HouseCleaning
@HouseCleaning
13 Years5,000+ PostsGemini
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The Heist
In one reddit post, a user called silkroadreloaded2 wrote: —All day, we've been chasing the scoundrel with our stolen bitcoins through the blockchain. Around lunchtime (UK), I was chasing him across the roof of a moving train, (metaphorically). I was less than 20 minutes, or 2 blockchain confirmations, behind 'Tomas'.??
While online drug transactions may be safer than those on street corners, the Sheep theft demonstrates the inherent risks of the anonymous online trade in illicit goods. Following the October arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged owner of Silk Road, the administrator of a similar site, Project Black Flag, closed up shop and fled the web, taking his clients' Bitcoins with him. Last year, hackers stole 24,000 Bitcoins (then worth approximately ??150,000) from the exchange site BitFloor
http://www.independent.co.uk/life- style /gadgets-and-tech/news/96000-bitcoins-stolen-from-the-users-of-shady-online-bazaar-sheep-marketplace-8981240.html
While online drug transactions may be safer than those on street corners, the Sheep theft demonstrates the inherent risks of the anonymous online trade in illicit goods. Following the October arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged owner of Silk Road, the administrator of a similar site, Project Black Flag, closed up shop and fled the web, taking his clients' Bitcoins with him. Last year, hackers stole 24,000 Bitcoins (then worth approximately ??150,000) from the exchange site BitFloor
http://www.independent.co.uk/life- style /gadgets-and-tech/news/96000-bitcoins-stolen-from-the-users-of-shady-online-bazaar-sheep-marketplace-8981240.html
earlier story
Silk Road Competitor Shuts Down And Another Plans To Go Offline After Claimed $ 6 Million Theft
When a black market calls itself —Sheep,?? it's no surprise when someone gets fleeced. But the effects of a purported theft of thousands of bitcoins from the drug-selling site Sheep Marketplace have rippled across the dark web, and may lead to the shutdown of its biggest drug-selling site.
Sheep Marketplace, an anonymous online narcotics bazaar that received an influx of users after the shutdown of the popular drug-selling site Silk Road in October, went permanently offline over the weekend, claiming that it had been robbed of $ 6 million in bitcoins by one of its sellers who found a security vulnerability in the site. And Black Market Reloaded, the leading online black market after Silk Road, has responded by announcing a plan to go offline—perhaps only temporarily—and has already cut off registrations to new users.
Sheep??s administrators wrote on the site's homepage that it had experienced a theft of 5,400 bitcoins by one of its dealers known as EBOOK101, close to $ 6 million at the cryptocurrency??s current exchange rate. ??This vendor found bug in system and stole 5400 BTC — your money, our provisions, all was stolen,?? reads the message on Sheep??s homepage, which includes records of the stolen funds. —We were trying to resolve this problem, but we were not successful.??
Sheep??s owners have used that theft to justify closing the market without returning the bitcoins stored in the market by users, despite claiming that they would redistribute those coins to users?? —emergency addresses.?? Sheep users and other Bitcoin followers on reddit say that the administrators began blocking withdrawals of bitcoins from the site more than a week ago, and may have absconded with as much as $ 44 million from the site's users, pointing to a movement of 39,900 bitcoins visible in the public record of Bitcoin transactions known as the blockchain.
Silk Road Competitor Shuts Down And Another Plans To Go Offline After Claimed $ 6 Million Theft
When a black market calls itself —Sheep,?? it's no surprise when someone gets fleeced. But the effects of a purported theft of thousands of bitcoins from the drug-selling site Sheep Marketplace have rippled across the dark web, and may lead to the shutdown of its biggest drug-selling site.
Sheep Marketplace, an anonymous online narcotics bazaar that received an influx of users after the shutdown of the popular drug-selling site Silk Road in October, went permanently offline over the weekend, claiming that it had been robbed of $ 6 million in bitcoins by one of its sellers who found a security vulnerability in the site. And Black Market Reloaded, the leading online black market after Silk Road, has responded by announcing a plan to go offline—perhaps only temporarily—and has already cut off registrations to new users.
Sheep??s administrators wrote on the site's homepage that it had experienced a theft of 5,400 bitcoins by one of its dealers known as EBOOK101, close to $ 6 million at the cryptocurrency??s current exchange rate. ??This vendor found bug in system and stole 5400 BTC — your money, our provisions, all was stolen,?? reads the message on Sheep??s homepage, which includes records of the stolen funds. —We were trying to resolve this problem, but we were not successful.??
Sheep??s owners have used that theft to justify closing the market without returning the bitcoins stored in the market by users, despite claiming that they would redistribute those coins to users?? —emergency addresses.?? Sheep users and other Bitcoin followers on reddit say that the administrators began blocking withdrawals of bitcoins from the site more than a week ago, and may have absconded with as much as $ 44 million from the site's users, pointing to a movement of 39,900 bitcoins visible in the public record of Bitcoin transactions known as the blockchain.
Black Market Reloaded, the current largest anonymous market for contraband online with nearly 7,000 product listings, responded Saturday with a message on its forum for users saying that Black Market Reloaded wouldn't be able to handle the influx of new customers and sellers, arguing that the Tor anonymity software that hides the identity of the site's users and owners isn't designed for such a large user base. On Sunday he followed up by blocking new registrations, closing inactive accounts and notifying users that the site would go offline in around two days. —This puts BMR in the edge of the blade, Tor can't support any site to be too big,?? wrote the BMR administrator who calls himself Backopy. —[Black Market Reloaded] can't hold another wave of refugees??_.Without competition the wisest thing to do is to shut down the market, doing it in a timely and orderly manner.??
Whether that shutdown will be permanent still isn't clear. One administrator on the site's forums writes that it's merely working on a new version of the site and is taking the current site offline to focus on building it, with plans to launch in early 2014. —We will be back up. But to speed up we need to close shop,?? writes the administrator named LeContog. —Don't worry, we don't rip [off] anyone and will be back stronger than ever.?? Backopy himself wrote on the forums that he wouldn't yet comment on the timing of the site's reopening.
Sheep Marketplace and Black Market Reloaded are only the latest to succumb to a widening crisis in the dark web drug industry. In late September, a fast-growing competitor market known as Atlantis went suddenly offline, citing —security?? reasons. A week later, the Silk Road was seized by federal agencies and its alleged owner Ross Ulbricht arrested in a San Francisco library. In late October the FBI seized 144,000 bitcoins allegedly belonging to Ulbricht—more than $ 150 million at current exchange rates. Then the administrator of a third market known as Project Black Flag closed the site, openly admitting that he had panicked and stolen users?? bitcoins.
Whether that shutdown will be permanent still isn't clear. One administrator on the site's forums writes that it's merely working on a new version of the site and is taking the current site offline to focus on building it, with plans to launch in early 2014. —We will be back up. But to speed up we need to close shop,?? writes the administrator named LeContog. —Don't worry, we don't rip [off] anyone and will be back stronger than ever.?? Backopy himself wrote on the forums that he wouldn't yet comment on the timing of the site's reopening.
Sheep Marketplace and Black Market Reloaded are only the latest to succumb to a widening crisis in the dark web drug industry. In late September, a fast-growing competitor market known as Atlantis went suddenly offline, citing —security?? reasons. A week later, the Silk Road was seized by federal agencies and its alleged owner Ross Ulbricht arrested in a San Francisco library. In late October the FBI seized 144,000 bitcoins allegedly belonging to Ulbricht—more than $ 150 million at current exchange rates. Then the administrator of a third market known as Project Black Flag closed the site, openly admitting that he had panicked and stolen users?? bitcoins.
Despite those shutdowns, the Tor- and Bitcoin-based black market has hardly been wiped out. Other drug-selling sites including DeepBay and Budster remain online. In their goodbye message, Sheep??s administrators pointed users to a site called TorMarket. (TorMarket's owners responded on its homepage by asking Sheep to remove the link, writing that —this is the worst PR we can get right now.??) A new Silk Road 2.0, run by several of the administrators of the defunct Silk Road, came online in early November and already offers thousands of listed products.
It's not yet clear either if Black Market Reloaded will follow through on its plan to go dark. In October the site said it would shut down after a security vulnerability led to its source code being publicly leaked. But a day later, Backopy changed his mind and kept the market online.
BMR??s users and vendors, for their part, aren't happy about the decision to go offline. —It's like all of BMR staff swallowed 1000 tabs of acid,?? wrote one. —This is just a nice way of saying —I??ve earned enough, now fuck off!??,?? wrote another.
—Fuck the [online] black market,?? wrote a third. —After all this I don't mind doing street deals anymore.??
Forbes
It's not yet clear either if Black Market Reloaded will follow through on its plan to go dark. In October the site said it would shut down after a security vulnerability led to its source code being publicly leaked. But a day later, Backopy changed his mind and kept the market online.
BMR??s users and vendors, for their part, aren't happy about the decision to go offline. —It's like all of BMR staff swallowed 1000 tabs of acid,?? wrote one. —This is just a nice way of saying —I??ve earned enough, now fuck off!??,?? wrote another.
—Fuck the [online] black market,?? wrote a third. —After all this I don't mind doing street deals anymore.??
Forbes
more at http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2013/12/theres-% C2% A360m-bitcoin-heist-going-down-right-now-and-you-can-watch-real-time"> Newstatesman - There's a ??60m Bitcoin heist going down right now, and you can watch in real-time
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96,000 Bitcoins stolen from the users of shady online bazaar, Sheep Marketplace
Just like any other kind of cash, the online currency Bitcoin can be stolen. And over the past week, as many as 96,000 Bitcoins - equivalent to more than ??60m - have been purloined from the users of the shady online bazaar, Sheep Marketplace. The virtual heist ranks alongside the biggest real-life robberies in history, and some amateur online sleuths are convinced it was an inside job.
In October, the notorious Silk Road website - an online trading space for guns, drugs and other black market materials - was shut down. In its absence, Sheep Marketplace became one of the most popular narcotics exchanges on the so-called —deep web??. Its customers paid for their illicit purchases using Bitcoin, which offers near-anonymity to its users.
Last week, according to a report by The New Statesman, a person or persons began draining the Bitcoin accounts of the site's buyers and vendors, while hacking those accounts to make them appear untouched. Only over the weekend did Sheep Marketplace administrators uncover the theft and promptly shut the site down, by which time the thieves had made off with up to 96,000 Bitcoins - each of which is worth at least ??650 at the current exchange rate.
Several swindled Sheep users crowd-sourced an investigation on reddit, where some alleged the theft was a scam by the owner of the site, known as —Tomas??. The identity of the perpetrators, not to mention the precise amounts involved, remain a mystery. However, due to a quirk of the Bitcoin transaction process, it is possible to follow the trail of the stolen cash. Though Bitcoin purchases can be pseudonymous, each transaction is visible to the public.
As the thieves attempt to launder their haul by —tumbling?? it into ever smaller amounts and parcelling them into multiple accounts, reddit detectives tracked the stolen funds using Blockchain, a site which monitors Bitcoin transactions. While the sleuths remain in hot pursuit, the thieves have no way to convert the Bitcoins into cash without it being traced to their real-world bank accounts.