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The Rise And Fall Of The Silk Road - Pt 2 The Fall

The rise and fall of the secret underground drugs market, the Silk Road is the stuff of cinema. As well as the stuff we already knew about, like the illegal drugs and the Dread Pirate Roberts alias, what was unveiled last week when, Ross William Ulbricht, a physicist from San Fran was named as the mastermind behind it all, included unhappy drug lords, multiple forged documents and even hit men.

The popularity and utter cockiness of DPR, as he became affectionately known, was what really caused the FBI to ramp up their efforts to catch the young kingpin.  Giving interviews with Forbes and hosting online chats via reddit and 4chan was rubbing his success in the face of the authorities as well as being needlessly careless with his identity and location.

According to the FBI's sealed complaint (which can be seen here) against Ross Ulbricht and his monster machine, the Silk Road, the young 'entrepreneur' made a number of dumb mistakes  which led to his capture, which makes you think, how could someone who constantly relied on, and prided himself on his security measures to maintain anonymity, be so brash and flippant about his internet usage.

He Posted On Drug And Bit Coin Forums

He used websites like shroomery.org and various other drugs informing websites to essentially promote his 'secret' site. Not to self, if attempting to set up an international online black market, opt for the word of mouth marketing approach.

Using His Real Email Address

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Yep that's right, he didn't reroute that through an onion (router) did he...

 

Posted Messages On Social Media

Like this message on his Google + account... Good job Ulbricht, really inconspicuous .

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Posted Crazy Rants

He used to post really strange mission statements on his accounts as well as obviously looking for friends in UPS to ship his drugs for him. On his LinkedIn he stated that he wanted to create economic simulation that would circumvent state economic control systems... Keep that weird shit to yourself and you might not have got caught Ross.

Bought Fake Documents Online

This bit is really dumb, when he ordered some fake IDs with his picture and a different name on them, to be delivered to his house, it got intercepted by border police in Canada. When questioned about the docs he told police it was easy to order stuff online, on sites like the Silk Road.

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And Here's Where It Gets Really Dumb...

Hired a Hit Man

According to the above document, Albricht got pissed off with a witness whom had threatened to expose him, he then set out to look for a hitman online, turned out to be an undercover agent (derp) that's where the downfall began and the rest is history...

Used His Real Name On A Programmers Forum (Stack Overflow)

In 2011 when the Silk Road was being set up, Ulbricht posted a question about programming code for a hidden TOR website, using his real name.... realising how fucking dumb he was he quickly backtracked and changed his username to Frosty... which he used over and over again when posting questions about his 'secret' website.

In the end he was indicted on counts of conspiracy to commit murder of a witness, use of interstate commerce in murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to contribute a controlled substance. He is set to be arraigned on Thursday.

Shane Johnston
Article written by
Editor for CollegeTimes, UCD graduate and music lover. shane@collegetimes.com
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