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 […]
Real Folk of the Dark Web
A couple of weeks ago I got back from an 8-week trip around the globe to meet with all manner of dark web types in preparation for my upcoming book, Darkest Web. Here’s a taster of what went down with each. THAILAND Variety Jones – mentor to Dread Pirate Roberts Well, at this point, still […]
Some interesting titbits to come out of the latest Silk Road “rogue agent” allegations
I was digging through my Silk Road archives when researching parts of my new book, and came up with a couple of little nuggets surrounding the latest “rogue agent” allegations that I don’t think have been reported yet. TL;DR: What we assumed to be a simple Silk Road scam in early 2013 may have been […]
Are you still out there…? Call me!
As my book deadline closes in really really fast, there are a few people I was having email correspondence with who used Tormail addresses and I’ve now lost contact. I really would like to hear from them again. And a few others to boot… The rub is, I don’t want to name the three I […]
(Info)war declared
Silk Road users have been shocked twice in the past two days when a forum member released names, addresses and order details of dozens of purported customers. The user – first calling themselves ‘Info Wars’ and, once that account was banned, ‘Infowars’ – pounded the forums with repeats of the same post – a list […]
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 […]
The Great 420 Scam
A drug dealer ripping off customers? The nerve! Silk Road, as I reported previously, is the online illicit drug marketplace that has defied law enforcement efforts to close it down. Last month, Silk Road reported the greatest scam in its fifteen-month history, which cost the site’s users over a hundred thousand dollars in just two […]