Behind the Casefiles: “Mark and John”
Note: although it is a simple matter to discover the true identity of “John”, the internet being what it is, I’m not going to blatantly do so here, as there is an indefinite court order prohibiting naming either of the boys. This is another entry into my series of a behind-the-scenes look at the episodes […]
So what’s been happening on the Dark Web?
The problem with writing a new book is that you save all the good stuff for the book and that leaves you with nothing for the blog. So in desperation, I’ve been clicking on random links from Onion crawlers to see if there’s anything new, relevant and/or even vaguely interesting happening in the deep dark web. […]
The Little Texas Hit that Wasn’t
The hack of dark web “murder-for-hire” outfit Besa Mafia, which I wrote about a couple of days ago. has provided a treasure trove of stories of people who are prepared to go to extreme measures to be rid of someone in their lives. Most never got further than the initial enquiries. A few parted […]
Hitting on the Aussies – the Besa Mafia files
Before the recent hack confirmed definitively what rational people already knew – i.e. that the dark web “murder-for-hire” site was a scam – it was a little disconcerting that Besa Mafia’s No.1 FAQ was Do you have people in Australia? Now a thorough search of the leaked mails and orders has found no evidence that […]
Did Dread Pirate Roberts get scammed on an alleged hit?
According to FBI documents, Dread Pirate Roberts claims to have carried out one hit and was haggling on price for another. But was he the victim of an elaborate hoax? According to the FBI’s Criminal Complaint, Silk Road’s owner, the Dread Pirate Roberts, sought to engage a hitman to deal with a blackmailer who was […]
Red Pill, Blue Pill or No Pill?
The most successful Australian vendor on Silk Road has conned their customers out of tens of thousands of dollars Aussie vendor EnterTheMatrix had a simple and effective business model. Purchase Australia’s most popular party drugs from overseas vendors on Silk Road, add a 400% markup and resell them to Aussie Silk Road customers. Although there were […]
Who’s got it in for the Silk Road?
Ever since the suspected DDoS attack in November, the admins at Silk Road have been combating a number of different scams and attacks on the site. It’s hard to tell whether this is a concerted attack by one group determined to piss the website off or each one is separate. The most pervasive ones have […]
Conversation with a hitman (or not)
Today the owner of Silk Road announced the closure of its sister site, the weapons-dealing Armory. The reason was not heat from law enforcement or negative press, it was simply that the site was not profitable and members complained that many listings were scams. There are dozens of black market sites selling all manner of […]
Messin’ with the scammers
Today my latest article appeared in The Age/SMH: From Nigeria With Love. I did a fair bit of research for this, but one of the most fun things I’ve done is mess with the scammers who contact me wanting to buy a parachute I have for sale. Not quite the legendary efforts carried out by […]