Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: kmfkewm on July 12, 2012, 06:33 pm
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10819029
A Customs officer has been found to be a member of a secretive online marketplace which offers global delivery of illegal drugs, pornography, firearms and fake passports.
The officer, who has name suppression, has already appeared in Waitakere District Court on several methamphetamine-related offences, including supply of the class-A drug.
But the Herald understands that when police seized his personal computer, he told them they would find software and electronic history showing access to a hidden site called Silk Road.
Authorities worldwide have struggled to combat the site's growing popularity because encrypting software makes it difficult to trace or identify its users.
Silk Road claims to be an anonymous online marketplace where electronic currency is used to sell and buy illegal drugs and contraband - from cocaine or LSD to fake passports.
A sister site called The Armory offers weapons and ammunition.
They function just like legitimate online shopping sites and feature sellers' profiles detailing their trading history and customer feedback.
Article continues below
Sellers offer to vacuum-seal and post orders internationally, with a false return-to-sender address.
Yesterday, a NZ Customs spokeswoman - when asked if the site had affected attempts to import drugs - said there had generally been a significant increase in interceptions.
But the volume of drugs found on each occasion was often less than normal, meaning the total seized had not grown significantly, she said.
In a post on Silk Road's forum this week, an "official New Zealand thread" warned fellow Kiwis to keep a low profile.
"The more we boast about it, the easier our mail becomes to profile and target and we would be stupid to think that law enforcement doesn't browse these forums."
This year, a Dunedin university student and his associate used the site to arrange for 165 Ecstasy pills to be mailed from the Netherlands.
The drugs were intercepted by Customs and the Herald understands they were found to be pure MDMA - a rarity for Ecstasy in New Zealand.
The 18-year-old told police that he agreed to let the pills be sent to his address to help fund a 12-month exchange trip to Canada.
The extent of the Customs officer's use of Silk Road is unclear.
The Herald has been told that he claimed he used the site as research for his work. However, it is understood the Customs Service decided this explanation was unlikely.
Yesterday, the officer told the Herald he "wasn't using" Silk Road.
When asked why it was on his home computer, he said: "I knew about it, because I worked for Customs. But since I have name suppression, I'd like to make no comment".
The Herald accessed Silk Road and found a sidebar showing categories of listings.
There were more than 2000 listings for drugs such as cocaine and cannabis, with accompanying pictures, price-tags and product descriptions.
Forged drivers' licences and passports were among other offerings.
One US-based trader was selling custom-made John Key blotters - preprinted sheets of blotting paper that can be dipped in an LSD solution - "for all you Kiwi bastards".
Increased media attention has led to the site's community growing and, with that, a rise in scammers.
Last month, the Customs officer appeared in court on a total of 11 methamphetamine-related charges.
It is understood the man's alleged offending was uncovered during police inquiries into another crime.
The alleged offending was not directly related to the man's work.
Although the amounts of methamphetamine involved were small, a decision was made to press charges because of the nature of the man's employment.
HOW IT WORKS
* Silk Road is accessed through browsing software called Tor - The Onion Router - which bounces users' connections off multiple servers worldwide. This is said to make identity untraceable.
* Tor was developed by the United States Navy, and has been hailed by campaigners as a way to retain free speech and avoid censorship.
* Two US senators have urged the United States Attorney-General to crack down on Silk Road and the digital currency that enables purchases on it, Bitcoins.
* Goods on Silk Road can only be bought using Bitcoin, an independent online currency.
* The peer-to-peer currency, which works via a piece of open-source software, aids anonymity on Silk Road because it is not linked to any institution.
* Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik has previously said that because the currency log is public, it's possible that buyers could be tracked. "Attempting major illicit transactions with Bitcoin, given existing statistical analysis techniques deployed in the field by law enforcement, is pretty damned dumb," he told Gawker.com.
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When did blotting paper become illegal? ??? You can buy them legally on sites like Amazon as well as the clearnet. They`re decleared as 'art'.
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Posted this yesterday :P.
He's just a dumbass lol (customs worker)
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It doesn't really say how he got caught. I thought it was secure and safe to use this site...scary....
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He's just a dumbass lol (customs worker)
If the story is to be believed, I agree:
But the Herald understands that when police seized his personal computer, he told them they would find software and electronic history showing access to a hidden site called Silk Road.
Duh. Tell them nothing, and let them find it themselves. Also, having nothing to find is generally a good idea too. ;)
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It doesn't really say how he got caught. I thought it was secure and safe to use this site...scary....
Uhmm... its pretty straight forward. He told them about his account on silkroad and revealed his transactions. The deal went wrong because of his actions, not because of the site.
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That is one pretty stupid customs officer.
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If only he took a minute to visit the security section of the forum, he could have handed over his laptop and said 'have fun' ::)
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thanks for the read, i thought it was funny that they made a point to mention scamming in there.
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he got caught because he was dealing in Meth IRL, the cops had NO CLUE about his silk road dealings until he told them....what a fucking muppett !
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If only he took a minute to visit the security section of the forum, he could have handed over his laptop and said 'have fun' ::)
a simple live cd would have saved him the issues.
your mind will still be the best place to keep info, kinda risky if your memory sucks dick but w.e
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Maybe the reason he has name suppression is because the article really SHOULD read like this:
A Customs officer has been found to be the founder of a secretive online marketplace.....
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One US-based trader [foxymeow] was selling custom-made John Key blotters - preprinted sheets of blotting paper that can be dipped in an LSD solution - "for all you Kiwi bastards".
I won SR!
Its too bad I didn't post the picture maybe it would have made it into the article!
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If only he took a minute to visit the security section of the forum, he could have handed over his laptop and said 'have fun' ::)
Yeah, keep meaning to do this. I think the article motivates me that little bit more......
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One US-based trader [foxymeow] was selling custom-made John Key blotters - preprinted sheets of blotting paper that can be dipped in an LSD solution - "for all you Kiwi bastards".
I won SR!
Its too bad I didn't post the picture maybe it would have made it into the article!
"for all you kiwi bastards" lol foxy rules
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One US-based trader [foxymeow] was selling custom-made John Key blotters - preprinted sheets of blotting paper that can be dipped in an LSD solution - "for all you Kiwi bastards".
I won SR!
Its too bad I didn't post the picture maybe it would have made it into the article!
"for all you kiwi bastards" lol foxy rules
I'll sign the blotters if anyone want :)
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Kiwi bastard is a term of endearment.
Used to work with some Kiwi bastards.
Fucking telling me about the plants they grew outdoors!
Stoned almost as much as me.
Good bunch.
And the Custom Officer actually had his username and pass.
He WAS a customs officer so flags will have been raised I guess at work. Meth user, who can hide that habit in work? And its a drug that does leave the user rattled so maybe he folded under pressure and admitted shit.
As for live CDs, would a live USB not be the same? I boot up a customized Linux, includes Tor, I use and when I close it there is not trace on my pc. I hope! Got to read the security, got a live CD also - but I guess bulk buyers and vendors are the ones who ought to use that shit more than buyers!
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It is understood the man's alleged offending was uncovered during police inquiries into another crime.
this is the important line in the article, imo
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As for live CDs, would a live USB not be the same? I boot up a customized Linux, includes Tor, I use and when I close it there is not trace on my pc. I hope! Got to read the security, got a live CD also - but I guess bulk buyers and vendors are the ones who ought to use that shit more than buyers!
or just use TrueCrypt and encrypt your entire hard drive, and made a hidden partition with all your shit on it.... hand your laptop over to LEO and tell em 'good luck getting it un-encrypted'
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TrueCrypt can be broken with shitty keys, beware.
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TrueCrypt can be broken with shitty keys, beware.
could you elaborate a little for the less pc savvy pls "shitty keys" ?
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Your password for one should be atleast 25+ characters, upper and lowercase, symbols, etc. You'll alos notice when generating the truecrypt partition or file it will generate a 'key' the longer you let it generate the more secure your shit is, its hard to explain if you googled it im sure it would come up (sorry my brain is currently dead from being at work all day, still got more hours of this shit ugh)
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Your password for one should be atleast 25+ characters, upper and lowercase, symbols, etc. You'll alos notice when generating the truecrypt partition or file it will generate a 'key' the longer you let it generate the more secure your shit is, its hard to explain if you googled it im sure it would come up (sorry my brain is currently dead from being at work all day, still got more hours of this shit ugh)
You need to have some marbles in your head to begin with...
1. You should be setting a STRONG pass phrase for your password...
2. You can encrypt the hard drive/partition -- and hide the fact its encrypted with TrueCrypt..
when mine boots it gives an error "NO Operating System Found"
but what you dont know is, if i just type in my pass phrase and hit enter, it will boot.
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kinda pointless to encrypt your drive here in NZ when the cops can just charge you for not telling them the password....
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he was probably intercepting packets from sr aswell to smoke
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Sure Truecrypt/live boot cds/usbs/passphrases would help, but not in this case. He basically told them everything, even though they never asked him. If he had done the steps presented here, he`s still probably divulge them rendering his security useless.
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We all know how media works. It's often shit.
They likely threatened him immediately with some crazy charges into giving up everything he could and he folded immediately.
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We all know how media works. It's often shit.
They likely threatened him immediately with some crazy charges into giving up everything he could and he folded immediately.
True, I guess he must have been really scared, perhaps when he was tweaked. Poor fellow....
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We all know how media works. It's often shit.
They likely threatened him immediately with some crazy charges into giving up everything he could and he folded immediately.
True, I guess he must have been really scared, perhaps when he was tweaked. Poor fellow....
It just sucks that we are the major victims of this war on drugs. And so what if a customs office wants to get high. The only problem I have with drug are H and crack, and if you want to throw away your life just make sure you drop your kids off with a responsible person, so they are taken care of. I heard of a few people getting their kids taken away because the go caught with an ounce of weed, they usual have to jump through major hoops to get them back, but hell there are many kids going to bed hungry because one or both of their parents have gamboled their money away. And no one is going to close down the casinos any time soon.
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It just sucks that we are the major victims of this war on drugs. And so what if a customs office wants to get high. The only problem I have with drug are H and crack, and if you want to throw away your life just make sure you drop your kids off with a responsible person, so they are taken care of. I heard of a few people getting their kids taken away because the go caught with an ounce of weed, they usual have to jump through major hoops to get them back, but hell there are many kids going to bed hungry because one or both of their parents have gamboled their money away. And no one is going to close down the casinos any time soon.
:'( There`s already enough pain in the world. :'(
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Looks like I made out a winner out of all this. Does anyone have the newspaper clipping!!! I want to put those sheets up as ebay and say "AS FEATURED IN THE NZ HERALD!!!"
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Haha. Sounds like this guy wasnt a very good cop but an even worse criminal.
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Looks like I made out a winner out of all this. Does anyone have the newspaper clipping!!! I want to put those sheets up as ebay and say "AS FEATURED IN THE NZ HERALD!!!"
I`m sure they sell the newspapers online in physical form. Lol, that will surely do your business good.
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kinda pointless to encrypt your drive here in NZ when the cops can just charge you for not telling them the password....
i would take the charge of withholding information vs giving them the keys to the drive with all my "activities".
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Sounds like the guy was
Haha. Sounds like this guy wasnt a very good cop but an even worse criminal.
Sounds like the guy was a straight meth head.
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Sounds like dude was stoned at work and got caught.....Or had drugs in his locker or on his person..
Who knows.... Speeders are crazy :P (no offense to you meth users )
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Admins please wake the f up and make this forum members only.
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Admins please wake the f up and make this forum members only.
Its useless as the opposition will just make accounts to see them. Making an account takes just a few seconds.