Is this just coincidence, is this paranoia, or is it a warning of more things to watch out for?

I contacted a vendor a few days after the AB takedown on Dream, inquiring about the purchase and tracking methods used for certain products. I got no response until a day or two ago, and the account was inactive until a few days before I received my reply. This was the reply I got:

Hey There. I wasnt shipping because my pgp was not working. I couldnt decrypt any messages. Changed programs so hopefully that helped. sorry for inconvenience, [redacted]. Thanks [redacted]

At first, I didn't think too much about it, and was about to write a response with some further inquiries. Upon checking the vendor's profile, however, I decided to re-check his/her PGP key, and sure enough, it's a completely new key (albeit sharing the same name/other credentials).

I've obviously ceased all communications with said person at this point, and don't want to prematurely point fingures, as I admit there is a possible logical, reasonable explanation for this. However, instead of sending my response to said vendor (do I use his new or old key for this? haha, just kidding), I'll just write it out here for you guys, so you can do the math yourselves:

Hey [redacted], I have to admit, it's kind of suspicious you taking so long to get back to me... A delay is certainly understandable, but not even logging in for some time during all the recent events going on certainly looks suspicious in itself.

What's truly icing on the cake, however, is the sudden change in your private PGP key. What was wrong with the old one? I'm sure even with your bad encryption software, the old key you were using was just fine... Perhaps it's time to try a new tactic?

Again, my response is one third sarcastic, one third speculation, and one third paranoia. Still though, this is exactly what we're told to look out for here, and I just happened to stumble across it. If you happen to be [redacted], I apologize for making any presumptions as I may have - however, given the circumstances, I have to admit... Shit looks real weird to me.

Am I right, or am I wrong? If someone knocks on my door within the next 24 hours and offers me a red pill, or a blue pill, should I take both?


Comments


[7 Points] ThRoWaWaaY5461238547:

How are you questioning this, this is ripping all the red flags right out of the ground.


[1 Points] None:

[removed]


[1 Points] Mr_magic122:

Sketchy...


[1 Points] None:

Ok... there are 2 possibilities, they're le OR some key pairs won't allow you to decrypt messages from certain users, I had this problem one time and had to change keys.

However the second option wouldn't be done by someone who's had the same key for a while, it would likely be a new vendor, if the vendor has been around a while with the key you used in the first place I'd consider them compromised, if they're fairly new it could be understandable.