A fun new way to get scammed or worse: Dark Net Extortion

Using a throwaway account, but having worked with several users on reddit who are freaked out about some recent incidents based on posts here, its time to talk about the cool new way people are scamming on this sub. Extortion!

There sometimes appears a post on here which advertises all kinds of products and the way to order, typically through tor or safemail. From what I can gather, several users have gone ahead and placed an order with these posters. Here's what happens next, and we'll take the example of /u/Pillboxy as he is the latest scammer to try and pull this on our users.

  1. The transaction begins normally with the poster pretending to be a seller.

  2. The buyer contacts the seller and sends the BTC and address, via PGP, privnote or unencrypted, for this scam it doesn't matter.

  3. 'Something' happens or the transaction gets confused on the scammer's side, and they let the user know about this. Often at this point the scammer will ask for a phone number for verification and to give an update. They scammer will then call and pretend to be DEA or something else in order to catch the user off guard.

  4. The scammer then google's the user (as they do have their real name/address) and writes a long email saying essentially "You work at X company, you know these people (if they can access your facebook publically) and it would be a shame to be taken down by a felony drug charge [insert made up drug charge here]. If you are cooperative hopefully we won't have to alert the authorities."

  5. The scammer makes it very clear to avoid actually saying they are with any specific agency (FBI, DEA) but may hint at the fact that they are an undercover agent in a vague way, and that the buyer may be in big trouble.

  6. At this point, the scammer, having freaked out the buyer, will ask the buyer to pay a fine "to make this all go away", or else he will send all this information to the FBI/come to his house and the user's life will be ruined.

This is a mashup of a few stories I've been told by other redditors, but most of the details were the same, so make sure that you understand that REDDIT IS NOT A SAFE PLACE TO CONTACT ANYONE FOR ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY ILLEGAL THINGS.

There is a new game in town and if you get someone telling you they are vaguely associated with law enforcement and that you are in trouble, you need to let the mods know at once, and hopefully post a throwaway with the name of the user and what happened. What these users are doing is a much bigger crime (impersonating a federal officer) than buying a little bit of weed, they have a lot more to lose, although it seems they are mainly in another country.

In fact, the actual DEA recently put out this notice which essentially describes exactly what some people have figured out they could pull on the users of our subreddit: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubs/pressreleases/extortion_scam.htm

I hope you upvote this for visibility and maybe the mods can sticky it as well. I get the feeling that this is only the start. Remember, anonymity is key, and if you do need to get something, remember the worst case scenario and decide if its worth it.


Comments


[31 Points] sohhlz:

The public should be aware that no DEA agent will ever contact members of the public by telephone to demand money or any other form of payment.

Yeah, the DEA always shows up in person when they are going to steal your money.


[12 Points] the-hobgoblin:

This scam does work and works well unfortunately. There's also quite a number of them that worked in the past. Worst of all, the scammers actually do follow through on occasion to SWAT the buyer or otherwise ruin people's lives with the information they have on the buyer. Coachella was one such scammer that called the police on a buyer he was extorting that thought he could call his bluff and a SWAT team came to their house.

On SR1, there was a seller of meth that called the cops on a buyer. Vortexmilkman was his name.

None of your information is safe. PGP doesn't mean as much as you think. For instance, Blue Giraffe on SR1 kept a huge, plaintext list of clients names and addresses which he/they said was done to make it easier to know who bought what and to reward frequent buyers. The list was leaked out. A lot of vendors keep names and addresses. Or some who use drop-shippers obviously send the drop-shipper your name and address in clear text. One such case was when the drop-shipper a vendor was using started contacting buyers directly in an effort to cut out the middle man, AKA the vendor.

There is no safe way to buy drugs. It's all about how much you are willing to risk in the process. If you have an online social presence that matches the name you used with the address you gave the vendor, you're playing Russian roulette.

Of course it's a crime to extort, but the scammers aren't worried about that and neither are the vendors who do it since it is extremely difficult to catch them. Plus, you can't exactly explain to the authorities why they are extorting you. After all, you were buying drugs.

Don't forget that the authorities can and do use confidential informants to buy or sell drugs. Don't think so? Read the indictments that were posted about several drug dealers on SR who were busted with the help of CIs.

Nope, the small time buyer isn't safe from anything at all. The idea that you're buying personal use quantities makes you safe is a false assurance. You're exactly who an agent wants to turn into a confidential informant that they can lawfully use and abuse.

PGP strength is irrelevant if you're sending messages to a turned vendor who's working as a confidential defendant or informant.

Bitcoins are pseudo-anonymous. There are a set of circumstances that deanonymize the sender and/or recipient. Obviously if you are sending them to a CI or CD, mixing, tumbling, etc is irrelevant. It may only conceal the exact source but does nothing to protect you from being implicated in a buy when you are buying from a busted vendor or CI/CD.

Doom and gloom. Yep. So what's the solution? It's like sex and relationships. The only way to completely avoid catching an STD or getting your heart broken is to not have sex and not have any relationships. But that won't do because just like sex and relationships, you're drawn to buying and using drugs.

The only thing you can do to try to protect yourself is to not be yourself when buying drugs. A drop and a fake name is essential to max security. The key is how to create and use a fake name and associate the fake name to the drop.

Sorry to disappoint you but those details you will have to think about and figure out on your own. It's not that hard to do. But once you figure it out, it's better than plausible deniability. It's actual deniability. And once you figure it out, don't post it publicly. Instead send private messages if you want to help someone else figure it out.

I warned a poster I chatted with in the past about PillBoxy. Did he listen? No. Is he in a very rough spot? Yes. What was the first clue? No real seller would list those kinds of quantities for sale publicly. That's just asking LE to take a VERY keen interest in them and anyone who would buy from them. There's no such thing as personal use quantities of schedule II and III drugs and substances in the US. Buy enough of them and they catch you, they will slap you upside the head with an intent to distribute charge. Which is a separate charge from the first obvious charge of buying illegal drugs. They can also slap you with all kinds of conspiracy charges. All these charges are serious because they are all Federal charges. Each charge adds years to your sentence if convicted.

Be safe people. Love yourselves.

And to those who got scammed, my heart goes out to you. Being scammed doesn't mean you're stupid. It means you trust and believe in the goodness of humanity. You just forgot that not everyone is good and some are actually out to harm you. I wish you the very best and if you think you might need a lawyer, you should start looking for one just in case. Things can move fast once the SHTF. Fortune favors the prepared.


[7 Points] AdjunctSocrates:

Remember, the only thing you should ever say to cops: I want to talk to my lawyer. Otherwise, for goodness sake, shut up.


[3 Points] Litecoin_Messiah:

Wow thanks for sharing this detailed post, Discussing with other mods about making this a sticky or at least adding it to the sidebar in the near future.


[6 Points] None:

Do people really think dea is gonna call and bribe them?


[4 Points] some_generic_dude:

If the DEA wants your money or anything else, they will generally kick down your door and take it.

This reminds me of some popup ads from the past, there they essentially say: "Warning! Porn has been detected in your browser! Buy our software for $50 and clean it up immediately."

Also, in the TPB comments: "I downloaded this torrent and then I got a letter from my ISP's legal department..."


[3 Points] None:

I can't believe people would fall for something like that, but it plays on peoples fears of getting caught so I can kind of see it.

Thanks for the detailed post. Will definitely be on the look out.


[2 Points] None:

I gotta say it is quite something to watch all of this develop. It is like reading a good cyberpunk novel.

edit: i mean the entire darknet right now.


[3 Points] NA1947PRO:

too sad reading things like this.


[2 Points] masterbaexunn:

This is why whenever possible, buy things from reputable sites or dealers ON THE CLEARWEB. I just saw a post on r/reloaded where the OP was asking for a hotel booking. If you're dealing with an unknown or unreputable source pay with a CC, so charges can be reversed if need be. Giving your info to some random entity on the darkweb should be done with caution, 99% of the time you'll have no recourse once you're fucked.

Edit: I know my comment is a bit off topic, but it pisses me off that people are that dumb... If a person claiming to be UC comes up to you in person, you'd want to see a badge or something. Why is it different on the phone? Caller ID spoofing is easy.


[2 Points] shitstormy:

This begs the question, should stupid people be taking drugs?


[2 Points] twigburst:

I've had online pharmacies try this shit before, I just told them to fuck off and hung up on them. Just don't have a dirty house and you won't have issues, DEA isn't going to kick your door down for an 8 ball of coke or an oz of weed.


[-1 Points] None:

[removed]