Question about attacks and extortion

Just curious. As I'm following the drama in the threads about the attacks on the markets I had a question. I noticed one of the perpetrators mentioned that one of the reasons the markets are being attacked instead of big corporate sites that would garner more media attention is the authorities (LE, etc...) wouldn't be on their back because they are attacking illegal sites. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the authorities be very interested in these persons? I mean committing extortion is a very serious crime. Furthermore, the funds garnered from this extortion would be coming from illegal sales or drugs, etc. Methinks LE would be very interested in these person(s). Also, if these person(s) committing this extortion are organized wouldn't this be covered under RICO statutes? I'm no lawyer, but this seems to me like this would be the case. Discuss...


Comments


[1 Points] The_Madhouse:

The people attacking the website probably know how to cover their tracks. The gov could get them if they wanted to devote a lot of resources. But with LE it's all about getting the most results for your resources that I doubt they would care. If you post proof of the doxx than they will target the comprised website. If you just say you have it they aren't gonna waste a lot of time based on no proof of the dox. They're bringing risk onto themselves which is unnecessary but if they can take down some of the most secure websites than they know how to stay hidden. They wouldn't want a market admin trying to kill them because of the attack


[1 Points] sobulbous:

The government would be pissed if someone beat them to the punch simply because they don't get the gold at the end of the rainbow. Taking down these markets without the BTC that goes along with it is not as big as a win for LE as you might think it is...it's all about that seizing that coin.

If these attacks make it easier for them to infiltrate these markets, why would they care? Let someone else deal with that, they just want the money.


[1 Points] Theeconomist1:

I saw that too and the way I interpreted was that illegal sites, or actually extorting anyone doing highly illegal things, are less likely to involve the cops. I guess the point of extorting is that the person being extorted is doing something they dont' want known, but I'd imagine a larger company has the legal team and experience on how to deal with potential extortionists whereas DNM admins won't and they won't want to go to the police to report the extortion attempts. Extortion is extremely serious but often in order for the victim to get legal protection they have to expose themselves to LE as to what they are doing.

At the end of the day, anyone being extorted is doing something they don't want known - cheating on their spouse, taxes, taking bribes, whatever. that's why extortion works. The victim wants the problem to go away and usually only go to the cops when they are tapped out.

So unless I misunderstood the original post, I don't think it was so much that LE wouldn't be interested in the extortionist, its either that the person being extorted is of higher value than the extortionist in this case or the victim won't go to the cops for protection in the first place. But one thing you are right about - the extortionist would be of high value to LE in the case of a DNM admin being extorted simply b/c LE is highly interested in dismantling these sites. I think that if LE were to pay attention to the extortionist, it wouldn't be b/c of the extortion crime but b/c of their interest in knowing what the extortionist knows so they can grab the DNM admin. Just my opinion.