Hello darknet.
First, let us, on behalf of AlphaBay, apologize for the situation caused. Due to numerous FUD campaigns in the past and recent spamming of Forums it took us few minutes more than usual to figure out some of the requests were legitimate while others were a total hoax to spread FUD. Any posts/requests during that period are relooked at. If you deposited during this period and are still missing your coins, please head to the Helpdesk and post the information in the static thread. We have a nice template in place and it will be promptly solved. Again sorry for the problem and, as usual, we quickly solved it.
I would like to point out the obvious fact registered account 'dnmThief' (https://pay.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/3kitj4/alphabay_next_level_incompetence/) because were scared (?) to speak with a more reputable identity. It has been clear from day one at AlphaBay we do not censor and we have freedom, so why you hide it is pointless? Let me answer and point out key information in your post which reveals your true intentions with this post. Lets take a look at what happened:
'and give some insight into just how ridiculously amateur AlphaBay truly is. ' 'deposits to simply follow a template he had prepared to reconcile the lost coins. what a noble & truly great leader.' 'Alpha02 that loveable rogue told everybody' 'And quickly solve it they did! so eager to crush the PR nightmare they had created they did the unthinkable.'
Getting the pattern here? If one puts aside the following facts: - There was a temporary issue with deposits. Fixed promptly by us. - The template was abused for few users due to overlooking on our side. Paid on our behalf, no coins lost, updated procedures and now it can not be abused. - Few people/groups were paid many months ago for providing fake dox. Why it was done? Security does not have a price for us and those thinking they are 'winners' for getting 5 or 10 BTC are, simply put, clowns who lack the brain power to understand why we did what we did. If the infos were true, we must have been arrested already. Its clear what we are trying to achieve - to throw off LE, misinformation amongst everyone about the identities.
Then, personally I think entire post of 'dnmThief' (https://pay.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/3kitj4/alphabay_next_level_incompetence/) looks like some other market fanboy only to shit on us. By looking at the obvious tell-signs (which are fact, not speculation) the little problem which occured was handled craftly used by someone/group to create a nice FUD around AlphaBay as if the temporary issue was not enough - our Forums were spammed as well (with unlegit requests, 'alphabay is exitting' and all the other crap) and we can provide proof.
Due to the now fixed deposits issue phishers saw an excellent opportunity to start spamming the forums with links/by pm (I am sure other marketplaces can confirm the spamming as they are getting hit too but we able to defend), others decided this small issue is of huge importance and it should be posted on reddit several times, helpdesk several times, bug reports several times all with different accounts however pattern is established. Do not get me wrong your feedback is important for us the way it was presented but do realise we need some physical time to fulfill your request/look into it. Continuosly spamming us will not result in your request being fulfilled first UNDERSTAND it and wait like all the normal users who stayed calm and had faith in us.
Since I am at it and rarely to almost never on reddit posting, I would like to discussed the ongoing debate to whether carders/fraudsters (whichever word you choose) should be trusted and give my personal opinion, based on logical deducations, all of which will be explained by examining few cases.
I as well as all Staff at AlphaBay fully understand everyones frustration and lack of trust when dealing with carders/fraudsters after the Evolution exit scam. It would be foolish of me to say 'trust carders', much more accurate (up to 99%) is 'trust no one'. The reason behind it is, without any doubt, we are all in the same environment more or less - the darknet scene. Some of us would be drug users, others dealers, carders, hackers, lurkers, security researchers, LE etc. but what all connects is the anonimity(1), the actions connected with certain screen name (2) & breaking official laws (3).
1) Without having valid information on the users identity, you can never be sure for anything, having said that even if you use other methods to come to logical deductions about specific questions, such as ... can user X be trusted? The most likely answer will be 'No, you can not' since you do not know the person in real life (IRL not the best bet for trust either). Can market X be trusted? Only if the admins can be trusted but who are they? In majority of cases masked people with NO BACKGROUND start marketplaces. Professional carders/hackers will know it is of core importance marketplace to not be LE so it must be possible to trace the background of the person(s) starting it. It is how I look at the situation too, you have many markets with high anonimity as to who is running them and markets, like us, where you clearly know person X created the marketplace, person X is verified carder/hacker and has been for quiet some time, leading to conclusion is not LE. But how do you know about the other marketplace admins? Are they carders,hackers? Probably are since to cash out such large ammounts you need to know exactly what you are doing with payment systems, how they work etc. Admins of other places might have not ever used someone else CC (credit card) ever in their life but those fake documents they submitted are most likely stolen/forged. In either case this is something carders skill is required, think about it. The level of anonimity can only allow up to a certain level of trust so to speak.
2) Verto started Tor Carding Forums before introducing in the beginning of 2014 his marketplace - Evolution. The reason why I accent on this is many people spread rumours alpha02 is close person to Verto and/or (depending on the version) is part of Evolution scamming, this is FALSE allegation. Construction of AlphaBay had already began underway and alpha02 made himself famous in the carder world with his unique guide on ACH transfers, and other lucrative methods of generating income (CarderScience is the name). Other than that, alpha02 had spotless reputation and zero scam reports.
As far as I go, I have had many alias throughout different times, initially started off as a hacker but due to the fact the information needs to be monetized, here I am. I can be checked on (almost) all russian underground forums with profiles dating back few years. Those who have conducted business with me at some point can vouch for my professionalism and skills.
By having this two informations and adding current such as how many users were scammed by AlphaBay? Zero. How many user coins trapped by AlphaBay? Zero. Has AlphaBay ever abused powers to users? No. Is AlphaBay running transparent management with involvement of community? Yes. etc., based on it, you can predict/conclude about a person and the intentions to some extend based on previous behaviour.
3) Regardless of being drug dealer, drug user or fraudster, all are breaking the law. But wait, I know all of you would jump on with the argument 'but hey ordering drugs is not harming anyone' and while that is valid it is still illegal regardless of which way you put it. The illusion of the majority of drug users on here is real that they are the better if compared to fraudsters/carders in terms of morals. In contast to drug users/dealers, fraudsters on the majority of cases work to support their families by exploiting harvested data by hackers through breaches or botnets so people saying 'carders are selfish' are full of crap.
I think it is safe to assume due to an isolated incident here, it was known carders ran a darknet marketplace which exit scammed with all of the users bitcoin, not all carders are like this. As previously explained in point 1), administrating darknet market, you need to be hacker to have the coding skills and/or fraudster for cashing your earnings depending on the success of your market and should you be discriminated because of it? Why being a carder and running a marketplace is a problem? Because you were left with millions in losses in isolated case with a darknet marketplace which happened to be run by carders? It seems idiotic to me and not logical at all. And also the shits us being Russian or not what difference does it make? Those of you who say this, most likely lack the information that Russians are very reliable partners and have been longer in the game of using the Internet, legaly or illegaly, to profit from it and the facts/proof is all over the net. Who do you think provides the majority of financial data in any form CCs, bank accs etc.? Which is top place for malware to be developed? Which hackers have biggest breaches? etc. its all facts known but delibarely ignored.
Based on the laws of logical deduction and 1,2,3, using purely facts, I have come to the conclusion CARDERS = DRUG USERS = DRUG DEALERS = HACKERS. I have always been on the opinion WHAT YOU DO FOR WORK and WHO YOU ARE AS PERSONALITY are 2 separate things and one must never overlap/at the expense of the other.
Complaints answered in the following topics, moderators please mark as solved or whatever you have in place for such resolvement as I have made my case: https://pay.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/3kitj4/alphabay_next_level_incompetence/ https://pay.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/3khewe/over_4_hours_30_confirms_and_deposits_not_showing/ https://pay.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/3kh9mc/market_warning_alphabay_do_not_deposit/
Thank you. -DS
If there was just a place you could post your 54 update-threads/week....oh wait, there is such a place!
/r/AlphaBay.
Sorry, but I'm really growing tired that you seem to be the only market that doesn't understand we are not your personal ad-board.
Posting an update? No problem.
Posting an update about every little thing? No.
We already warned Trappy_Pandora not to overdo it and now I'm warning you, too. It doesn't make a difference if you use twenty different PR-accounts to post each thread, it's just too much lately.
Cut. It. Down.
Thanks.