Posts Tagged ‘internet scam’

Red Pill, Blue Pill or No Pill?

Posted: February 25, 2013 in Drugs, Silk Road, Uncategorized
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The most successful Australian vendor on Silk Road has conned their customers out of tens of thousands of dollars

Red pill, blue pill or no pills?

Red pill, blue pill or no pills?

Aussie vendor EnterTheMatrix had a simple and effective business model.  Purchase Australia’s most popular party drugs from overseas vendors on Silk Road, add a 400% markup and resell them to Aussie Silk Road customers.  Although there were plenty of grumbles about the prices, those who wanted their drugs quickly (ETM sent by Express Post) and did not want to take the risk of importing via Customs (legal consequences are much harsher when ordering overseas) begrudgingly paid a premium.  After all, it was around the same as street prices and at least the quality of the goods tended to be consistently high.

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Who’s got it in for the Silk Road?

Posted: January 23, 2013 in Dark Web, Silk Road
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Ever since the suspected DDoS attack in November, the admins at Silk Road have been combating a number of different scams and attacks on the site.

The Quickbuy Scam (see below) - this vendor's image has been hacked with a fake bitcoin address

The Quickbuy Scam (see below) – this vendor’s image has been hacked with a fake bitcoin address

It’s hard to tell whether this is a concerted attack by one group determined to piss the website off or each one is separate. The most pervasive ones have been:

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Conversation with a hitman (or not)

Posted: August 3, 2012 in Dark Web, Hitmen, Internet Scams, Silk Road
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This image is probably very copyright to Sony and I’m sorry, but it is really really hard to find an appropriate image. Please don’t fine me, Sony

Today the owner of Silk Road announced the closure of its sister site, the weapons-dealing Armory.  The reason was not heat from law enforcement or negative press, it was simply that the site was not profitable and members complained that many listings were scams.

There are dozens of black market sites selling all manner of things on the Dark Web, but only Silk Road seems to have any real commercial success.  The closure of the Armory raises the question of whether it is the business model or the products that cause a market to fail.  Complaints of scams riddle the dark web and the online black market might not be as successful and prolific as some fear.  Is there something about drugs that inherently make them the only truly viable anonymous online black market product?

As I delved into the Dark Web I noticed a plethora of advertisements for contract killers. I decided to try and engage one of the more prolific advertisers, an organisation that claims to have many successful hits, to kill a fictitious ex-husband.  Here’s what transpired:

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Messin’ with the scammers

Posted: July 18, 2012 in Internet Scams
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Today my latest article appeared in The Age/SMH:  From Nigeria With Love.


I did a fair bit of research for this, but one of the most fun things I’ve done is mess with the scammers who contact me wanting to buy a parachute I have for sale.  Not quite the legendary efforts carried out by 419eater (please, if you have a couple of hours, check that link out!)  but here’s one of the exchanges for your amusement:

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