Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: TheRX on April 05, 2012, 04:22 am

Title: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: TheRX on April 05, 2012, 04:22 am
In your opinion, what can I do to protect myself from being scammed?

I know that most people focus on the buyer being scammed, but I've seen sellers talking about how they were scammed as well.

What scams do I need to look out for? Anything that should throw up flags?

I've invested a good amount of money in the past few days/week in order to become a long time seller here at Silk Road, and I don't want to lose that money. In my opinion, it takes a pretty large bankroll in order to be a great seller and with money tied up in the escrow system, you need EVEN MORE money to be able to provide excellent consistent service. Losing a large sum of money in the beginning can be devastating to a seller's future, and that's what I'm trying to avoid.

Please excuse my ignorance, and thanks in advance for all the help guys!
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 05, 2012, 04:29 am
When you start only send out samples to those with 5+ successful purchases in their history. If they contact you directly and make the effort allow the odd 3-4 successful purchase history ones.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Regicide on April 05, 2012, 04:57 am
Get DCNs (delivery confirmation numbers) with ALL your products when working in escrow. This helps you prove that you did send an item when some punk ass tries to scam you. Also, people (like me  :P) with less than 5 transactions are the people most likely to be scammers, and once you get your ratings up, I would suggest asking this grup of people to finalize early. Why should you risk your money with them when they haven't proved themselves, but you have. If they don't want to do business with you because of this, politely say that that is fine, and tell them you'd be more than happy to do business in escrow in the future when his/her feedback is more developed.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: OldGuard on April 05, 2012, 05:14 pm
CLEARLY spell out your terms of service on your home page then put a mini version on each page of your listing along with telling people to READ terms on your home page so there is no misunderstandings. As stated above use DCN's if at all possible that will protect you from people claiming non delivery.

On some things you are just going to have to go with your gut on some things and it is ALWAYS better to play it safe then be sorry later because you went against your own instincts. Also don't go bonkers if someone gives you a less the 5/5 as it will happen sometime or another regardless of how well you do so just learn to live with it instead of letting it ruin your day.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Mister Dank on April 05, 2012, 05:56 pm
The most important thing you can do is use as many post offices you can to send out. Using multiple collection boxes won't work if they all ship out from the same P.O. Being in a big city also helps.

As I've stated in other threads, there is a running LE scam going on here that SR seems to go along with. It goes like this:

LE buys a small amount from you. They get the city you shipped from. Then another buyer will try to order from you (usually will request a LARGE order - more to steal). Let's call this 2nd buyer Officer Douchebag.

Officer Douchebag is the same person or knows the original buyer and knows where you ship from. Offficer Douchebag also lives at 1234 Piggy Ln. Officer Douchebag tells the Post Office you ship from to look for his package addressed to 1234 Piggy Ln.

Your P.O. then pulls that package out before its DCN is scanned, leaving you with NOTHING to track your package. Officer Douchebag then takes your shit and sells it on here as one of the many phony 99-100% vendor accounts. To top it off, Officer Douchebag then gives you a 1 of 5 to kill you as competition.

Its a great scam for LE, and they get away with it easy because they can coordinate with the Post Office and you can't. Your only recourse is to use multiple, big city post offices and don't write their name on the package.

Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 05, 2012, 09:50 pm
The most important thing you can do is use as many post offices you can to send out. Using multiple collection boxes won't work if they all ship out from the same P.O. Being in a big city also helps.

As I've stated in other threads, there is a running LE scam going on here that SR seems to go along with. It goes like this:

LE buys a small amount from you. They get the city you shipped from. Then another buyer will try to order from you (usually will request a LARGE order - more to steal). Let's call this 2nd buyer Officer Douchebag.

Officer Douchebag is the same person or knows the original buyer and knows where you ship from. Offficer Douchebag also lives at 1234 Piggy Ln. Officer Douchebag tells the Post Office you ship from to look for his package addressed to 1234 Piggy Ln.

Your P.O. then pulls that package out before its DCN is scanned, leaving you with NOTHING to track your package. Officer Douchebag then takes your shit and sells it on here as one of the many phony 99-100% vendor accounts. To top it off, Officer Douchebag then gives you a 1 of 5 to kill you as competition.

Its a great scam for LE, and they get away with it easy because they can coordinate with the Post Office and you can't. Your only recourse is to use multiple, big city post offices and don't write their name on the package.

This seriously happens?
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Mister Dank on April 05, 2012, 11:11 pm
The most important thing you can do is use as many post offices you can to send out. Using multiple collection boxes won't work if they all ship out from the same P.O. Being in a big city also helps.

As I've stated in other threads, there is a running LE scam going on here that SR seems to go along with. It goes like this:

LE buys a small amount from you. They get the city you shipped from. Then another buyer will try to order from you (usually will request a LARGE order - more to steal). Let's call this 2nd buyer Officer Douchebag.

Officer Douchebag is the same person or knows the original buyer and knows where you ship from. Offficer Douchebag also lives at 1234 Piggy Ln. Officer Douchebag tells the Post Office you ship from to look for his package addressed to 1234 Piggy Ln.

Your P.O. then pulls that package out before its DCN is scanned, leaving you with NOTHING to track your package. Officer Douchebag then takes your shit and sells it on here as one of the many phony 99-100% vendor accounts. To top it off, Officer Douchebag then gives you a 1 of 5 to kill you as competition.

Its a great scam for LE, and they get away with it easy because they can coordinate with the Post Office and you can't. Your only recourse is to use multiple, big city post offices and don't write their name on the package.

This seriously happens?

Yes, I documented it. In my case the buyer was named Diss0lve. He used the same account to scam other vendors too.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: binhaixinqu on April 05, 2012, 11:16 pm
The most important thing you can do is use as many post offices you can to send out. Using multiple collection boxes won't work if they all ship out from the same P.O. Being in a big city also helps.

As I've stated in other threads, there is a running LE scam going on here that SR seems to go along with. It goes like this:

LE buys a small amount from you. They get the city you shipped from. Then another buyer will try to order from you (usually will request a LARGE order - more to steal). Let's call this 2nd buyer Officer Douchebag.

Officer Douchebag is the same person or knows the original buyer and knows where you ship from. Offficer Douchebag also lives at 1234 Piggy Ln. Officer Douchebag tells the Post Office you ship from to look for his package addressed to 1234 Piggy Ln.

Your P.O. then pulls that package out before its DCN is scanned, leaving you with NOTHING to track your package. Officer Douchebag then takes your shit and sells it on here as one of the many phony 99-100% vendor accounts. To top it off, Officer Douchebag then gives you a 1 of 5 to kill you as competition.

Its a great scam for LE, and they get away with it easy because they can coordinate with the Post Office and you can't. Your only recourse is to use multiple, big city post offices and don't write their name on the package.

This seriously happens?

No.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 05, 2012, 11:36 pm
It does sound quite far fetched....
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: binhaixinqu on April 06, 2012, 01:14 am
Yeah Mister Dank has quite the active imagination...  He usually comes around once every couple months for comic relief...last time he ended up calling everyone (including me) cops lol and went on a rampage blaming everyone but himself for his atrocious feedback (it was at around 60%)
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 06, 2012, 01:43 am
Oh dear...one of them is it? Hmmmm....
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: LittlePharma on April 06, 2012, 08:10 am
How the hell is that LE scam supposed to work.....

Do you think the PO stops to cognatively read every address start to finish.  They sort in town vs. out of town, then distribution by zip code.  It's only the receiving end PO that actually looks at the address.  In a small post office you have at least 3-5 workers at the counter, maybe 3-5 in the back (doubt it these days)

Then you have a city, big or small, peppered with blue drop bins...

Come on man, really?  I'm paranoid as fuck whenever I drop my packages.  I'm still trying to figure out how to look legitimate while dropping my packages without leaving finger prints on them (I think I've figured it out petty well!)  You know, latex gloves are not the normal apparel of your average Joe dropping off mail to an unmanned box. 

If you are actually walking into the PO, you are crazy.  I know people who work at the PO, and trust me, they couldn't give less a fuck.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 06, 2012, 08:48 am
OP if you really want to protect yourself, go check out my other page at The Armory! :P

http://ayjkg6ombrsahbx2.onion/silkroad/user/b559743d22
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: vlad1m1r on April 06, 2012, 09:38 am
I think if they do have a system to red flag certain addresses in Post Offices when you're standing inside them, receiving only one star is the least of your worries!

I deal with the money side of things but I think if I were in the seller's place I'd probably just put the right amount of stamps on a package and drop it in a postbox late at night . I don't know how it works in the USA but in England we have to fill in a form and sign it ourselves to send anything by signature delivery.

It would still be a prodigal leap from that to LE being able to track you down relying on the Post Officer worker's memory, security cameras and so on but why take the risk?

V.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 06, 2012, 09:43 am
Check your PMs Vlad, I just sent you a message.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: USdirectforyou on April 06, 2012, 12:04 pm
Welcome to SR! Always wear gloves when packaging anything. If you do it right, the only way you can get into trouble is by messing up and having a package sent with your finger prints or even hair. Never ship from a place that has cameras. Always use a mailbox and grab a bunch of DCN#s from the post office and pay for them with stamps at home so you don't have to be on camera paying for it at the POst office and maybe get facial recognized. Best of luck to you here! Also use encrypted wallets
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Mister Dank on April 06, 2012, 05:19 pm
How the hell is that LE scam supposed to work.....

Do you think the PO stops to cognatively read every address start to finish.  They sort in town vs. out of town, then distribution by zip code.  It's only the receiving end PO that actually looks at the address.  In a small post office you have at least 3-5 workers at the counter, maybe 3-5 in the back (doubt it these days)

Yes, so they only have to look for a package to that one zip code. It may be harder to do at a post office in the middle of a large city, but really easy in a small one.

Then you have a city, big or small, peppered with blue drop bins...

Come on man, really?  I'm paranoid as fuck whenever I drop my packages.  I'm still trying to figure out how to look legitimate while dropping my packages without leaving finger prints on them (I think I've figured it out petty well!)  You know, latex gloves are not the normal apparel of your average Joe dropping off mail to an unmanned box. 

I take my packages up to he box in a grocery bag and drop them in right out of the bag. It still looks a little weird, but not nearly as weird as wearing latex gloves.



Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: LittlePharma on April 06, 2012, 06:08 pm
Lol, I didn't say I wore latex gloves to drop, I was saying that you can't really get away with it.  I've found that those little skin colored rubber finger things used for filing fit nicely, are unnoticeable at first glance, and do the trick.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: ProfADaemon on April 06, 2012, 06:37 pm


Do you think the PO stops to cognatively read every address start to finish.

Since the 1970s, in the USA, the USPS has used optical character recognition to read the entire front of every piece of machineable mail. Every piece of non-machineable mail, if it can't be read properly by the OCR, is read manually by postal workers. They keep databases of every name/address combination that mail has been sent from or received at in the past.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Mister Dank on April 06, 2012, 07:03 pm


Do you think the PO stops to cognatively read every address start to finish.

Since the 1970s, in the USA, the USPS has used optical character recognition to read the entire front of every piece of machineable mail. Every piece of non-machineable mail, if it can't be read properly by the OCR, is read manually by postal workers. They keep databases of every name/address combination that mail has been sent from or received at in the past.

I didn't know this. So this makes it even easier for a single postal inspector with Tor on his computer to scam vendors and make some easy side cash. Incredibly easy-

He can buy and take out your package beforehand, and leave you shitty feedback while he resells with his vendor account. Those are probably the same accounts that are 100%, because he KNOWS his shit is getting there!

Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: LittlePharma on April 06, 2012, 10:13 pm
@ Prof... Thank you, I wasn't aware of that.

@Dank.....LOLOL The Postal Inspector is not out to get you buddy!

Actually, on second thought.  He probably has a room filled with pictures of you and your mailing in it.  Likely surrounded by candles and incense.  Red light bulbs in the room... errr lol you get the picture.

I'm just giving you a hard time man, don't sweat it, but it IS really hard for me to believe the post office has some militant arm out to steal and re-sell your stash.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Mister Dank on April 06, 2012, 10:45 pm
@ Prof... Thank you, I wasn't aware of that.

@Dank.....LOLOL The Postal Inspector is not out to get you buddy!

Actually, on second thought.  He probably has a room filled with pictures of you and your mailing in it.  Likely surrounded by candles and incense.  Red light bulbs in the room... errr lol you get the picture.

I'm just giving you a hard time man, don't sweat it, but it IS really hard for me to believe the post office has some militant arm out to steal and re-sell your stash.

umm..ok..LittlePharma, when buyers on here talk about someone calling from the post office about their order, that's usually the inspector - they're considered LE. So yeah, they are out to bust people.

More importantly though, post office workers have a rep for being degenerates - just go inside one and take a look at those mutants. Dumb as they are, they were probably told about Silk Road, and they're morally depraved enough to fuck people on here over to make easy $$.
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: opi on April 07, 2012, 03:10 am
holy fuck dank you are one paranoid guy.....

do you wear a tinfoil hat?? you seriously seem like one of those kinds that think the government is out to get you with mind control radio signals.. and that the microwaves were invented by the government to control your mind?
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: UKGrower on April 07, 2012, 03:15 am
If anyone was a cop, i'd say it would be the guy trying to spread fear on the forums.  ;)
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 07, 2012, 03:23 am
If anyone was a cop, i'd say it would be the guy trying to spread fear on the forums.  ;)

If I hadn't just given my Karma point away I would have hit you up for this comment... :P
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: mdmamail on April 07, 2012, 03:52 am
If you read up on all the available books about how hackers and crime forums are shut down you'll see cops can only engage in illegal activity to a point, as all their actions will be scrutinized in court. They can't buy your drugs and turn around and resell them that's insane, your lawyer would have that case thrown out immediately for breach of protocols.

What they can do is PM you, and make you a private offer for a ton of traceable money that you will probably accept. That's how they always find people. I want $30,000 worth of your cocaine, oh I can only pay by western union or paypal or something stupid. Also they will want tracking numbers and DCNs, so they can find where it was originally scanned and get photo evidence from the post office should you actually walk in to drop it off. I'm pretty sure US sellers here don't hand out DCNs unless there's a problem with the delivery

Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Limetless on April 07, 2012, 04:32 am
The rules I've decided to abide by are as follows:

Use a different post office every day you post

Don't do DCN's or Tracking unless you have to

Always use escrow

Never use anything but BitCoins

If it smells like a pork based product, it usually is

Use fast-food places as your return address (although only the ones that you don't order from)

Don't take a chance on packaging, keep it stealthy

Don't EVER DO F2F TRANSACTIONS WITH PEOPLE ON SR

And life shall be pleasant. :)
Title: Re: As a new vendor on SR, what can I do to protect myself?
Post by: Mister Dank on April 07, 2012, 03:57 pm
holy fuck dank you are one paranoid guy.....

do you wear a tinfoil hat?? you seriously seem like one of those kinds that think the government is out to get you with mind control radio signals.. and that the microwaves were invented by the government to control your mind?

Then you've never sold drugs, because you'd know there are only two ways to be: paranoid, or in jail.

Fact is, though, this is hardly paranoia. What you just stated was logical fallacy called ad hominem. You attacked me, not my argument.