[2019-09-16] Darkweb criminals launder cash for bitcoin at pennies for dollar

[buwaytress]

Did Armor actually test any of these services?

There's nothing mentioned in the report I linked to above to suggest that they bought or attempted to buy any of the services they are reporting on, including all those which use bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. As you say, there is no shortage of scammers on the clear web, so why would there be a shortage on the dark web, where it is essentially impossible to take any real action against spammers. This essentially sounds like the twitter scam of "Send 0.5 ETH to get 5 ETH back", but with extra steps. I would, however, be surprised if every one of the services or trades that are mentioned in the report are scams.

I'm not exactly familiar with trading illegal services on the dark web. Are escrows a thing?

I'm sure some of them are legitimate hackers, for sure, but the large majority are outright scammers, copy pasting the same tactics that worked 20 years ago.

Escrows are a thing on darkmarkets themselves, but that's a good point. Those services Armor's talking about? They don't do escrows. You send them Bitcoin, and they promise to Western Union you money. It's classic, just as beautiful as the Nigerian Prince scams, because it works.

I think guys like Armor give too much credit to kiddie scammers. And they have no clue about what happens. They just enter these markets, get their heads done in by the amazing things they see on sale, and then scramble to write a report that's not substantiated.

Like you said, I don't think any of the services were tested. Armor took the ads at pure face value.

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[Kyraishi]

This is stupid... Not sure why criminals would trade millions of dollars worth of dirty money on a P2P currency that the government would have a decent shot at cracking the code. The ironic part about these sort of articles is that BTC was made for money freedom, and is probably one of the worst coins to do illegal things with, while privacy-based coins, that were literally built to avoid government intervention and keep other people's eyes off your money, are getting barely any publicity and pushed to the public as the crypto for the darknet.

Now, why is that..? Because the government and banks are trying to paint a horrible view of the coin, even though it's not even the most used coin to fund illegal activities that occur on the darknet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

the government would have a decent shot at cracking the code.

Not sure what you mean by this. No government is "cracking bitcoin". Do you mean tracing the user via the blockchain? Sure, that's possible, but the hacker in question is likely going to be using a mixer, CoinJoin, selling for Monero, or something similar.

Because the government and banks are trying to paint a horrible view of the coin, even though it's not even the most used coin to fund illegal activities that occur on the darknet.

Do you have a source? Everything I've seen suggests bitcoin is still the most used coin, even though Monero would be a better choice on the dark net IMO.

[Slow death]

The second annual research report by cloud security provider Armor shows that criminals are selling cash for bitcoin on darkweb marketplaces at a substantially reduced rate.

where is this report? Does anyone have the link of this report so I can see?

about this company that made the report, see the team:

https://www.armor.com/about-us/

MARK WOODWARD ( CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER )

JOSH BOSQUEZ ( CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER )

They are the only people with technical skills to watch and do research on darkweb. I assuming they must have taken some time to do such research, so I would like to see this report and if possible I hope the report has proof. Because in my opinion they are promoting themselves

[o_e_l_e_o]

I linked to it above:

You can read the full report here: https://cdn.armor.com/app/uploads/2018/10/2019-Q3-Report-BlackMarket-SinglePages-1.pdf

There is nothing in the way of "proof" in the report, as you ask. They simply talk about the offers advertised, and how much each costs. They did not purchase or attempt to purchase any of the offers they discuss. As we discussed above, it's very likely the majority of advertised offers or trades are scams.

[davis196]

Pay 800 USD worth of bitcoin and get 10,000 USD in fiat money from a bank account via Western Union?
I don't get it.What makes this transaction clever?I guess that the hackers have access to way too much stolen bank accounts so they sell them at an extremely low price.
The battle against the Darkweb is going to be harder than ever.

[gentlemand]

Pay 800 USD worth of bitcoin and get 10,000 USD in fiat money from a bank account via Western Union?
I don't get it.What makes this transaction clever?I guess that the hackers have access to way too much stolen bank accounts so they sell them at an extremely low price.

That's what was explained to my sluggish self.

Since whoever's paying winds up with cash I really don't get why they're not recruiting mules to cash out themselves and then they get the full amount but I'm not a criminal.

[Stedsm]

Pay 800 USD worth of bitcoin and get 10,000 USD in fiat money from a bank account via Western Union?
I don't get it.What makes this transaction clever?I guess that the hackers have access to way too much stolen bank accounts so they sell them at an extremely low price.

That's what was explained to my sluggish self.

Since whoever's paying winds up with cash I really don't get why they're not recruiting mules to cash out themselves and then they get the full amount but I'm not a criminal.

That's probably because they want to create a channel (specifically their victims for a broader investigation) where they may get skipped ahead if the ones who are paying them BTC are actually doing it for an illicit activity and so, they are also considered criminals here. It'd be very interesting to see how these criminals react when they come under the radar of those big criminals (the slave police of their sultry delinquent Government which is itself dipped in the mud of corruption till their last drop of blood).

[CryptoBry]

I agree on what Kakmakr said. Bitcoin's activity in the dark web have decreased through the years since the silk road days. Criminals in the dark web have became smarter now and has shifted to a more anonymity focused coins like the monero and dash and even the authorities are the ones who have said it. Bitcoin is not anonymous as we think really even countries can issue a blacklist on addresses related to illicit activities that is also the reason why some of them have shifted in a lesser known crypto as well as a more anonymous one.

Soon Bitcoin will not anymore be used in the dark web transactions all because they can be traced and there is nothing "too be careful" once you are into this marketplace. And this is good news for the Bitcoin community as it is not anymore going to be the target of many of those in the government who can be using this as the scapegoat to launch anything that can be affecting the world of cryptocurrency.

[bbc.reporter]

Pay 800 USD worth of bitcoin and get 10,000 USD in fiat money from a bank account via Western Union?
I don't get it.What makes this transaction clever?I guess that the hackers have access to way too much stolen bank accounts so they sell them at an extremely low price.
The battle against the Darkweb is going to be harder than ever.

The fiat for bitcoin service might not also be the real money launderer at all. I reckon that it might only be the middleman. The real money launderer might get half of the $10k hehehe.

[Theb]

Soon Bitcoin will not anymore be used in the dark web transactions all because they can be traced and there is nothing "too be careful" once you are into this marketplace. And this is good news for the Bitcoin community as it is not anymore going to be the target of many of those in the government who can be using this as the scapegoat to launch anything that can be affecting the world of cryptocurrency.

Sadly that will not be the case, even if anonymity coins are mostly use for illicit activities in the dark web daily and Bitcoin will only be used rarely it will still be the face of the headline since the news and media will always link it to the most popular crypto. They all have their ways of padding the news and hiding other statistics just to make Bitcoin look bad for the common people. The bad thing about this is the impression it makes to all of the people who don't know the industry and that includes lawmakers who just take actions because of it. This won't really stop not until majority of the people gets the general sense that Bitcoin is now barely being used in the darkweb.

[gentlemand]

I agree on what Kakmakr said. Bitcoin's activity in the dark web have decreased through the years since the silk road days. Criminals in the dark web have became smarter now and has shifted to a more anonymity focused coins like the monero and dash and even the authorities are the ones who have said it. Bitcoin is not anonymous as we think really even countries can issue a blacklist on addresses related to illicit activities that is also the reason why some of them have shifted in a lesser known crypto as well as a more anonymous one.

Soon Bitcoin will not anymore be used in the dark web transactions all because they can be traced and there is nothing "too be careful" once you are into this marketplace. And this is good news for the Bitcoin community as it is not anymore going to be the target of many of those in the government who can be using this as the scapegoat to launch anything that can be affecting the world of cryptocurrency.

Most stats seem to point to the opposite. Bitcoin is used just as much as ever. It makes little to no sense to me but liquidity and acceptance clearly mean more to the average reprobate than covering their tracks.

There'll come a time where all privacy coins are rejected from above ground exchanges and bitcoins with any sniff of being near a dex or a mixer may be treated with suspicion by them - https://bisq.community/t/dirty-btc-coins-on-the-xmr-market/7798

[BitHodler]

Soon Bitcoin will not anymore be used in the dark web transactions all because they can be traced and there is nothing "too be careful" once you are into this marketplace.

Bitcoin will always be used by criminals of all layers. People here often think that cash is mostly used by criminals, but it should be pointed out that a lot of that happens digitally through financial institutions.

One would think that criminals must be sick in the head to launder money digitally, but it happens more frequently than people think. On a larger scale financial institutions even help you do it if the reward outweighs their risks.

Bitcoin is open for anybody to use, even if we don't particularly like those using it. Get over it. The same aspect that empowers criminals to freely use this decentralized money, helps us (non criminals) just as effectively.

[o_e_l_e_o]

bitcoins with any sniff of being near a dex or a mixer may be treated with suspicion by them

It's nonsense, really. There will come a time in the not too distant future where every bitcoin or fraction thereof in active circulation has at some point passed through a mixer, Wasabi wallet, CoinJoin, DEX, etc. How far are they going to look back? They obviously can't block every deposit that has every touched one of these services, so there must be a cut off of how far they will go back, and it will be trivial to bounce bitcoin around some "clean" addresses you have just generated to increase the number of steps since coming from one of these services. With every day that goes by I wish for large volume DEXs more and more.

The same aspect that empowers criminals to freely use this decentralized money, helps us (non criminals) just as effectively.

Exactly. The entire reason that criminal use bitcoin is because it works. If it didn't work, criminals wouldn't use it. Every currency in the world which successfully functions as a currency is used for illegal activities. If it can't be used for illegal activities, it's not really a currency.

[Naida_BR]

This is reason why  the crypto markets needs to be 'shut' down and only most transparent regulated P2P BitCoin must survive this.

Or - we will see another global shut down for all crypto - see Liberty Reserve

That won't happen. Crypto markets are the fuel fo the cryptocurrency industry right now.
Without them, the industry cannot survive and actually bitcoin is going to die. Illegal activities are going to continue to happen the same way as they happened before bitcoin invention.

[gentlemand]

That won't happen. Crypto markets are the fuel fo the cryptocurrency industry right now.
Without them, the industry cannot survive and actually bitcoin is going to die. Illegal activities are going to continue to happen the same way as they happened before bitcoin invention.

Don't worry yourself about his opinion when it comes to this particular area.

He wants you to buy BSV, ideally from his fine self I presume. They have an ever so slightly contradictory fantasy about Bitcoin being truly P2P whilst also having nodes that no one can afford to run and slavish legal penis suckage. Funnily enough they're all mutually exclusive but you may as well be arguing about the colour of the sky.

[bbc.reporter]

Soon Bitcoin will not anymore be used in the dark web transactions all because they can be traced and there is nothing "too be careful" once you are into this marketplace. And this is good news for the Bitcoin community as it is not anymore going to be the target of many of those in the government who can be using this as the scapegoat to launch anything that can be affecting the world of cryptocurrency.

Sadly that will not be the case, even if anonymity coins are mostly use for illicit activities in the dark web daily and Bitcoin will only be used rarely it will still be the face of the headline since the news and media will always link it to the most popular crypto. They all have their ways of padding the news and hiding other statistics just to make Bitcoin look bad for the common people. The bad thing about this is the impression it makes to all of the people who don't know the industry and that includes lawmakers who just take actions because of it. This won't really stop not until majority of the people gets the general sense that Bitcoin is now barely being used in the darkweb.

I speculate that some of those politicians attack bitcoin only because they do not want everyone else to have similar privileges as their rich, white crime, criminal friends hehehe.

[1Referee]

Soon Bitcoin will not anymore be used in the dark web transactions all because they can be traced and there is nothing "too be careful" once you are into this marketplace.

That's like saying; soon fiat will not be used for illicit activities anymore because governments are steering towards a cashless society where all transactions conducted digitally can be traced.

Ignore how we refer to each specific form of money, because it's simply just money at the end of the day, whether it's called fiat, Bitcoin, Gold, etc. There is an underlying value that we exchange, and as long as there are enough people and businesses willing to accept these forms of money, they will be used, regardless of it being used for good or "bad" purposes.