Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: philter3 on April 29, 2012, 10:13 pm
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While checking out S.R. yesterday I spotted the following listing
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/43f86ef19d
This struck me as a marvelous service to offer.. and as I am wont to do.. I started thinking about permutations of the idea.
Let's assume I am preparing a bulk shipment and I wish to be as certain as possible that a buyer's address is valid and they will almost certainly receive the product, thereby minimizing my risk of a credible claim of non-delivery.
DCNs only verify delivery to an address, not receipt by my intended recipient. So what if (for bulk, not worth it for small things) there was a 2 part shipping process.
The first package is a dummy, but it contains a small piece of paper with a code in it. This code must be emailed/PM'ed back to me to confirm full receipt. I can then ship confident that the bulk shipment is likely to go through. Between this and a DCN on the second package it is extremely likely any claim of non-receipt can be confidently disregarded.
Is there a security risk or hazard with this idea I'm not seeing?
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While checking out S.R. yesterday I spotted the following listing
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/43f86ef19d
This struck me as a marvelous service to offer.. and as I am wont to do.. I started thinking about permutations of the idea.
Let's assume I am preparing a bulk shipment and I wish to be as certain as possible that a buyer's address is valid and they will almost certainly receive the product, thereby minimizing my risk of a credible claim of non-delivery.
DCNs only verify delivery to an address, not receipt by my intended recipient. So what if (for bulk, not worth it for small things) there was a 2 part shipping process.
The first package is a dummy, but it contains a small piece of paper with a code in it. This code must be emailed/PM'ed back to me to confirm full receipt. I can then ship confident that the bulk shipment is likely to go through. Between this and a DCN on the second package it is extremely likely any claim of non-receipt can be confidently disregarded.
Is there a security risk or hazard with this idea I'm not seeing?
Hi Philter3,
An excellent idea - I say this quite modestly as I used to use a similar system when selling diamonds in my time before S.R i.e sending a special code to an address in order to confirm it's valid for new buyers. I got the idea from a legitimate home based business I had as a kid selling books via Amazon (they used to do this to verify the address you provided).
Having said that, I would like to point out that if it came down to it, all you would be able to prove if you sent a code to an address was just that - to put it another way if you failed to receive a package in the mail, just because it's the first time this has happened would not mean it could never have happened!
A far better way would be to send the package itself via Registered Mail - sad to say most buyers won't go for this as it's a common technique for LEO to use to prove a person intended to take possession of goods.
V.
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I like the idea :)
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Hi Philter3,
An excellent idea - I say this quite modestly as I used to use a similar system when selling diamonds in my time before S.R i.e sending a special code to an address in order to confirm it's valid for new buyers. I got the idea from a legitimate home based business I had as a kid selling books via Amazon (they used to do this to verify the address you provided).
Having said that, I would like to point out that if it came down to it, all you would be able to prove if you sent a code to an address was just that - to put it another way if you failed to receive a package in the mail, just because it's the first time this has happened would not mean it could never have happened!
A far better way would be to send the package itself via Registered Mail - sad to say most buyers won't go for this as it's a common technique for LEO to use to prove a person intended to take possession of goods.
V.
Vlad,
I know it's not a perfect solution but I like the idea of *knowing* that an address has been used successfully with a given name before putting serious weight in the mail. Also... I am thinking in terms of credibility on the forums and S.R. It seems like if a vendor stays in escrow and has DCNs it highly unlikely someone will be subject to criticism of being a scammer. I'm looking for ways to transact business that make the *reputation* bulletproof, not so much an absolute certainty of successful receipt (which is what registered mail or a signature required would do and is frankly out of the question cause of LE issues).
Religious people have a saying "Avoid even the APPEARANCE of evil". The more layers of likelyhood the better the trust from all concerned.
I have shipped product via mail requiring a signature (I stress this was at the receiver's INSISTENCE.. they wanted to be sure they got it) which worked good.. but that was on the front and didn't work out well longterm (cause of payment issues).
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summarize service? need an account on that site and am too lazy right now.
is it some kind of insurance or something
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Excellent idea. It would be hard to prove to SR that the buyer received the package if staff gets involved, but at the very least it would give vendor some insight about whether a buyer might be scamming them.
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summarize service? need an account on that site and am too lazy right now.
is it some kind of insurance or something
You and your kind are a cancer on the world.
V.