Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: savlon4 on January 12, 2013, 01:07 pm
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Im a noob. I wont lie and right now Im figuring is it worth it. I wired money from my bank to MtGox yesterday to get it transferred into bitcoins. It was quite a bit of money and Im worrying whether it will even get to its final destination or not. £25 pounds of it had to be spent just on getting it exchanged. Either way I will know in 8 or so days whether its gone into my MtGox account .I was then going to purchase bitcoins and transfer them straight to SR but now Im not so sure as couldn't that be traced and couldn't i be flagged up for that?
Also I downloaded PGP but I associated it with my "real" email. I havent used this for anything dodgy yet so its technically not illegal but I dont want it to be associated with my real life email account in anyway you know. Also I forgot my PGP key so I cant decrypt messages. Is there anyway I can make a new one or not. I suppose as long as the seller can read my messages it doesn't matter much. Right now though Im thinking is it worth it. Or I could just tormail them but do sellers like to tormail or not. Also there seems to be alot of media attention on the Silk Road and surely the Feds must be closing in. I'm not tech savvy and whilst I think the idea of this site is amazing n00bs like me are bringing it down. We dont do it on purpose its simply because we dont understand so we make mistakes. Mistakes that can prove costly. I dont know guys shall I just leave or stick at it. Are my chances of getting caught high. Cheers.
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Beautifully self effacing and humble :)
Yeah, it's worth it. I mean we're all here, aren't we? But I guess if I had hookups in my area for the same kind of quality I get on the road, I'd probably just skip the headaches. So I guess that depends on you more than anything, really.
Your chances of getting caught are very low. Yes, you can generate a new public and private key pair. You can do that as many times as you want, but you'll never be able to decrypt messages that use that original public key.
Don't tormail with sellers. If it's discovered that they're doing that, they get banned. You get banned maybe. And there's no protection, I mean you're basically just sending your money off into the void & hoping it works out.
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On PGP, you can create a new key for yourself. Just put in a throw away email address (you don't even need a real one) and save a copy of your key. To create the new key, go to the top of the PGP window and click 'Keys' >>> 'Create New' >>> and then follow the steps. Delete the key that you have associated with your real email address.
Regarding the bitcoin, send them from Mt.Gox to a few different instawallets (www.instawallet.org), maybe from different computers. When using instawallets, make sure you bookmark the URL, otherwise you will lose your BTC. The URL is your key to that wallet. Don't share it with anyone either. Alternatively, you could create a wallet on blockchain.info and from there you can send to SR anonymously for a fee of 1.5%.
This post may not make much sense to you at the moment, but hopefully some part of it may help you. :)
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It's worth it to me, Salvon4, and welcome to SR, and the SR Forums. I'm a mere buyer. Someday I hope to vend. I think it would be exiting. Maybe some of the friends I've made on here would want to do it together, since we know firsthand most of the "do's and don'ts"
We were not born with that information. I still have a mental block about PGP, I was soooo close to getting it. Then I ran out of speed,. Then I'm lucky if the dishes get done....LOL
So hang in there man. Ask any question you like. You'll go on certain boards/threads, and ask something "off topic" and some "HERO MEMBER" will come down on you like a safe dropped from a building.
Those are just assholes and the only reason they got "HERO MEMBER", is because they typed enough of these rants like I'm doing here.
Right off the bat two great members came to your aid. I'd say that's a good sign.
Oh and I'll explain the Karma thing. It's just a little toy that lets you thank a certain amount of people, or "discourage" -Karma, someone with whom you disagree, or is just a plain old asshole through and through. - You get the ability to leave +/- Karma for someone when you reach 100 posts. That's usually an early question from a noob, so I thought I'd clear that easy one up ahead of time!!
Allow me to be the first to give you a +1 Karma. (I only did a -karma once, after all, it's Karma!- what goes around?) hee hee. ::)
So what's your DOC (Drug of Choice) ATM (At The Moment) mine is speed/amphetamine, followed by benzos - Valium, Xanax etc, then once in a blue moon I like to get a gram of smack just for one nice day with a friend. Already know what opiate addiction/withdrawal feels like. Don't want to have that happen again. - Maybe for the Holidays, a nice gram of coke. Otherwise it's adderall and grams of some of the best speed, (which is currently available!!)
So which is it Savlon4 ???
Name your poison.
Peace
jagfug
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PGP - Don't worry about the mistake of creating a PGP that links to your real (or normal) identity... You can always create a new encryption pair with new email address (tor) or even a made up email address.
I found this guide to be useful: http://32yehzkk7jflf6r2.onion/gpg4usb/
What I really like about the guide above is it uses a simple version of PGP that can be stored and run from a USB drive, and thus not on your computer. I would highly suggest encrypting (TrueCrypt) the USB or PGP folder so it is not directly accessible. I run tor and PGP right from an encrypted USB drive.
Back to PGP:
Here are a few simple tips...
1. Many use their real tormail address, obviously the tormail address should be completely separate from your normal online identity. Or at least use your SR username, example of a fake email for me would be peeweed@notmymail.com... This way people will easily be able to find your PGP keys and encrypt messages for you. Though if you use your tormal address, they will also be able to email you if ever SR goes down or there is some other reason. Typically you shouldn't be using Tormail to communicate with sellers much, SR messaging works well for that, but it is a back up. Just beware of unsolicited mail in that account and be careful because anyone could email you if your address is in your public key.
2. Another tip is after you write your PGP message, copy/paste your public key at the end.... THEN encrypt the message. Then whom ever you message can reply securely AND your public key is hidden in the encrypted message. Not that there is a ton of worry... your public key is supposed to be public, so you can receive messages but it doesn't hurt of guard it as well.
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A learning curve and hoops to jump through; this is true. But it is absolutely worth it. And while you are not quite up to the security standards of most using the forums you are already (sadly) doing better than many people shopping on the road.
Improve your $----> silk road method as mentioned. Never operate out of escrow. Never send your address unencrypted. Read a venders review thread, %'s, and profile before getting in touch with them. Get in touch with them before ordering. Start small. Finalize as soon as your product is received.
But you are already waaay past the hump in the learning curve. Aside form improving your laundering you are covered now.
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As for getting in touch with people before ordering... sure, you can do that. I do it if I have concerns, but honestly, some of these guys put up with so much shit and go through so much volume that messages are just a constant hassle and they end up feeling bitchy because of it. So bear that in mind, and don't just write somebody off because they aren't super nice when you message them or something.
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So bear that in mind, and don't just write somebody off because they aren't super nice when you message them or something.
Good point. It isn't about making a PMing buddy; rather, establishing up front whether or not the vender answers his messages. And many of the good venders are willing to work with a n00b that asks nicely and starts out ordering small. (savlon4 = noob)
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Also keep in mind the lifetime value of the knowledge you'll gain by learning how to navigate the system (SR, PGP, Bitcoins, TOR, etc). Even if you never buy from SR or only buy very little, this knowledge is incredibly important, and I believe, will become only more valuable over time. Someone here on the SR forums (sorry, I can't find the post) equated gaining such knowledge in our current tech age to the value in becoming literate during the industrial revolution. If anti-privacy actions and legislation around the world continue on their current trajectory, it will only be a matter of time before the average sheeple loses all privacy and anonymity. You, on the other hand, will have the knowledge to conduct yourself quietly and under the radar. Just because something's legal today doesn't mean it will remain that way.
So, yeah, it's worth it! :)
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There's plenty of reading material on here for you to learn man. The main thing is just to keep at it, but don't go commit until you feel fully comfortable with the whole system. There are lots of people around to help! :)
You're in the UK? I notice you also wired your money to MtGox. That's not the most advisable way of obtaining Bitcoins as it has a direct link to you but don't worry you're learning! I'd advice searching the forum for BTCxUK they're the best source for BC in the UK and allow anonymous bank deposits which takes away 90% of the worry.
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Wow cheers for all the helpful, motivating replies guys. I hope the bank wire goes through successfully as I wouldn't want to loose that money. Ive never ordered off of here before so Iv accepted that Ill have to finalize early but im okay with tbh. Iv picked a guy whos in the top 9% and I only want to buy a couple of tabs of Acid. I can get most drugs around where I live but I cant get psychedelics so thats what I suppose I'd be spending the majority of my bit coins on.
The main hurdle for me is figuring out this PGP stuff. Im going to try heading to the thread Pine set up at some point and practice there you know. I kind of get how bitcoins work now, it's just finding more effective methods. I seriously do appreciate the advice guys. I can't help being a n00b it's just how I am. The thing is being a n00b on other forums might get people being pissed off with you. Being a n00b here could get me arrested, scammed or worse so I just need to tread carefully take each step slowly until I get it and ask for advice. :)
What is escrow btw. I keep hearing it. Is it some software I need to download?. I did a quick google search on it and it refers to money being held by a third party. Is the third party in my case MtGox?.
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Wow cheers for all the helpful, motivating replies guys. I hope the bank wire goes through successfully as I wouldn't want to loose that money. Ive never ordered off of here before so Iv accepted that Ill have to finalize early but im okay with tbh. Iv picked a guy whos in the top 9% and I only want to buy a couple of tabs of Acid. I can get most drugs around where I live but I cant get psychedelics so thats what I suppose I'd be spending the majority of my bit coins on.
The main hurdle for me is figuring out this PGP stuff. Im going to try heading to the thread Pine set up at some point and practice there you know. I kind of get how bitcoins work now, it's just finding more effective methods. I seriously do appreciate the advice guys. I can't help being a n00b it's just how I am. The thing is being a n00b on other forums might get people being pissed off with you. Being a n00b here could get me arrested, scammed or worse so I just need to tread carefully take each step slowly until I get it and ask for advice. :)
What is escrow btw. I keep hearing it. Is it some software I need to download?. I did a quick google search on it and it refers to money being held by a third party. Is the third party in my case MtGox?.
Escrow on the Silk Road means that Silk Road is the third party. You make an order and the funds are withdrawn from your account, then Silk Road keep that money in limbo until you get what you paid for. Then you release the payment to the seller. Or in the case of a refund being required, you go to the resolution centre and apply for a refund there.
Regarding the PGP, here is a great thread with a pictorial step by step guide. It is the bomb and a lot easier than reading the text:
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=131.0
Hope this helps :)
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GPG4USB seems a little easier to grasp for this old grasshopper. That GPG4Win had way too many bells and whistles, and programs like Kleopatra bundled with it. I think that is what overwhelmed me. Sometimes I wish people explained things to me the way I would explain them to them.
Here's a link to what I find, a bit easier on the senses. http://gpg4usb.cpunk.de/index.html
I'm in the process of finally grasping the whole concept now. I always "got it', I just didn't get the "how to" - Even with the video tutorial. Which for me was out of date at the time, the narrator was clicking on things, the upgraded version didn't have.
Another "easier" explanation of ESCROW, is - The house holds the money. Silk Road is the house. The management. So the dealer, or vendor, doesn't get squat, until you get the goods. If there's any problem, you send a message to the vendor first, before you contact SR admins. The SR admins urge you to work it out between you first, as ladies and gentlemen of course. If it's not to your liking, and you haven't finalized, you click "RESOLUTION" and it takes you to a screen, where it asks what you feel is a fair refund or replacement. Pick a percentage, there's a box with % next to it.
Sometimes it can get sticky, with the vendor playing hardball, and maybe they've been scammed by a few newbies, maybe not, but they shouldn't have an attitude.
I also feel you should be able to PM a vendor prior to ordering, if you have a question.There should be no snippy comeback, or attitude. They're trying to sell you something. Unless it's the last bit of that something left on earth, they best be as civil as you are with them. I'm sick of vendors with attitudes. I've had to eat a few bad deals, rather than argue in the resolution center like children. I had close to 40 transactions and 2500 spent, no refunds, no auto-finalizes, and one of the 'big box' valium dealers went ape shit on me, throwing around the word scammer. It was a damaged DVD case, and 20 pills were powderized, which blew away when I popped open the case. That was my only complaint. - I couldn't take his little cheap attitude, so I just finalized, left a 4 out of 5, a short comment that "I won't be back" and that was it. I won't say who since I'm over it, but lets just say you can't cry over spilled milk!
So when you find the blotter you definitely want. You've clicked the vendors name, read the feedback, come on here and typed the vendor name in the search bar to see any true negative feedback. (this is a must as shill accounts can be created to leave themselves good feedback. The forums are more trustworthy. Unless there are several newbie forum members praising the vendor, but one of us more experienced usually catch that shit before it flies. You've read the vendors profile, you should know upfront their refund rate. You should know their shipping rate. The average time to your country. Any seller worth a mouse click should have that at the very least. If you don't see an answer to your question, then click "send vendor a message". Clicking on "become a fan" is useful, because it bookmarks them on your homepage right margin, so you can check in with them again. Also they see you've become a fan, so all in all, it starts things out on a nice path.
Now you're ready to order. Click on the listing. When the listing appears, click "add to cart". Look at your cart, go over to "select postage", pick appropriately. Then do "update cart". This will add the shipping to the total amount, giving you the grand total. If you have enough money in btc's you go down to the box where it says to enter your address the way it would appear on an letter. Just below the total amount which will look like this, for example.
Total: ฿4.70
($66.47 at $14.1422 per BTC) - Notice it tells me $66.47 (USD for me) at 14.1422 per BTC? - You can go to your account (middle top of page) click account. To the right click settings. You will see a place where you can change the display price from BTC to dollars for instance. I believe it works for most currencies. This way you're not constantly looking up the current price of a BTC. Which ATM is $14.18, or 10.69 EUR. - A great screen to keep open on another browser, or bookmark is www.Preev.com - it displays in real time the price of a bitcoin.
So you enter your address, as it should appear properly. Include country. Then all you have to do is put in your pin# which you should've already chosen.
Once you do that, hit ENTER, and it will display under STATUS as PROCESSING. At this point you will begin the wait for it to go from PROCESSING to IN TRANSIT. Once in transit, your seller should have already sent the package, been to the post ofc, etc. - In a perfect world. Usually they know they're getting to it, and it will be done by 23:99 UTC. - If you're doing the FE Finalize Early, that is the time you want to jump in and click finalize. - Just realize, that's the end of your chances of having SR intervene should something go wrong. I'd say the chances are better than 80% that nothing will go wrong. The more impeccable the vendors record, the lower the likelihood of fuckups.
If you're still uncertain of a vendor, like maybe you think, "hey 94%, ok so a few didn't make it" using your own judgement isn't always the best idea. Come on forums. Type LSD in the search bar, and look for the most used thread. Assuming you've already typed the vendor name and haven't found out anything concrete about them. Then simply ask. "Hi I'm a noob, I'm about to buy these blotters from WavyGravy69 and he's got a 94% , though I can't find any real complaints or praises. Any help would be appreciated!
I hope this wasn't too over wordy, and helped. You might want to search the forums for Bitcoin threads, and what's the best way to ascertain them in your locale. That is one thing that varies the most by country, and even part of the country you're in,
Good Luck! - I hope I didn't put you to sleep. - I think I put me to sleep though! - :-X
That's all folks! - Until next time!
Peace
jagfug
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Sounds like you have gotten some great info/advice so far. Just wanted to throw out there a note to "become a fan" of vendors that you might want to purchase from. It will create an easy link for you to access the vendors page.
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Im a noob. I wont lie and right now Im figuring is it worth it. I wired money from my bank to MtGox yesterday to get it transferred into bitcoins. It was quite a bit of money and Im worrying whether it will even get to its final destination or not. £25 pounds of it had to be spent just on getting it exchanged. Either way I will know in 8 or so days whether its gone into my MtGox account .I was then going to purchase bitcoins and transfer them straight to SR but now Im not so sure as couldn't that be traced and couldn't i be flagged up for that?
Also I downloaded PGP but I associated it with my "real" email. I havent used this for anything dodgy yet so its technically not illegal but I dont want it to be associated with my real life email account in anyway you know. Also I forgot my PGP key so I cant decrypt messages. Is there anyway I can make a new one or not. I suppose as long as the seller can read my messages it doesn't matter much. Right now though Im thinking is it worth it. Or I could just tormail them but do sellers like to tormail or not. Also there seems to be alot of media attention on the Silk Road and surely the Feds must be closing in. I'm not tech savvy and whilst I think the idea of this site is amazing n00bs like me are bringing it down. We dont do it on purpose its simply because we dont understand so we make mistakes. Mistakes that can prove costly. I dont know guys shall I just leave or stick at it. Are my chances of getting caught high. Cheers.
I'd +1 you if I could. Stick with it. You'll be happy :)
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Im a noob. I wont lie and right now Im figuring is it worth it. I wired money from my bank to MtGox yesterday to get it transferred into bitcoins. It was quite a bit of money and Im worrying whether it will even get to its final destination or not. £25 pounds of it had to be spent just on getting it exchanged. Either way I will know in 8 or so days whether its gone into my MtGox account .I was then going to purchase bitcoins and transfer them straight to SR but now Im not so sure as couldn't that be traced and couldn't i be flagged up for that?
Also I downloaded PGP but I associated it with my "real" email. I havent used this for anything dodgy yet so its technically not illegal but I dont want it to be associated with my real life email account in anyway you know. Also I forgot my PGP key so I cant decrypt messages. Is there anyway I can make a new one or not. I suppose as long as the seller can read my messages it doesn't matter much. Right now though Im thinking is it worth it. Or I could just tormail them but do sellers like to tormail or not. Also there seems to be alot of media attention on the Silk Road and surely the Feds must be closing in. I'm not tech savvy and whilst I think the idea of this site is amazing n00bs like me are bringing it down. We dont do it on purpose its simply because we dont understand so we make mistakes. Mistakes that can prove costly. I dont know guys shall I just leave or stick at it. Are my chances of getting caught high. Cheers.
I'd +1 you if I could. Stick with it. You'll be happy :)
Good Lord! £25 ?? Just to get Bitcoins??- I mean the fact that you're using £ tells me you're in England, where the godawful Euro is also used, but isn't £25 like $40 American??? - That's ridiculous!
If you're smart enough to have found this board, you should be smart enough to research it and find Bitcoin threads, either on here, or just google.. Here in the US we have BitInstant, and I would get annoyed if I spent over $5 US getting dollars to bitcoins. So you best start your research there. There is definitely a cheaper alternative. Someone help this poor girl!
You're already out $40??? - It's just unfathomable to me, but I'm at that age (50-ish) where you can't believe anything. - Usually because you realize most of what you hear and see are half-truths.
I digress.
As far as PGP. I have been a member for 9 months and have just begun to use it. - Silk Road is already pretty well encrypted and protected, though I'm far from an expert. No one's busted me yet!
I've had Heroin and Coke, MDMA, Pills, Hash, Opium, - You name it! All delivered right to my real address, real name, etc.
Some people are real PGP hardliners, I feel, and I may be wrong, that if they've gotten far enough into the system to see your PGP code or whatever it's called, they've already got you.
I think a little too much faith is put in that whole thing. If they want to get you, they'll get you.
Assuming you're an adult. Like over 18 hopefully?? It's time to make these hard decsions for yourself. We can't decide for you, and you can't blame anybody else for your decisions. That's what being a grown-up is all about.
Well enough preaching from this senior delinquent!
If you get those expensive bitcoins, and figured how to transfer them into your SR account. Seek out a Vendor with impeccable stats. Check these forums for your drug of choice. Type the vendor name in the search bar. I know that's been repeated over and over, but you really must do it!!!
That's my best for you at this time darling. Be safe, and really get into these forums. I waited far too long to do so myself.
Keep the faith!
Your ally across the pond.
Peace
jagfug