites.  For sites like this it's just a matter of time until you lose your coins if you do so.  Even if you are not phished, sites get hacked all the time, and all it takes is one of them to have their hashes cracked, or to store the passwords poorly, or even to store them well, but once the site is hacked it's modified to start saving the credentials at time of login.  You should never trust other people's websites to secure your info.
Yes we know cirrus has just told us. So why are you copying his post?

The second part of the post I replied to only said not to reuse passwords on two drug-related sites.  I explained that it shouldn't be done even on clearnet and explained exactly why, which I'm sure many users don't fully understand the risks of.  You're saying I shouldn't try to help educate any users that didn't know that?  Users using dictionary-based passwords, and reusing them across all kinds of sites, not just black market sites, is quite an epidemic and it seemed like an appropriate place to mention it.  Sorry if it sounded like I was repeating the previous post.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: JohnTheBaptist on September 12, 2013, 10:02 am
Its fine you were just re-iterating what Cirrus said.
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: 88fxstc on September 12, 2013, 06:29 pm
It's amazing how many people not only fall for the Atlantis phishing scams, but who also use and share the same usernames and passwords for atlantis as they do with Silk Road.

Given that this entire system is set up through TOR and bitcoins which keeps it at least one step away from the public internet - it amazes me that people are still not following basic security steps to keep themselves safe.

Reusing passwords and usernames on two competing hidden drug-selling websites is almost as bad as responding to Nigerian princes through email with your bank account information.  Both appear on face value to be common sense, yet sadly enough some people still become victims.  It's YOUR responsibility, and yours alone to keep yourself safe while navigating through here.

Your wrong, it just can't be true....My new Nigerian princess, the beautiful Nanatagabooboo, is real I tell ya, she's REAL. And, she sent me pictures and she is  an  absolutely beautiful pilre of brown sugar. Thats why I had no problem loaning her $30,000 two years ago. She promised she'd pay it back and you just don't rush royalty. I'll get my money, and my woman any day now.   ::)
Title: Re: "Atlantis"is a scam. Be CAREFUL folks!
Post by: newbottles on September 14, 2013, 03:54 am
I agree that legit competition for SR is a good thing.  For those who use Atlantis, can you summarize the positive/negative aspects relative to SR?