Silk Road: The eBay of Illegal Drugs

GiftofGab · 29-08-2013 1:19pm

BlatentCheek wrote: »

Websites like this have been around for years. They've never gone beyond a niche audience for a number of reasons. Many drug-users won't be au fait with things like bit coins and others may dislike the idea of a (potentially perpetual) digital paper trail linking their name to a drugs purchase, more again may not like handing over money weeks before receiving their drugs. I know one IT guy who's into his drugs who told me that after buying stuff online from someone for over a year the online dealer informed all of his customers that he'd leak their details to law enforcement, media, employers and recruiters in their country if they didn't pay him off (what details he had and whether this was an empty threat or not I have no idea). I know another person who had the postman steal their weed and gloat to them about it, presumably the Netherlands postmark and the feel of the package gave it away.

In Ireland if customs intercept a package for your home they usually send you a letter inviting you to be there when they open it if you accept responsibility. Anyone who rents should be familiar with mail often arriving for a previous tenant, so people will commonly use the name of someone who used to live in the place they rent as the intended recipient, to avoid criminal liability.

Ultimately using these sites carries at least as many risks as buying off a local dealer, not least the fact that you've commissioned the smuggling of drugs across at least one nations borders, which is usually a more serious offence than merely buying them or having them in your possession.

In fairness the article seems a bit sensationalist, the way the scene is set with an apartment of "funky" young professionals casually buying drugs people reeks of Daily Mail style journalism. These sites may supplement but won't supplant face to face dealing.

From what I've heard there has only been one known conviction from Silk Road. There has been a number of arrests from intercpted parcels but the police find it difficult to prove the accused owns the drugs or prove that he purchased it from Silk Road.

My name is URL · 29-08-2013 1:26pm

If you're going to be using those sites and are worried about leaving a trail behind, download and run TAILS from a USB stick.

It's an encrypted and amnesiac live operating system that doesn't leave any trace at all on the computer it's used on, and has Tor and a load of other privacy tools pre-installed for e-mail, instant messaging etc.

https://tails.boum.org/

mikom · 29-08-2013 1:40pm

mariaalice wrote: »

Its called recerational drug use to make it sound better and to distance themselves from the junkies.

It's called a few scoops to make it sound better and to distance themselves from the Alcos.

BlueJohn wrote: »

One of my friends died this year from getting stuff off the site. Well it was a concoction of things including sleeping tabs which led to it. But he was getting some stupid **** of that site.

Concoction + sleeping tabs.
Sounds like the lad needed help.

BlatentCheek · 29-08-2013 1:40pm

GiftofGab wrote: »

From what I've heard there has only been one known conviction from Silk Road. There has been a number of arrests from intercpted parcels but the police find it difficult to prove the accused owns the drugs or prove that he purchased it from Silk Road.

Yeah but online law enforcement is in its infancy and with the long lasting trail left by most peoples online activity the may be prosecuted or at least have their name blackened years after they bought the drugs when online law enforcement improves. The TAILS system mentioned by MYNAMEISURL is impressive but I think any illegal activity online is a huge risk.

Annasopra · 29-08-2013 2:09pm

Leftist wrote: »

this.

summarize it in 2 sentences please.

People in Melbourne are using the internet to buy drugs.

Sleepy · 29-08-2013 2:18pm

Surprised people aren't using ParcelMotel for this kind of thing.

Pace2008 · 29-08-2013 2:35pm

chopper6 wrote: »

Three a night is no big deal..i used to knock around with people who'd be double dropping all night and end up caning 20-25 yokes over a long weekend....usually with a few wraps of charlie thrown in and a ton of weed and a heap of pints.

Anyway,my main problem was the way the article was written...it just sounded like typical Sunday Indo nonsense dreamed up scenario from the safety of an office with access to Google.

Three in a night should be enough if you're in any way sensible about your pills. After a certain point - 3 somewhat arbitrarily, though that's usually around the sweet spot for most people- you run into a case of diminishing returns. It's basic dose-effect-pharmacology: increasing the dose up to a certain point causes a rapidly increasing effect. But, after a certain level, upping your intake yields drastically decreased effect, to the extent that it becomes pointless to keep gobbing yokes. You don't get any higher, you just get more scatterbrained and the negative side effects become more apparent. You only have so many receptors that can be occupied.

20 bangers is just compulsive, and you're forcing yourself into a positive feedback loop - you're blunting your serotonic axons so you need to take more pills to get higher, which damages your neurons further, and so on. MDMA is nowhere near as harmful as popular opinion would have it, but excess like that is seriously increasing your risk of depression.

mikom · 29-08-2013 2:37pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Surprised people aren't using ParcelMotel for this kind of thing.

Paracetamol, yeah you can get that too.

FouxDaFaFa · 29-08-2013 2:41pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Surprised people aren't using ParcelMotel for this kind of thing.

I think that would actually be worse. The way SR works, you really could have some stranger sending you drugs in the post, it's very hard to prove you are the one who ordered them. It happens, especially if someone has a grudge against you and wants to put you in it.

With Parcel Motel, you have to actually to collect the package, with a code, confirming ownership.

Tiddlypeeps · 29-08-2013 2:43pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Surprised people aren't using ParcelMotel for this kind of thing.

That would be worse. At least with ordering it to your door you can use a fake name so you can deny any knowledge of it. Parcel motel need a working credit card to set up an account so you'd need to use your real details.

Pace2008 · 29-08-2013 2:50pm

Grayson wrote: »

Most ecstacy pills that are made don't have MDMA. They have MDEA or other derivitives. Because they're easier and cheaper to make.

Do you have any evidence to support this? Most of the knowledge regarding the content comes from users using pill-testing kits on the product. Marquis turns blue/black in the presence of MDMA and purplish with MDEA, so they should be easily distinguished.

I've been off the whole pill scene for the last year and a bit (promise I'll make up for it at EP though

); haven't been checking pillreports and the like. The only ones I've had in recent times were blue ghosts and I thought they weren't great, though apparently there are/were lots of different batches of varying quality.

Grayson · 29-08-2013 3:07pm

Pace2008 wrote: »

Do you have any evidence to support this? Most of the knowledge regarding the content comes from users using pill-testing kits on the product. Marquis turns blue/black in the presence of MDMA and purplish with MDEA, so they should be easily distinguished.

I've been off the whole pill scene for the last year and a bit (promise I'll make up for it at EP though ); haven't been checking pillreports and the like. The only ones I've had in recent times were blue ghosts and I thought they weren't great, though apparently there are/were lots of different batches of varying quality.

I've been off the scene for about 6-7 years. last time for me it was mitzies, speckled mitzies and bacardies.

Back then pill reports was showing most pills as other derivatives. Ireland was always bad for it. It was very hard to get pure MDMA. And there could be a huge variance in the quality of the pill after you took it.
I like the idea of dealers building up reputations online. I think it's slightly safer than getting random stuff off a friend of a friend of a friend.

ScumLord · 29-08-2013 3:18pm

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Not doing drugs is an even cheaper, healthier, and much less dangerous way of working.

Lots' of things are slightly dangerous and damaging to your health but if you didn't take risks your life wouldn't be worth living. Not doing drugs would be like never listening to rock music because they didn't like it in the 50s.

Billy86 wrote: »

I had three pints on Monday, before and during the Man Utd-Chelsea game. Guess that makes me an alcoholic so?

Seems to be under some people's definition. If you have a spliff your a stoner, so if you drink a pint that makes you an alco by association.

jalan8984 · 29-08-2013 3:22pm

ScumLord wrote: »

Not doing drugs would be like never listening to rock music because they didn't like it in the 50s.

chopper6 · 29-08-2013 3:25pm

Grayson wrote: »

I've been off the scene for about 6-7 years. last time for me it was mitzies, speckled mitzies and bacardies. Back then pill reports was showing most pills as other derivatives. Ireland was always bad for it. It was very hard to get pure MDMA. And there could be a huge variance in the quality of the pill after you took it.
I like the idea of dealers building up reputations online. I think it's slightly safer than getting random stuff off a friend of a friend of a friend.

Round about ten years ago the pills were FAR better than anything knocking around now...there were Mitsubishis,Rolexes,Supermen,Coke Bottles,Doves,Speckled Doves,Mosquitos and a host of others all high in MDMA.

The stuff available now with teh possible exception of Red Def Cons are scaggy rubbish with no actual "pill buzz" to them at all.....Or so i hear.

fatknacker · 29-08-2013 3:33pm

General General wrote: »

I've got patent pending on an icon of a pair of trainers tied together that hangs across the address bar of a browser to indicate that drugs are sold on the site in question at certain times of the day.

I'm going to make a f`cking mint.

Not unless I get in there first with my curser that changes to the white posing lady statue in the window while the page loads!

Billy86 · 29-08-2013 3:59pm

ScumLord wrote: »

Seems to be under some people's definition. If you have a spliff your a stoner, so if you drink a pint that makes you an alco by association.

It's a bit sad really, isn't it? You could count the number of spliffs I smoke per year with your fingers (and that's not the whole thing, just the odd drag after a night out) and I don't drink that much. My only two addictions would be caffeine and nicotine (and I'm giving my latest crack at quitting on Sep 1, wish me luck!). But I don't see the harm in people taking the more recreational stuff occasionally, some of the smartest and most successful people I know like to unwind after a stressful day with a joint or let loose with some MDMA the odd weekend.

It's all quite petty and sad, and really just an easy way to try and discredit someone's argument when you (well, they) have no strong logical recourse. A bit like when people tell foreigners "if you don't like it go home" or try to fob off Muslim's as terrorists when one of them points out a flaw or unflattering historical fact about Christianity.

kneemos · 29-08-2013 4:29pm

ScumLord wrote: »

Lots' of things are slightly dangerous and damaging to your health but if you didn't take risks your life wouldn't be worth living. Not doing drugs would be like never listening to rock music because they didn't like it in the 50s.

Seems to be under some people's definition. If you have a spliff your a stoner, so if you drink a pint that makes you an alco by association.

Drugs are boring.

hatrickpatrick · 29-08-2013 4:51pm

Sunglasses Ron wrote: »

It's not as simple as going to the Silk Road website or anything.

You first have to access something called the Deep Web (god knows) and pay with some crap called Bitcoins.

Basically the thing looks so complicated it gave me a headache.

Honestly, the deep web takes maybe 10 minutes to set up. 15 if you're completely technologically illiterate. :rolleyes:

hatrickpatrick · 29-08-2013 4:53pm

Regarding the stoner debate, I have one friend who has literally done every mind altering substance under the sun, and has been known to mix several hard drugs (AND alcohol) in the same night.

He also happens to be one of the smartest and most down to earth guys I know.

Whether or not you'll become a stereotypical "stoner" or not depends a lot more on your pre-drugs personality than what drugs you take.

Grayson · 29-08-2013 5:31pm

Billy86 wrote: »

It's a bit sad really, isn't it? You could count the number of spliffs I smoke per year with your fingers (and that's not the whole thing, just the odd drag after a night out) and I don't drink that much. My only two addictions would be caffeine and nicotine (and I'm giving my latest crack at quitting on Sep 1, wish me luck!). But I don't see the harm in people taking the more recreational stuff occasionally, some of the smartest and most successful people I know like to unwind after a stressful day with a joint or let loose with some MDMA the odd weekend.

Good luck with giving up smoking. i found it incredibly hard and i ended up smoking a year later. Grass on the other hand was no problem. I smoked a lot years ago and i kinda just stopped. By the time i gave up cigarettes I was smoking very rarely. I even bought a small bong when i gave up smoking cigarettes because i didn't want to smoke tobacco. A year later I hadn't used it so it shows how rarely i toked.

smellmepower · 29-08-2013 5:44pm

Can just go on Topix or most of those ad sites and buy pretty much whatever you want.Pay with a disposable money card like Ukash etc.Mate of mine buys Xanax and other downers regular enough.

Billy86 · 29-08-2013 6:16pm

Grayson wrote: »

Good luck with giving up smoking. i found it incredibly hard and i ended up smoking a year later. Grass on the other hand was no problem. I smoked a lot years ago and i kinda just stopped. By the time i gave up cigarettes I was smoking very rarely. I even bought a small bong when i gave up smoking cigarettes because i didn't want to smoke tobacco. A year later I hadn't used it so it shows how rarely i toked.

I was the same with grass - I blame Ireland being such a boring place to be honest, because I moved to Australia in 2011, and it never even occurred to me to bother smoking over there. I figured then that it was just something to do to pass the time or kill the boredom.

I've quit ciggies before for a few months at a go, but for one reason or another have slipped back in. I find the first 2-3 days not so bad, the next 7-10 days after that usually being AWFUL and just really tedious... then it tends to be grand. Think I just get too lax on and wind up reverting back. Getting older now though, so hopefully that puts the sh**s up me enough to keep off them.

Grayson · 30-08-2013 12:55pm

I went and checked out this site last night. installed tor etc... and got onto it. It is a very basic site but you'd expect it to be. there was pretty much everything you could ask for drug wise. It's surprising how much there is. I found a wiki for tor that listed other sites that are similar so it appears it's not alone.

A word of warning to everyone else though. you probably don't want to look at TOR unless you have an actual reason to. I probably won't be logging back on. randomly clicking around i ended up seeing stuff that made me close the browser, wash myself and my computer in bleach and hide under my bed. I can understand a dissident in china using it to contact the ourside world, but the recreational uses for the rest of us is pretty limited.

btw, Krebs wrote an article on silk road after someone tried to send drugs to him and get him arrested. It's quite funny.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/07/mail-from-the-velvet-cybercrime-underground/

FouxDaFaFa · 30-08-2013 1:45pm

^^

Yeah, anyone reading this thread and thinking "ah, might have a gawk at the deep web", go in with your eyes open. It's not all bad stuff but there's a hell of a lot of bad stuff.

Hoop66 · 30-08-2013 1:53pm

Child porn. Lots and lots of child porn.

In case anyone's wondering.

My name is URL · 30-08-2013 1:57pm

Hoop66 wrote: »

Child porn. Lots and lots of child porn.

In case anyone's wondering.

Yet over 95% of it is hosted on the 'clear web'. There was a woman interviewed on Moncrieff a few weeks ago, some specialist in combating that stuff and she mentioned that.

I'm not gonna try looking for a link to back that up because I don't want to search Google for 'where all the child porn at?'

listermint · 30-08-2013 2:00pm

My name is URL wrote: »

Yet over 95% of it is hosted on the 'clear web'. There was a woman interviewed on Moncrieff a few weeks ago, some specialist in combating that stuff and she mentioned that.

I'm not gonna try looking for a link to back that up because I don't want to search Google for 'where all the child porn at?'

but you just typed it....

kick his door in

shazam your in cuffs homes.

My name is URL · 30-08-2013 2:12pm

listermint wrote: »

but you just typed it....

kick his door in

shazam your in cuffs homes.

I better call Saul

Caliden · 30-08-2013 2:37pm

Here is a good follow up read with the author getting a chance to talk with the owner of Silk Road - 'Dread Pirate Roberts' :

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/meet-the-dread-pirate-roberts-the-man-behind-booming-black-market-drug-website-silk-road/1/

There are some rumours that the name is handed down from one owner to the next and that the first 'Dread Pirate Roberts' retired a few years ago.

ALiasEX · 30-08-2013 3:02pm

My name is URL wrote: »

Yet over 95% of it is hosted on the 'clear web'. There was a woman interviewed on Moncrieff a few weeks ago, some specialist in combating that stuff and she mentioned that.

I'm not gonna try looking for a link to back that up because I don't want to search Google for 'where all the child porn at?'

I presume that 95% figure is made up mostly of children naked on webcams, naked pictures from phones, etc. I doubt the worst of it stays on the clear web for long.

refusetolose · 06-11-2013 6:00pm

silk road 2.0 is up and running

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/06/silk-road-2-0-launches-promising-a-resurrected-black-market-for-the-dark-web/

FouxDaFaFa · 06-11-2013 6:03pm

refusetolose wrote: »

silk road 2.0 is up and running

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/06/silk-road-2-0-launches-promising-a-resurrected-black-market-for-the-dark-web/

The mayor of Toronto will be delighted.

Silk Road: The eBay of Illegal Drugs

Comments