[2017-07-05]Darknet Market AlphaBay Down: Exit Scam or Maintenance?

[Slow death]

Darknet Market AlphaBay Down: Exit Scam or Maintenance?

Popular darknet market AlphaBay, responsible for helping Monero’s value surge in 2016 after it partnered with Oasis and started accepting the cryptocurrency, seems to be down since Tuesday night, and users are now starting to grow suspicious.

While details are still scarce, various users stumbled upon a large bitcoin withdrawal coming from what many believe to be one of AlphaBay’s addresses. The withdrawal is of 1,479.03904709 bitcoin, worth about $3,8 million, to various addresses. This, along with silence from AlphaBay staff on the market’s subreddit, has led some users to believe we’re witnessing an exit scam – a scheme in which marketplace owners shut down the business and keep user funds to themselves.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/darknet-market-alphabay-exit-scam-maintenance/

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[1Referee]

It's insane how the speculations are going nuts, while there is absolutely no proof that the address is connected to AlphaBay in any way. Obviously, news sites are waiting for things like this to happen, and as result happily add fuel to the fire... The only bit of frustration that I can understand from people that are worried, is that there is no communication from the side of AB staff. Communication is essential in these circumstances.

[bbc.reporter]

There is a guy called Big_Muscles who claims to be a moderator of the Alphabay and is trying to assure everyone that the site is only under maintenance. We will see in a few days if he is telling the truth or if he really is who he says he is.

Update 16:45 ET July 5: While the dodgy marketplace is still experiencing downtime, an AlphaBay-associated Redditor going by the moniker Big_Muscles has alerted concerned users that the “ervers are under update” and “[w]ill be back online soon.”

Read more https://thenextweb.com/insider/2017/07/05/dark-web-drug-market-bitcoin-heist/

[1Referee]

Here is a statement from trappy_AB made 4 hours ago;

I have been in touch with our devs and admins and they are working to restore AlphaBay as soon as possible. As I have said before, during downtimes, there are added risks that you should understand and be weary of. These are the most common ones.

Increased phishing attacks, on our forums and on reddit usually claiming to have an alt address that you may not be aware of. I assure you that 100% of these are phishing sites eager to take your coins once the market is back up. Others include bitcoin addresses for such fake alt addresses or guesses at your market username based on your reddit username with various requests for a deposit to an address. Do not send those phishers any coins!

Fake vendors offering you DDs during outages such as this. These are opportunisties with similiar usernames offer outragous prices and a bitcoin address and a even sometimes a legitimate PGP key that they will assume you won't bother to use. It is safest to avoid DDs during any market outage.

anything penissmith says. He enjoys times like these to incite discontent.​

https://www.reddit.com/user/trappy_AB

I think we have to give AB another 24 hours to sort things out, because that should be more than enough to complete their tasks, and put their service back on. The longer it takes, the more frustrated/worried people will get. I would have liked them to have come up with a statement that the address the coins are withdrawn from doesn't belong to AB - this would definitely give people some piece of mind.

[Slow death]

I would have liked them to have come up with a statement that the address the coins are withdrawn from doesn't belong to AB - this would definitely give people some piece of mind.

That would be very good, People are worried

"reallywannacry 3 pontos 5 hours ago
i sent 250 bucks to my AB wallet 5 minute before it went offline and around 12 hours ago it has been spent. This means the money is no longer in my wallet. it has been transferred to another wallet https://blockchain.info/address/1BBTk41STWuffTfvRrsovX7X8puhDpFofk Its a fucking waste of time, nobody will see a fucking mbtc again. This is just calming down the stupids until everything is settled and the exit scam is done"

[1Referee]

Ok, it seems that the days for AlphaBay are over (if it wasn't like that a few days ago already). I am not sure how much value we can add to certain posts on reddit, but the main point of these posts is that the staff (and then mainly those higher on the ladder) have been arrested. Another post on reddit points out that DeSnake has been doxed, and for that reason has trashed everything to get rid of potential harmful evidence against him. It's impossible to know what's going on with so many trolls around there. I personally hint at two thoughts; (1) the operators have just performed an exit scam, which is a likely scenario. (2) there have indeed been higher ranked staff members arrested, which is less likely than the first option.

[eckmar]

Ok, it seems that the days for AlphaBay are over (if it wasn't like that a few days ago already). I am not sure how much value we can add to certain posts on reddit, but the main point of these posts is that the staff (and then mainly those higher on the ladder) have been arrested. Another post on reddit points out that DeSnake has been doxed, and for that reason has trashed everything to get rid of potential harmful evidence against him. It's impossible to know what's going on with so many trolls around there. I personally hint at two thoughts; (1) the operators have just performed an exit scam, which is a likely scenario. (2) there have indeed been higher ranked staff members arrested, which is less likely than the first option.

Have you found any information about memebers being arrested ? I've looked over reddit but nothing

[veleten]

they claim it is maintenance,moved the coins,claim it is for security
I say it is exit scam,too many similar things happened before and many (or at least,some) will happen after
drugs and weapons will be sold on the darknet this way or another,but nowadays you can't even trust your Darknet drug dealer,duh
if you can't trust your dealer who can you trust at all,lol
if there is no sign of life from them in a week-well say goodbye to your accounts and wallets,that is if you were trading there

[Xavofat]

many believe to be one of AlphaBay’s addresses.

Of course the site gives no details about people who believe this, nor do they give any evidence that this is one of their addresses.  Transactions that large happen all the time.

I say it is exit scam

Pfft.  Sites have to have maintenance or go down every now and then.  They can't just stay up 24/7 like the Bitcoin network.

I know that it's the dark web, and people get super paranoid about sites on the dark web, but it's seriously not that worrying.  I haven't seen anything conclusive or reasonable suggesting that Alpha Bay is pulling an exit scam, just a big heap of FUD and clickbait.

[Slow death]

they claim it is maintenance,moved the coins,claim it is for security

We will see in the next days if they will really come back, because all scammers say they are doing maintenance when in fact they have already run away with all bitcoins

[1Referee]

Have you found any information about memebers being arrested ? I've looked over reddit but nothing

Take it with a pinch of salt since there is no way to know whether or not this is a troll attempt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AlphaBayMarket/comments/6m8ilc/alphabay_update_admin_arrested_staff_jumping_ship/

We will see in the next days if they will really come back, because all scammers say they are doing maintenance when in fact they have already run away with all bitcoins

It's 99% scam and 1% chances of them getting back, where people can finally withdraw their coins. If even an AB mod tells people to move on and consider the funds people had on AB as lost, it says enough. In the meanwhile other dark net markets are blocking AB vendors in some cases, lol. It aint easy selling ya green on da net.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It can be an exit scam, or more likely, it can be a hack by a third party. Please remember that the amount is less than BTC1,500. I am sure that Alphabay is having more than BTC25,000 in the cold storage, considering its popularity and the number of users.

[veleten]

It can be an exit scam, or more likely, it can be a hack by a third party. Please remember that the amount is less than BTC1,500. I am sure that Alphabay is having more than BTC25,000 in the cold storage, considering its popularity and the number of users.

if it was a hack,then the owners would have claimed it was a hack
this would be the perfect cover for them to evaporate with the money
but they did move the coins,they said they moved them for security reasons
so,it is either they are telling the truth and wil lcome back soon business as usual,or just buying time to cover tracks