It’s probably the biggest exit scam of the darknet markets so far. Evolution marketplace has closed down and bitcoin is moving through the blockchain as I write. it’s hard to tell just yet how much of the $12 million that’s gone through that account the administrators have made off with.
In a move reminiscent of betrayed Atlantis mod Cicero a couple of years ago, Evolution forum mod NSWGreat, confirmed the scam in a Reddit post:
I hate to the bearer of bad news, but I’ve been suspicious the past few days with withdrawals not working and admins usually are more forth coming in explaining to me why they’re slow but they weren’t this time. Just kept giving me time-frames I have admin access to see parts of the back end, the admins are preparing to exit scam with all the funds. Not a single withdrawal has gone through in almost a week. Automatic withdrawals has been disabled which is only doing on rare occasions I am so sorry, but Verto and Kimble have fucked us all. I have over $20,000 in escrow myself from sales. I can’t fucking believe it, absolute scum. I am giving this warning to you all as soon as I possibly could of. Confronted Kimble and Verto about it, they confirmed it and they’re doing it right now.. EDIT: Servers have gone down, including back up server for staff. I’m sorry for everyone’s loses, I’m gutted and speechless. I feel so betrayed.
Evolution’s main administrator, who goes by the name “Verto”, was named by Wired earlier this year as one of the most dangerous people on the internet. He will now be watching his back as customers and vendors bay for his blood. Some are already offering bounties to track him down. One PGP-signed message says:
There is more going on here then meets the eye. Thats all I’ll say for tonight, but I will put this message out there (and MANY, MANY in this community can vouche for me. /u/lamoustache for one)
TO VERTO/KIMBLE: What you have done is despicable. Didn’t think I was serious about our discussion? Okay. It’s nearly 9PM on the US West Coast. You’ve got 24 hours (and that is being generous) to make this right and re-open the market, and allow people access to their funds. Once that time passes – my crystal ball starts talking and unless you’ve changed identities and moved, you will be FUCKED.
Moderators please do not delete this. I will not doxx anyone (even these pieces of shit here). They’ve got 1 chance. The sub will filter posts talking about PMs, therefore, those who want Verto, Kimble and cohorts heads on a spike, get in touch.
Rethinking your stunt, boys?
The forums mods appear to have been taken in by the scam as much as anyone. A couple of hours before the exit was confirmed, they were still telling people not to panic:
Never trust a carder.
10 Responses
Well written article however the one error is the statement ” around $12 million in bitcoin is moving through the blockchain”. That wallet has been transacting Bitcoin for months now and has received 12 million in total. You can see that it has had much higher and much lower balances on dozens of occasions for the past 6 mos + now. https://blockchain.info/charts/balance?address=1Ps2m56aEudGVKj7ch8mAje4x6bBzGVNgU
Edit that part and your article is a good piece.
Cheers. I had to dash this off in my lunch break of my day job. 🙂 You’re right of course. Though to be honest I’m surprised only 12 mil went through Evo over that time.
“Escrow” is the problem…
https://pay.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/2zfsqh/escrow_is_the_problem/
THE MODS ON REDDIT ARE PROTECTING THEM. POST HIS NAME AND WATCH HOW FAST IT GETS REMOVED. PASS THIS AROUND.
_______________________________
WENT SCAMMER . PART OF THE EVO SCAM:
MANY OF THE PEOPLE USED TO SEND THIS GUY MONEY. HE OWNS MEDIHEMP.COM . APPARENTLY HE IS A HUGE SCAMMER AND HAS DONE THIS BEFORE.
PASS THIS AROUND AS IT WILL BE REMOVED. HE’S A RAT ALSO SO BE CAREFUL. THEY TOOK DOWN MEDIHEMP A FEW WEEKS AGO BEFORE EVO WENT DOWN:
Domain Name: MEDIHEMP.COM Registry Domain ID: 1644546085_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.tucows.com Registrar URL: http://tucowsdomains.com Updated Date: 2015-02-09T16:22:19Z Creation Date: 2011-03-09T19:31:14Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-03-09T18:31:14Z Registrar: TUCOWS, INC. Registrar IANA ID: 69 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:+1.4165350123 Reseller: Wideport.com Inc. Reseller: Reseller:+1.4164841461 Reseller: http://411domains.ca Domain Status: ok Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Ray Behroozian Registrant Organization: Newlane Remarketing Group LLC Registrant Street: 57 May Ave Registrant City: Richmond Hill Registrant State/Province: ON Registrant Postal Code: L4C 3S7 Registrant Country: CA Registrant Phone:+1.4164648454
MANY PEOPLE SENT MONEY TO ARMIN BEHROOZIAN OR REZA BEHROOZIAN AKA RAY BEHROOZIAN.
THEY ARE TWO OF THE MODS. ARMIN IS A COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR AT U OF T SO HE KNOWS HOW TO HIDE HIS TRACKS.
A HAVE THE CALIFORNIA ADDRESSES COMING UP
Interesting how when SilkRoadReloaded came online (and also started the development phase over a year ago), they attacked and made funny enough this same claim. SilkRoadReloaded has the most secure, the most stable, the most uptime and the most feature rich site around right now. Let’s not forget it isn’t sitting on a network being actively spied upon (operation onymous). I2P is easy to use and even integrates effortlessly in to your TorBrowserBundle or use the AbscondBrowserBundle which is simply I2P integrated in the same exact manner as TBB.
Stop buying all the BS and go to http://silkr0adrel0aded.i2p or http://srr.i2p and get safe for once. (PGP encryption is forced by the way not optional).
There’s plenty of articles out about us, check it out you won’t be disappointed and one thing is for damn sure you won’t be scammed.
Things you typically aren’t expected to be able to do on the DarkNet consist of tracking,
indexing, and following people.
The devoted market search engine Grams allows the looking of numerous markets directly without login or registration.
Kimble found: https://www.onionwatch.com/kimble-evolution-dark-market-admin-found/