22.5.17 Dark Web and Cybercrime Roundup

22.5.17 Dark Web and Cybercrime Roundup:

“US Darknet Drug Traffickers Arrested After Overdose Of A Teen”

The overdose of an 18-year-woman on the US West Coast led to the arrest of a well-known Alphabay vendor on the East Coast, PeterTheGreat. Law enforcement caught the duo behind the vendor account within a few months—an accomplishment authorities used to express the effectiveness of their “high intensity” drug trafficking taskforce. The taskforce combines state and federal law enforcement and resources to enhance the reach of investigators that need to cross state lines. DeepDotWeb

“Victim Rescued In Brazil’s First Bitcoin Ransom Kidnapping Plot”

Kidnappers grabbed a woman in Brazil and held her for a Bitcoin ransom. The husband went straight to the police and delayed random payment. He told the kidnappers that the country’s Bitcoin trading volume “wasn’t large enough for him to have the demanded amount available.” Once the kidnappers sent the Bitcoin address for the random, police located the victim and arrested one perpetrator. DeepDotWeb

“OUTLAW market status”

This one caused a tremendous level of drama as, unlike many marketplace “exits,” one admin explained that the disappearance was not an exit scam. “I personally think [the other admins running off with the money] is absolutely not the case. We were always as honest as possible, however apparently it couldn’t last.” The Reddit post caused an extremely high level of tension—most users found the claims ridiculous. Some, though, agreed that the disappearance was not an exit scam. Somewhat ironically, this came only weeks after we wrote “Outlaw Market Prepares Scam-Deterring Revamp.” The ongoing discussion can be found over at /r/darknetmarkets.

To top things off – “Acropolis Market Shutdown Notice”

“We are sorry to inform you that Acropolis marketplace will be stopping operations 30 days from today, on June 17, 2017. Due to personal reasons we are no longer in a position to continue to provide escrow services,” Acropolis marketplace admins wrote in a PGP signed message. A uniquely graceful exit from the community that only few found trouble with. Time to find a new market, though. /r/darknetmarkets

The MalwareTechBlog drama

A famed security researcher—the one who accidentally sinkholed and “stopped” the WannaCry(pt) ransomware—reported that the media moved from not only hounding him, but also harassing and bribing his friends. He previously dealt with the following, according to his tweets: “Current Policy: if you turn up at my house you’re crossed off the list of potential media outlets I will do an exclusive with.” Twitter: @MalwareTechBlog (This is the public account)

“Zomato Hacked; 17 Million Accounts Sold on Dark Web”

We saw news about a food and restaurant discovery service getting hacked. And then that the hacker listed the database on the darknet for sale. Waqas of HackRead wrote that the database contained 17 million entries and cost a little over $1,000. The interesting part, as security researcher Dissent Doe said, was that the hacker (known as “nclay”) agreed to remove the database listing from Hansa market in exchange for a bug bounty. DataBreaches.net