How have vendors and sellers mostly been caught?

If you were trying to convince someone that the online market places were safer than selling/buying in real life, how would you explain how people have been arrested?

From what I remember people haven't been really caught solely from their use of the site but there were things they did in their offline life which they carelessly linked to their online life/activities.


Comments


[11 Points] None:

When I first decided to vend I actually made a notebook documenting known vendor arrests and the things that lead to them. I then made other notes about how to avoid those issues.

One thing struck me though. Most (besides Hero MDPro) were caught by means outside of what vendors commonly prepare for. One big thing amongst others that brought Nod down was his continued use a a specific font utilized across all his stealth combos.

Things like that. I should organize and publish all of it.


[7 Points] gerundive:

These figures are for the USA. The number of people who take drugs regularly is 10-20M. The number of people in prison for taking drugs is about 1M. The number of people using darknet markets is 150,000-250,000. The number of people known to have been arrested as a result of buying or selling on darknet markets is well under 100.

This sort of analaysis is very crude, the figures open to challenge, and any conclusions subject to all sorts of caveats. Nevertheless it makes the point that the risk in buying and selling on the darknet markets is not primarily from LE.


[7 Points] None:

I can't quite speak for vendors, but here's what I have gathered for buyers:

  1. Tips are a huge deal. A lot of people have big mouths, and like to tell everyone how cool they are about buying drugs. Tell it to the wrong person, or let the wrong person overhear you and they tell the police.

  2. Ordering internationally. Don't do it. What's the point? Id rather pay an extra 30 bucks for a gram of Ketamine then traffic drugs overseas with my name on it.

  3. Buying from vendors who are compromised. Pretty rare if you do your research. I really wouldn't worry about this one unless you're buying pounds of stuff regularly.

  4. There are a lot of stupid mistake people make. Most of these people have no business around these parts. For example, some people don't use PGP, or use multiple fake names on their regular address, or hell some people pick fights with vendors who have their addresses. There have actually been a few cases where a vendor has sent police to a buyers house because of the way they were acting, even if it made sense what the buyer was doing. If a vendor tells you to shut the fuck up about your FE order not arriving, you shut the fuck up.

That's pretty much what I've gathered over the years. If you do everything correctly, be quiet, and be smart, you're honestly golden.

I 100% believe that buying from these markets in the correct methods is safer than meeting up with a dealer.


[2 Points] None:

Old fashioned police work.


[2 Points] 666fun:

They're not. Darknet markets are no safer or better than RL (my opinion), just different. I've been buying drugs on the street and through friends for 20+ years and had one arrest to my name. And that charge got dropped. And of my many friends that partake, i can only think of a couple of arrests in our entire lifetimes. That's an incredibly high "success rate"

Looking at the prices for certain products on the Road, leads me to see that a lot of products are incredibly overpriced. That was nod's game too - sell far above retail, but just assure great service and great shipping.

Too many people say that SR is a panacea when its not. They just haven't been around long enough to know. And they buy into the mantra that everyone puts forward of "its safer" (its not - it's equivalent), "its cheaper" (it isn't, you're paying a huge premium buying on the Road, if nothing else you're paying postage and SR's commission), or "the drugs are better/more pure" (also rubbish - to the extent that drugs are less cut on the road, that's just because they got to the sellers hands that way, and end sellers generally just sell what they're given).

Pair that with FE scams, fake drug/pill press scams, and everything else, and unless you're completely brainwashed, you'll just see that SR trades one set of drawbacks for another. Yes, SR is a viable option, especially (i think) in areas where there isn't a good local supply, or for people who lack local connections or the ability to make them. But that's all. People have to drop the "its' safer, the drugs are cheaper and purer" lines. Its not - it's just that none of these are high risk activities, so long as you're not stupid.

Remember - it was in the 80's and 90's that you HAD to hit the ghetto areas for products. Nowadays, people have cell phones and cars - and everyone knows its far safer to drive and meet someone somewhere than stand on a street corner.


[1 Points] bumwatchies:

Some people are just unlucky in that the undercover police worked on them for a bust, just for buying paltry amounts of drugs.