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Undercover dark web bust leads to more than 35 arrests
The US just broke new ground in its bid to shut down illegal markets on the dark web. A slew of agencies (the Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations, the Secret Service, the DEA and the Postal Inspection Service) have announced the first-ever national-level undercover bust of dark web outfits selling drugs, weapons and other contraband. HSI agents pretended to be money launderers on multiple sites in an operation that resulted in arrests for "more than" 35 vendors and seizures worth $23.6 million.
Tech giants like Google and Alibaba are working to save endangered species
Google, eBay and other technology leaders are aiming to protect the world's animals. Why? In a widely unregulated social-media world, many tech platforms have become a haven for the wildlife black market, a $20 billion industry. The sale of illegal animal goods -- from ivory to exotic pets -- is the fourth-largest criminal global trade industry behind narcotics, counterfeiting and human trafficking, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife-trade-monitoring network. In the past decade, the sale of these goods and species has moved from illicit backroom dealings in stores to apps and online shopping ads.
Authorities bust AlphaBay, the dark web's biggest marketplace
After the demise of Silk Road, the role of the dark web's most notorious black marketplace was assumed by AlphaBay. But The Wall Street Journal reports that the site has now been shuttered, thanks to a joint law enforcement operation between the US, Canada and Thailand. One of its operators, Canadian Alexandre Cazes, was arrested in Thailand, but was found dead in his prison cell earlier this week.
Dark net black markets are turning to bug bounty programs
Dark net black markets are taking a leaf out of many legit companies' book and turning to bounty hunters to find security flaws in their systems. Hansa Market is one of them. According to CyberScoop, the marketplace, which brought in $3 million last year, has launched a bug bounty program offering rewards worth up to 10 BTC or around $10,000. Considering marketplaces like Hansa sell drugs, illegal firearms, log-ins and other data, the websites likely want to amp up their security measures to protect their sellers from law enforcement. They also likely want to protect all the log-in/password dumps and other data for sale from other hackers who might break into their system to steal them.
Silk Road 2.0 staffer gets 8 years in prison
It's clear that authorities want Silk Road 2.0's operators to face stiff penalties for running an online black market... even when they're not the top dogs. A federal judge has sentenced Brian Farrell, a key assistant to site architect Blake Benthall, to 8 years in prison. Farrell had pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to sell illegal drugs (including cocaine, heroin and meth) through the Dark Web portal, which emerged just weeks after law enforcement shut down the original Silk Road in fall 2013.
Rogue federal agent to serve 6.5 years for Silk Road scandal
Former federal agent Carl Force has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for his role in obstructing justice while investigating the online black market, Silk Road. As Reuters tells it, prosecutors were aiming for a longer sentence (87 months, or 7.25 years) but the defense was aiming for a brisk four-year sentence due to a history of mental health issues. To back up that claim, Force said he didn't understand a lot of what he was doing. Even the movie deal? Ars Technica reports that Force will have to pay $337,000 in restitution to a CoinMKT customer and $3,000 to an arrested Silk Road employee by the name of Curtis Green. If you'll remember, the last federal agent involved with the corruption charges, Shaun Bridges, is awaiting trial, while Silk Road's mastermind Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht was given a life sentence for his crimes. [Image credit: Tim Arbaev for Getty]
Key Silk Road witness gets 2.5 years in jail
One of the reasons that Silk Road was so popular and dangerous was because it enabled people who would have otherwise never dealt drugs to become Scarface-like kingpins. That's the tale of Michael Duch, an IT consultant who has wound up being sentenced to two and a half years in prison for dealing heroin. Duch agreed to testify against the site's founder, Russ "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht in exchange for a lower sentence, and told the court how easy it was to make anything up to $70,000 a month from home.
Judge denies mistrial in case against Silk Road's founder (again)
If you were hoping that Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts of Silk Road fame) was going to get a retrial, you might wanna walk those expectations back a bit. Okay; a lot. Despite the two former federal agents involved in the investigation purportedly stealing bitcoins and committing wire fraud during the investigation, the presiding judge Katherine Forrest has denied a motion for a new trial. Albrecht's defense protested, saying that the warrantless attempts to identify the Silk Road server violated his privacy rights and that the corruption charges demanded another look to see if the case had been tainted, as Wired tells it. None of that changed her mind though. She says that the evidence of Ulbricht's guilt was "overwhelming" and that there was little chance that conceding to any of those defenses would alter the outcome of the trial at all.
FedEx charged with transporting drugs for illegal online pharmacies
Live animals. Hazardous waste. Used tires. Cash. These are all items that you can't ship via FedEx. Medication is accepted, however, as it poses no risk to the carrier -- or so it seemed. Today, FedEx was indicted in a US District Court, facing criminal charges for its role in providing logistics for illegal online pharmacies. Various US agencies have reportedly been warning FedEx to stop accepting such shipments for years, so as shocking as the charges may seem, they should come as no surprise to executives. If guilty, FedEx would have to hand over the $820 million or so it's earned by transporting drugs such as oxycodone and hydrocodone for black market distributers.
Study claims that virtual drug dealing cuts back on real violence
Few would say the FBI was doing something wrong by shutting down Silk Road's online black market, but new research suggests that there may have been a silver lining to the service's dark cloud. Researchers Judith Aldridge and David Decary-Hetu claim in a recent study that Silk Road was cutting back on violence. Since many of the sales were dealer-to-dealer rather than to customers, that supposedly reduced the chances for real-world confrontations -- you can't start a gun battle over prices when you're on the other side of the country.
The UK's stolen phone market is as healthy as ever
It may be easy to report and track stolen smartphones in the UK, but that's not preventing some of the country's shops from selling these ill-gotten handsets. A BBC undercover operation has revealed that at least eight stores in London are willing to buy stolen phones, even when the hardware is obviously locked down. One of the locations was only willing to make an exchange outdoors, but none of them were seriously concerned about a run-in with the law.
Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video)
Nothing like a little bad press to change corporate policy. Diane Campbell made US national news this week (seriously) when her attempts to purchase an iPad with cash were rejected. Apple's no-cash policy (credit cards and debit cards only please) was put in place by Apple as a means of ensuring that customers were sticking to the two-device limit -- a policy that was originally put in place in October 2007 in order to deal with high demand for the iPhone and, some would say, to keep the devices off the grey market. Well, some members of the US media got so feverish with affect rage that they lashed out at Apple with chants of "anti-American" and "anti-disadvantaged" (Diane is described as disabled and on a fixed income). Apple has reversed the policy: it now accepts cash just as long as customers sign up for an Apple account while in the store at the time of purchase. As for Diane, she got a free iPad and "changed a little piece of the world." We feel safer already. Check the local news report video after the break if you must.
Chinese counterfeit iPhone workshop raided
It's well known that China has a significant black market problem, especially when it comes to electronics, including the iPhone. Earlier this week, Chinese officials reported raiding a factory in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen in Southern China, where they seized 1,000 counterfeit iPhones and arrested 28 workers, according to Shenzhen Daily.* The factory was allegedly operated under the name Chuanglida Communication Tech Co. The cost of a counterfeit iPhone isn't clear, but estimates put them at 500 yuan (approximately US$74 as of this writing). Legit iPhones sell for 5,000 yuan. The report notes that Apple is sending staff to Shenzhen to learn more about the case. Last month, Apple gained control of the "i-phone" trademark in China after a long dispute with manufacturer Hanwang Technology who held the trademark for a device they briefly sold in 2003. Official iPhone sales in China have been disappointing, with China Unicom (the country's 2nd largest provider) announcing 100,000 units sold between the October, 2009 launch and December, 2009. China Unicom represents some 144 million users. [Via iPhone Savior] *Note: The Shenzhen Daily site is down as of this writing. The link included above is the Google Cache version whereas the source link below links to the original site.
