Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: gortexmethod on April 11, 2013, 06:20 pm

Title: Did I get scammed by americanbitcoins@tormail.org
Post by: gortexmethod on April 11, 2013, 06:20 pm
I am new to silk road I really wanna make some purchases but I cant figure out how to get bitcoins in my silk road account I came across an ad for americanbitcoins@tormail.org that you can purchase bitcoins from them and they will put them in your account. They asked for my silk road name and sent me info to go to bank of america and do an out of state deposit the company was called LocalTill, LLC. I did that this morning I made a 60 deposit and there was a $2.39 processing free total of $62.39. I have email them serval times now today with no response has anyone had any experiences with them did I get scammed? I am new to this
Title: Re: Did I get scammed by americanbitcoins@tormail.org
Post by: YetAnotherWhiteGuy on April 11, 2013, 06:38 pm
Just for curiosity, I googled "Americanbitcoins" and got nothing. Tormail is total anonymous email.

This screams you got scammed.

LocalTill is what I ran into with Bitfloor.com, so I think you just gave someone else money who has a bitfloor account, and he got his own bitcoins.
Title: Re: Did I get scammed by americanbitcoins@tormail.org
Post by: pine on April 11, 2013, 07:18 pm
Yes, you got scammed. With bitcoin and SR you've got to do your due diligence or you'll make mistakes you'll regret later.

FYI: You should be either:

A: Using OTC exchangers with good reputations to turn cash into bitcoin. e.g. local bitcoins, bitcoin-otc and others like them.
B: Buying bitcoin on a normal exchange and then using a BTC laundering mechanism so they are unlinkable.

The best thing is to do both, although not everybody will feel it's worth it due to the time/money costs. If you buy bitcoin in cash OTC and then put it through a BTC laundering process it is stratospherically unlikely that your SR purchase will be linked to you via bitcoin.


1. Buying from random people without reputations is a bad idea.
2. Buying from an exchange like MtGox and spending it on SR therefore potentially linking your identity to a bitcoin -> SR purchase is a bad idea. Then you're just making life about a billion times easier for the federal government.

The important thing is to understand Bitcoin can trivially be traced. It's not inherently anonymously, it's anonymous if you use it correctly. Same deal as with PGP really.
Title: Re: Did I get scammed by americanbitcoins@tormail.org
Post by: YetAnotherWhiteGuy on April 11, 2013, 07:50 pm
I think I already have a laundering system, but it can't have something better.

So far I have my wallet that gets bitcoins from mining & purchases.

Then, I have another computer that sits idle 99% of the time that is logged in with TorGuard, IP# with another country. A new wallet was created on this computer while it was 100% connected with Torguard, in hopes that the IP# will never be connected to my home. Once the wallet was done being set up, wallet is closed.

Plan was to just send the bitcoins from the main wallet into this TorGuarded wallet, fire up that computer when ready, open that wallet up (wait quite a while for it to sync), and then shoot those bitcoins to SR.

You have a great guide in your link about PGP email. Now I need to research of there's anything better for my idea of the spare computer wallet.
Title: Re: Did I get scammed by americanbitcoins@tormail.org
Post by: pine on April 12, 2013, 01:47 am
I think I already have a laundering system, but it can't have something better.

So far I have my wallet that gets bitcoins from mining & purchases.

Then, I have another computer that sits idle 99% of the time that is logged in with TorGuard, IP# with another country. A new wallet was created on this computer while it was 100% connected with Torguard, in hopes that the IP# will never be connected to my home. Once the wallet was done being set up, wallet is closed.

Plan was to just send the bitcoins from the main wallet into this TorGuarded wallet, fire up that computer when ready, open that wallet up (wait quite a while for it to sync), and then shoot those bitcoins to SR.

You have a great guide in your link about PGP email. Now I need to research of there's anything better for my idea of the spare computer wallet.

The trouble is that there's about as much misinformation out there about bitcoin and anonymity as legitimate information. It'd be good to create a proper rigorously researched tutorial on the subject, but it's quite a bit of work to do that and still seem lucid, especially with the frequency of useful bitcoin services popping up or evaporating into the ether. I mean I mention bitcoin laundering, but obviously a 3rd party could easily be Feds, or have a flaw in their algorithms, thus potentially making bitcoins linkable if you were posting your bitcoin addresses willy nilly without using PGP to protect them. A good percentage of people's anonymous bitcoin practices are actually pseduoanoymous if certain assumptions are violated. That's why I used to recommend physical (cash -> bitcoin, bitcoin -> cash) as well as virtual anonymity (untraceable on the block chain) to sever both links. Mining bitcoin is probably as anonymous as it can get, but that's out of reach for nearly everybody at this stage. Once Avalon's ASICs get competition from a few sources, the price of bitcoin will probably dive and with it any chances of the average joe producing useful quantities of bitcoins.
Title: Re: Did I get scammed by americanbitcoins@tormail.org
Post by: Phineas Finn on April 12, 2013, 02:53 am

The trouble is that there's about as much misinformation out there about bitcoin and anonymity as legitimate information....

Wise words there.