Altcoin Monero has suffered a blow in its push to become the dominant currency of darknet markets, with reddit users reporting that the owners of Oasis market have apparently pulled an exit scam, absconding with around 150 Bitcoin and a yet undetermined amount of Monero. Reports from reddit also indicate that users attempting to withdraw Monero from the Alpha Bay marketplace are meeting similar frustrations, though the site is still online. This news caps a very bad week for XMR, with the MyMonero web wallet service run by developer fluffypony (WoT:fluffypony) also being was offline for several days now, with users reporting silence from support channels and inability to withdraw funds, though private keys can still be recovered and imported into an actual wallet. These particular wallets have been target by hackers several times in the past few months, resulting in several millions of USD vanishing. At the time of the writing of this article, the sorry for your loss was at -17% and continued to plunge.
Category Archives: Darkmarkets
Github Enforces USG.NSA Copyright And Other Lols, Roundup Xtend'd
Following the initial announcement of "Shadow Broker's" (WOT:nonpeople) planned auction of alleged NSA surveillance tools and miscellanea, further lulz emerged. Here they are Roundup Xtend'd:
- Github effectively and proactively enforced a potential copyright claim by the United States National Security Agency by booting the information off their platform.
- Numerous media outlets are skirting around where the goods came from by tenaciously using the "Equation Group" moniker for the group with which the tools originated.
- The issue of whether the teasers offered of the goods for sale are novel or rehashes of previous leaks has not yet been definitively established given the sheer amount that has been leaked already.
- A suggested price of One Million Bitcoin has been floating around. The price, which represents a substantial percentage of the best money's monetary mass, reeks of insanity and a deep povertree of the sort that makes a supposed person incapable of market participation.
DoctorClu Gets 8 Years In Prison
DoctorClu, slave name Brian Farrell (WOT:nonperson), ended up getting sentenced to 8 years in prison, a sentence that both prosecutors and "his"1 own lawyers agreed to lobby the judge for.
If your own lawyers agree to argue the merits of sending you to prison for nearly a decade, they can scarcely be considered your lawyers. ↩
Darkode Member Sentenced
A Louisiana man arrested in July 2015 for his role in selling a botnet on Darkode forums has been sentenced to 366 days in prison and 3 years supervised release after being found guilty of "obtaining information by computer from a protected computer". At the time of his arrest Mr. Guildry was found to be in possession of stolen credit card information, and allegedly stole almost 150 Bitcoin from his victims. Authorities said some of the Bitcoin stolen had been converted to cash and spent. Guildry was one of 70 members of the Darkode site around the globe that were arrested in a crackdown on carding sites as part of "Operation Shrouded Horizon".
LinkedIN Dump Leaked
A post on LinkedIn's blog this morning announced that data had been released which "claims to be email and hashed password combinations of more than 100 million LinkedIn members from that same theft in 2012" A hacker known only as "Peace" was offering the complete dump on a darknet marketplace The Real Deal for the price of 5 Bitcoin. While LinkedIn claims to have increased security measures since the 2012 hack many users were still using the same password, likely across multiple sites. Passwords from that breach were unsalted, making it likely the majority were cracked within a few days after the hack. The company said there was no indication that any new security breach had occurred.
Yet Another Darknet Market Sprouts
It calls itself Silk Road 3.0 . The anonymous owners of another deepweb site, Crypto Market, are reputedly behind the new incantation which will be known as "Silk Road 3.0" While touting itself as "The darknet's most resilient marketplace", the login page states "We are under DDOS attack. Please come back later." at the time of the writing of this article. Reports further promised massive security updates though the site continues to be accessible only through the TOR network. Prior "Silk Road" markets including were attacked via flaws in Tor with Silk Road 2.0 notably having a record of the attack happening committed to court records.
Darknet Market Nucleus Offline
Popular darknet market Nucleus has been offline for nearly a week, leading many users to speculate that yet another exit scam is in the works. The market was holding roughly 5,000 BTC in deposits for vendors and users. No message from /u/nucleusmarket has been forthcoming on reddit's r/darknetmarkets sub which seems to be the preferred meeting place on clearnet for users of such marketplaces.
Shaun Bridges Arrested For Attempting To Flee United States
Former United States Secret Service Agent Shaun Bridges was arrested for attempting to flee the United States last Thursday. Bridges was scheduled to surrender for the purpose of serving his prison sentence on Friday. After having plead guilty in June, Shaun Bridges was sentenced to serve 71 months in prison this past December.
NACDL Amicus: Silk Road Warrant Unconstitutional According To 4th Amendment
As the build up to the Ross Ulbrict's appellate hearing continues, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has filed an amicus brief criticizing the unconstitutionality of the investigation which lead to the persecution of Ross Ulbricht. The move comes as militia operations motivated by other breaches of the United States constitution by the Federal government have resulted in the liberation of substantial portions of Oregon. Whether the appellate court follows Judge Katherine Forrest in rejecting sanity and constitutional limits remains to be seen. Continue reading
Ulbricht Appellate Brief Filed
Ross Ulbricht's attorneys have filed their appellate brief. Full text below or pdf here. Continue reading