Darkweb Black Market AlphaBay Shutdown & Suspected Founder Commits Suicide
The closure of AlphaBay follows in the footsteps of Silk Road, the Darkweb marketplace where users could buy all kinds of illegal and illicit goods, and is taken down by international law enforcement.
AlphaBay Market — one of the largest Dark Web marketplaces for drugs, guns, and other illegal goods — that mysteriously went dark earlier this month without any explanation from its admins has reportedly been shut down by the international authorities.
AlphaBay, aka "the new Silk Road", had filled the void left by the shutdown of the original darkweb black market that provided a space where users could use Bitcoin to purchase drugs, weapons and other illegal goods. The popularity of the original Silk Road was largely due to the anonymity and convenience the online marketplace provided to its users.
After the disappearance of Silk Road, AlphaBay emerged in 2014 and became a leader among dark web marketplaces for
selling illicit goods from drugs to stolen credit card numbers, exploits, and malware.
Earlier this year the AlphaBay was hacked and 200, 000 private unencrypted messages were stolen from several users. Furthermore, similar sights such as Evolution have used a "rip-and-run" strategy vanishing overnight and taking bitcoin stored on user accounts along with them.
Now [2016] it looks as if Alphabay, the latest reigning top market with over 50,000 listings of "drugs and chemicals" for sale and 12,000 "fraud" products like stolen online accounts and credit cards, may be cashing in on users' misplaced trust, too. An endless stream of complaints on Reddit's "darknetmarkets" page and Alphabay's own Tor-protected user forum accuse the site of intermittently stealing users' bitcoins and deflecting the blame to weak password or a phishing schemes. (Alphabay's moderators didn't respond to WIRED's request for comment on the string of thefts.)
"There are numerous reports of AlphaBay funds going missing and shady behavior from AlphaBay administration," writes one popular online drug vendor known by the name GrandWizardsLair, explaining his decision to no longer sell on the site. "Should have listened when people said AlphaBay is a scam site," wrote another user whose bitcoins disappeared. "An expensive lesson learned."
Alexandre Cazes
According to reports, several coordinated international raids were conducted in the United States, Canada and Thailand. The alleged creator and founder of AlphaBay, Alexander Cazes, was apprehended by authorities on July 5th in Bangkok.
The 26-year-old Canadian citizen was awaiting extradition to the United States when a guard found him hanged in his jail cell on Wednesday, the Chiang Rai Times confirms. Cazes is believed to have hanged himself using a towel.
Cazes had been living in Thailand for nearly 8 years. During his arrest, authorities also seized "four Lamborghini cars and three houses worth about 400 million baht ($11.7 million) in total."
[The Hacker News]
The Silk Road
When the FBI shutdown the Silk Road in 2013 it also arrested the "supposed" creator and founder Ross Ulbricht who was accused of hiring hired assassins to eliminate his rivals. Ulbricht is said to have used the username The Dread Pirate Roberts (from the classic children's movie the Princess Bride), and written ideological anarcho-capitalist manifestos and messages to the website users and supporters. Many believe that Ulbricht was not the creator of the Silk Road, and like the character from the movie, the title was handed down from user to user leading many to believe that their may have been multiple Dread Pirate Roberts involved in the creation and maintenance of the website.
Ultimately, the judge in the case of the Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht handed down a severe sentence of life in prison without parole..
On Friday, a judge sentenced the founder of the world's largest online drug marketplace to life in prison without parole, ruling that his website was not harm-reducing but "terribly destructive to our social fabric."
He was convicted [sic] of trafficking drugs on the internet, narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, running a continuing criminal enterprise, computer hacking, and money laundering.
In handing down her sentence, Judge Katherine B. Forrest refuted the defense's characterization of the website as a "harm-reducing" "economic experiment" that simply got out of hand.
"Silk Road was a planned, comprehensive, and deliberate scheme that posed a serious danger to public health," she said.
At Ulbricht's sentencing, parents of overdose victims spoke of how their sons had used Silk Road to access illicit drugs that lead to the deaths of their children.
About 33 million dollars worth of Bitcoin was seized in the shutdown of the Silk Road.
Images: The latest hacking news, Source: The Hacker News, The Sangha Kommune
So the big question is if 33 million Dollars was seized from Silk Road, how much was seized with the shutdown of Alpha Bay?
Maybe some Thai authorities have been selling off a few million's worth these past few days, they are pretty corrupt and I would know as I live in Thailand.
Good question, I have no idea what happened to the AlphaBay Bitcoin..
I've read a few horror stories about the depth of corruption in the Thai police and prison system.
The authorities who seized the 33 million in bitcoin sold it off hosting some kind of public auction... who kept the proceeds?
https://thehackernews.com/2016/08/bitcoin-auction.html
That is my theory of why BITCOIN is tanking.
The bitcoins from SILK ROAD was sold by the US govt in a public auction.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Seized-Silk-Road-bitcoins-to-be-sold-at-auction-5553006.php
Where is the bitcoins from Alpahbay? It could be more than 33 MILLIONS.
If Silk Road had $33M worth of bitcoins in 2013, Imagine how much AlphaBay has now in 2017
It would be probably be enough to crash Bitcoin if sold in the open market
Thanks for this insightful comment. Yes, I read about the auction of the 33 million from a public auction that went to an anonymous buyer (whoever that was). You make a very good point here that in 2013 bitcoin's value wasn't what it is today. The article that I quote in the post mentions Cazes having 11 million in assets but doesn't say how much bitcoin was seized and what become of it. Maybe the information will come out...
We shouldn't forget that 2 Federal Agents involved in the take down of the Silk Road flat out stole Bitcoin to enrich themselves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/nyregion/silk-road-case-federal-agents-charges.html
The idea that these sites are taken down in order to crash Bitcoin is something I haven't pondered, but it's an interesting angle for sure.
Yes, US goverment's bitcoin wallet got bigger
https://www.wired.com/2013/12/fbi_wallet/
Aside from being a financial goldmine, free from Congressional control
Every bitcoin wallet that ever transacted wtih Alpha Bay is compromised now. FBI will simply trace every bitcoin address there and see if any are from COINBASE or any US based exchange which have KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations
That is a horrible ending. Selling stolen goods is not cool either.
What do you think of OpenBazaar though? It is just too hard to use now but it is on its way. It has to get to a point where you have light clients and you can have main stream adoption. It looks very decentralized..
Yeah, what to do with the seized Bitcoin is a bit of an issue. I don't think a public auction with anonymous buyers is the best way to go. This feels a lot like asset forfeiture.
I do like the concept behind OpenBazaar, i don't know much about it tbh, but I've heard it is a peer-t-peer network removing the middle man.
I think there's been quite an effort to link Bitcoin to the Silk Road and nefarious activities. Many have called for a ban on Bitcoin because it happens to be the currency used on Silk Road completely ignoring all the positive aspects about the cryptocurrency.
It is a moot argument if you ask me, Cash is used ALL the TIME for drug deals and any other type of illegal activity.
Do we ever hear people say in response - "Ban the US dollar!" ?
It sounds ridiculous when thought of in this light.
"It is a moot argument if you ask me, Cash is used ALL the TIME for drug deals and any other type of illegal activity. Do we ever hear people say in response - "Ban the US dollar! ?""
If I replace the word "US Dollar" with "cash money" that's exactly what the response is. The calls to phaseout cash are getting louder year by year. I don't know if you heard what they did in India?? Took all paper money with a value of about $7 and up out of circulation 4 weeks before new ones were said to be put into circulation. And they did a real sneaky job with this whole push to digital money. They said it was a limited trial held in, a later to be determined, region or number of provinces. Then, less then a month before the announced date it would start, they all the sudden said it was going to be a national "trial," not parts excluded. And so they did, taking all cash money (temporarily, at least a month) above $7 dollars out of circulation. That would be an crazy move in the EU or US, imagine how insane it was to implement in India where more then 50% of the population don't even have a bank account. Needles to say payment/retail chaos ensued.
And who where instrumental behind the scenes to make this all happen?? The usual suspects, US state department, (central)banking interests, UN NWO globalists. It was a test run, the rest of the world will follow, may take a decade or two. But they'll keep pushing.
I totally agree that they're pushing for digital currencies and biometric security and the likes. Solid points here and we should be wary and see what happened in India as a trial run for a larger campaign.
I was thinking more historically when I used cash/dollars as an example.
Thanks, great comment
They will try to centralize blockchains and design them to collect our personal data in a way that we can't completely control it. The shady corporations are involved in identity management. Don't assume all identity management is bad, this however is an attack vector.
Completely investigate and routinely Boycott these large corporate structures with a shady past or flawed power oriented structure. Even if they get it completely right (economics may force them to get it right to survive), they can steer it in a new direction when people start rely on them. Just like going to your local farmer's market or growing your own food, keep the technology decentralized, open, and in the hands of the individual.
For sure, the banks are investing in blockchain technology. I saw a post about Goldman Sachs's Circle and another one called Revolt...Visa is eager to make a move and I've heard that JP Morgan and Chase are investing/financing ETH.
I'm all for people making investments and making money off the best cryptos out there but we need to be very aware of the attempts to infiltrate and control certain blockchains.
I think they will indeed start to steer things in a new direction. You're analogy of buying at farmers markets is perfect. Power to the people.
Very informative. Do you believe it's a good thing that these sites are getting shut down?
It's a tough call. The silk road had a 'harm reduction' ideology associated with the site. The problem is it's impossible to know if it was successful in this way. Does buying drugs online make you safer? I think you could make an argument for that. Does buying a gun online make you safer? I think there are arguments both ways here.
One thing the Wired article in the post explores, along with the original silk road philosophy, is the shadier sites that sprang up after the shutdown in 2013. It appears that there was a certain level of 'trust' built up in the silk road community that has evaporated. The new sites have no real overarching philosophy, they're just profit driven.
Am I avoiding your question...perhaps I am. I don't know the answer, but what I do know is that if people want something badly enough they will find a way to get what they want. They don't need the internet. Shutting down these sites is not going to solve anything. Legalizing drugs, after decades of a failed 'war on drugs' would probably do more to reduce harm than anything else i can think of.
Dam $11.7 million.
I wonder which other one will take its place and for how long.
As much as I love the power off blockchain technology, it's likely just a matter of time before a blockchain is created to facilitate these types of market trades which is virtually impossible to shut down.
Either way they can never shut down these types of platforms eternally, they will forever keep popping up.
Like a steemit but for drug etc. Interesting.
Meh. People are always going to use untraceable currencies for illicit purposes. It's not the problem of the blockchain community, if we crack down on it they will just use something else.
$12 mil is quite a lot... sounds like he was living large.
Thai prisons are notoriously a bad place and as a foreigner perhaps even worse. I would like to know more about what happened inside the prison.
Yes I doubt we will ever no.
"four Lamborghini cars and three houses worth about 400 million baht ($11.7 million) in total."
Who said crime doesn't pay?
Nice post keep it up
33 million dollars? what a coincidence that they use free-masonic numerology.
An interesting read and an informative one. Now it all boils down into one thing, after DPRs' SilkRoad & Cazes' Alphabay, who will be the next heir to the throne? ~w~
Btw your steemit.gif looks soooo damn cool!
@o@
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Interesting read, thank you.