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Glowing reviews tout counterfeit cash on the dark web
- mothsonasloth 8y agoWhy does American law enforcement resort to such high profile raids if they know the suspect was dangerous. Surely they have better tactics to neutralize someone without ending up in a gun battle. A night raid, tailing the suspect, gas masks? Note: I am a Brit not American, therefore genuinely interested to hear from law enforcement people on this.
- fipple 8y agoAmerican law enforcement is populated with many people who want the violent intensity of real-life Call of Duty without the risk and sacrifice of joining the Marines. Storming counterfeiters with Bin Laden-level firepower is their way of doing this.
- pixl97 8y agoSad truth. A lot of the officers enjoy raids and gun battles like this.
- cookieswumchorr 8y agowhat's even the point of becoming cop when you don't get to kaboom bang bang ratatatata!!!!
- blattimwind 8y ago"Overcrowded prisons? I know a solution! ratatatatatata U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A" -- Homer Simpson
- aedocw 8y agoAmerican law enforcement agencies spend hundreds of millions on equipment to support violent raids. There is strong incentive to continue to use the equipment so that they can justify the spending as well as justify larger budgets for more spending on similar gear. If they don't have high profile violent raids to point at they risk people questioning the armament and spending.
- yyyymmddhhmmss 8y agoAs an American who has seen blasphemous spending on similar terms at all of my workplaces, I technically believe this, but I have trouble relating or visualizing it. The whole thing is just so surreal in the context of law enforcement.
- threwawasy1228 8y agoLet me help you visualize it, in the midwest i live in a town of ~80k people. The local police department just spent money on buying a armored bearcat assault vehicle.[0] At the city council meetings we were assured that the vehicle would 'hopefully never' need to be used. And people fought back saying that the there is no need for this in our small town. There are literal gun ports out the sides of the thing like a tank. They ended up buying it, and now that they have spent massive amounts of money on it, they are probably going to find some excuse to use it. For reference they bought the Military warzone model not the SWAT model. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat
- maxxxxx 8y agoI think the glorification of the military they did during the Gulf wars to avoid a backlash like during Vietnam is backfiring now. Now everybody wants to get on the "military warrior" bandwagon. Cops don't just want to do boring police work to keep the peace, even in tech we now have "boot camps".
- fouc 8y agoBootcamps don't make me think of war/military though. It just makes me think of pushups and climbing over walls and crawling through mud under rope.
- PeanutNore 8y agoAnd swabbing the latrines with a toothbrush
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoI’m going to prefer an obvious planned and announced arrest that could go sideways to no knock nighttime door kickers where risk of issues like family, pets, getting the wrong house all together go way up.
- gammateam 8y ago> neutralize that means kill to a lot of police departments in this country, and its basically their policy and it is simple logic: if any officer in the pack unilaterally decides that someone is a threat, then they are justified in neutralizing them and it is expected. you as the target will never know which rationale which officer is using, let alone which department even responded and that department's current policies, let alone the path to becoming a non-threat under that specific guideline. but maybe your family gets a settlement. maybe.
- pluma 8y agoOn the flip side this also means if you're involved in high crime, you should expect the police to intend to kill you so you should prepare for killing them first.
- tomatotomato37 8y agoThe 2002 Moscow theater attack shows gas-based raids are not any less dangerous
- curuinor 8y agowell, they're as dangerous if you use carfentanyl. if you just use tear gas or something...
- maxxxxx 8y agoTear gas is pretty unpleasant and also the impact is very uneven. We did an exercise at military with a very low dose and there were people who were in serious trouble while others barely noticed. I think it’s more of a movie phantasy.
- module0000 8y agoIn the US(Army) we all have to do a gas exercise. We go into a chamber with our gas masks on and watch the agent being activated and released. Then we remove our masks, recite our name, rank, and serial number, then put them back on. It doesn't last long, but no one in my platoon "barely noticed". It was pretty debilitating - vomiting, coughing, snot smeared all over your face...etc. That said, there are a lot of different gas varieties, and I've only been exposed to that one.
- maxxxxx 8y agoWe did that exercise too. But we also did one outside which is more realistic. There the distribution was very uneven. I don’t think think you can find a dosage that makes sure the bad guys are incapacitated while not killing others. As far as I know this is also a factor why chemical weapons weren’t used in WW2. They are way too hard to control to be useful.
- hnbroseph 8y agowhen i went through the chamber it got me a bit, but for me it wasn't especially debilitating... at least in comparison to some.
- DKnoll 8y agoI'm not a LEO but it seems pretty obvious. Better to take him somewhere he's unprepared rather than somewhere he could potentially have laid traps or have an early warning system like cameras.
- maxxxxx 8y agoIn this case they were actually dealing with a dangerous guy so I don’t see the problem here. But there are plenty of cases where they use the same tactics against people where there is no suspicion of them being dangerous. Example here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn_Heights,_Maryland_mayor%27s_residence_drug_raid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn_Heights,_Maryland_may...
- lazerpants 8y agoRight, they needed to apprehend him in a low population area in case of a shootout, and apprehending him at home makes him more likely to barricade himself or possibly use explosives. Seems like getting him on the road in an isolated area was the best possibility.
- saiya-jin 8y agoIndeed, a dedicated prepper which carries ar-15 around and starts shooting upon a first sight of sirens ain't somebody you want to ambush in place he had years to prepare in end-of-the-world they-are-coming-for-me mindset. Maybe he had some mental issues that might get better with proper medication, but then he most probably wouldn't be able to hold a steady relationship so I don't believe that. I am far from a fan of gun-ho US style of police force, but in this case it really seems dangerous person was removed from society.
- Scoundreller 8y agoI’m impressed the same person was into counterfeit money, instead of gold.
- module0000 8y agoIt's just "what we do" here in the USA. Sad but true. He's a heterosexual male with an interest in the "prepper" movement. The article says they were aware of his location before the arrest. It seems like it would have been more fruitful to use an undercover female asset who feigned interest in his interests. Then along with the arrest, you have a chance of more intel as he shares it with her.
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- chooseaname 8y agoWell, they train like they're military, so then they treat everything like it's a war.
- loeg 8y agoThey don't have anything close to the discipline of the military.
- cf498 8y agoThis is a major part of it. They get the military toys and just left to run wild. Even the most basic points like not point a weapon at someone you dont intend to shoot are missing completely.
- hinkley 8y agoI think it's the expert beginner problem. They believe they have trained like the military, and treat everything like a war. I doubt many drill sergeants would agree that they've trained like the military though, and in these threads we occasionally hear from a few who very clearly don't. Last time I read one of these there was a guy ranting about the sad state of trigger discipline even on SWAT teams.
- pjc50 8y agoEven in the UK the raid would have been fairly large for someone suspected of being armed or possessing explosives. The usual tactic is the "dawn raid": https://www.itv.com/news/2017-06-05/fresh-raids-in-wake-of-london-terror-attack/ https://www.itv.com/news/2017-06-05/fresh-raids-in-wake-of-l... It's just that because firearms are so widespread the US does a lot more raids, so there are more to go wrong. And the US has no equivalent of HMIC or IPCC, so the standards are a lot lower.
- lostlogin 8y agoIn New Zealand ‘Dawn Raids’ were violent raids on alledged overstayers, mainly Samoan or Togan. A grim period. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-1970s/1976 https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-1970s/1976
- pluma 8y agoNot an American but I see two obvious incentives: 1) Finances. US police seems to hoard military grade equipment. Creating a high risk situation demonstrates the need for superior firepower because it doesn't even suggest the possibility of a less expensive/dangerous alternative. 2) Politics. Violent raids against armed criminals make for good optics. Escalating the situation demonstrates the threat of violent criminals while also demonstrating a strong police force, allowing politicians to appear "tough on crime". Additionally Americans have a more Puritan idea of how criminals should be treated (cf. capital punishment, jokes about prison rape, felonies being permanently banned from voting, etc). And a fairly well-established dehumanising "us-vs-them" mentality in media coverage and pop culture.
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- towelr34dy 8y agoPersonally I'm surprised. Whenever I've heard of the arrest of high profile suspects , there is almost always some smart plan to get the person before they can engage in violence. This is done to get them to cooperate and get the network that supports the high profile suspect. I'm not sure why it went down as it did. But I know reality is complex, so I'd guess they were aiming for better but things went badly and they preferred to take him out for sure than let him get away. That would be my guess. That or someone wanted him dead, but the latter is less likely (stupidity being more common than malice and all) - There are probability other probabilities I'm not considering and the fact that multiple factors could be at play... it's hard to tell, the article was short on details.
- schmichael 8y agoLike any massive bureaucracy federal agents have processes and policies to determine what tactics are used. Night raids may pose a higher risk of alerting the target and allow them to flee or fight from a fortified position. A person like this is far more likely to have alarms, booby traps, gas masks, and weapons stockpiles than your average citizen. Don't forget that in the US it's relatively easy to get a wide range of extremely powerful weapons. Also the target seems to have known they were being surveilled and may have been fleeing. This may have been the agents last best chance. There's also confirmation bias at work: a raid isn't high profile unless it's big and flashy and potentially violent. You hear more often about violent raids than quiet arrests. Even if they're reported as frequently, quiet arrests are just less memorable.
- rtkwe 8y agoA night raid against a prepper seems like it's even more likely to wind up with a big firefight than this. Think about it they're then going into their house knowing they're stockpiled food and arms there. Trying to arrest them on the road avoids trying to storm their home and avoids endangering anyone else like doing it in town might.
- nradov 8y agoIn order to ensure a conviction, law enforcement needs to apprehend the suspect and seize the contraband in the same physical location. Otherwise there can be room for reasonable doubt at trial.
- freewilly1040 8y agoA night raid against a preppier would be way worse. That’s exactly what these lunatics are “prepping” for. And tailing the suspect is incompatible with assembling a sufficiently concentrate force to have a decisive advantage
- zozbot123 8y agoIt's interesting that the reviews also touted the fact that a "your money back" guarantee was offered. ISTM that very few people would trust a money-back guarantee from a counterfeiter.
- gammateam 8y agobecause the payment would be in bitcoin, can't counterfeit bitcoin.
- hopler 8y agowikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spending
- kerkeslager 8y agoIf the counterfeiter has a history of actually providing the money back, they may actually be quite trustworthy. I don't know much about counterfeiters, but with ransomware, there's the danger that you pay the ransom and the criminal doesn't decrypt the data they were holding for ransom. If ransomware hackers don't decrypt the data regularly, they'll gain that reputation and people won't pay out the ransoms, which destroys their business model. So ransomware hackers almost always decrypt their victims' data. I suspect something similar happens with counterfeiters and other DNM sellers: they actually have to provide good customer service, including refunds when promised, in order to keep a good reputation. EDIT: I'll also add, that assuming people doing illegal things don't follow a system of ethics is a very "square" viewpoint. Sure, some criminals do behave completely amorally, but many simply have ethical systems which don't agree with the law.
- gammateam 8y ago> “There are so many questions I would have liked to ask him,” said Wesley Gillespie, a Secret Service agent who chased Johnson for a year. “How did he learn to make these so well? Who taught him? Where is the bitcoin?” The Dark Web is very educational Its the real HackerNews
- blhack 8y agoIs it, though? Do you have first hand knowledge of this? Every time I try to look at things on "the dark web", I read through hidden wiki, see a few completely empty forums, laugh, then turn tor back off.
- nootropicat 8y agoThat's because hidden wiki was seized and doesn't exist anymore. What you saw was a mirror of now severely outdated information + with more unsavory links deleted.
- YetAnotherNick 8y agoExactly the same experience as GP. Please educate how to find better sites/forums/discussions. Once I saw one ad for 'r* *e videos' in some onion site while exploring and I immediately closed tor.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- gammateam 8y agoThere exists at least one website or user that is available only as a hidden service on that network which has better information than sites on clearnet So maybe you are asking the wrong question? > Every time I try to look at things on "the dark web", I read through hidden wiki, see a few completely empty forums, laugh, then turn tor back off. Your search techniques aren't useful. All the information is bought from vendors, and they likely will only send you a file over a peer-2-peer encrypted chat, or in a message with their pgp encryption. Vendors do not talk on forums much to avoid analysis. All you have are user reviews. Vendors come and go.
- thecatspaw 8y agoOh wow, providing a tracking number, huge OPSEC mistake
- nyolfen 8y agoonly way to prove fulfillment of services on a dnm
- thecatspaw 8y agoSeems like a huge risk though. Is it worth saving yourself from a few refunds if you substantially increase your target surface? I see the neee to proove shippment though. But surely giving out the tracking number to the receiver is unneccessary. Any of his customer could find out where he ships from, not just leo
- ryanlol 8y agoCustomers inevitably get the tracking # when they receive the product, no?
- flatiron 8y agoUsually the tracking number is used by the seller and the moderators to settle disputes. I’ve never had a tracking number sent to me but have had sellers say “it’s supposed to be coming tomorrow” This is on cgmc
- ryanlol 8y agoGenerally my cgmc orders come with the tracking # on the packaging, USPS kind of needs that to be able to update the tracking.
- threwawasy1228 8y agoAt the same time if he was following standard OPSEC to not ship from the same place twice, and not ship from near where he lived, tracking number would have been completely fine.
- blattimwind 8y ago> The agent clicked “buy” and in September 2017 purchased four fake $100 bills for $120 in bitcoin, the online cryptocurrency. That's a fairly conservative ROI if you ask me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- parmesanb 8y agoKeep in mind, his overhead is only that of ink/paper/his own time (presuming it was a one man operation), so that's still probably 99% profit margins. Plus, counterfeit currency would need to be substantially cheaper than real currency to be worth using in the first place.
- noddy1w 8y agoUnder modern monetary theory, shouldn't the govt commend this man for helping stimulate the economy with quantitative easing?
- gruez 8y agoIn case this question was serious: because under quantitative easing, the money eventually gets recalled (the bonds they bought eventually comes due), or it's used for constructive purposes (eg. building infrastructure).
- dawhizkid 8y agoIt cost $120 in bitcoin to buy a $100 counterfeit bill? How does that make any sense
- reverend_gonzo 8y ago> four fake $100 bills for $120 in bitcoin You get $400 for $120 in bitcoin.
- crowbahr 8y agoA 330% ROI. I can understand the appeal, though I question the sanity of ever trying to pass the $100 bill off after purchasing it on the black market.
- c22 8y agoTrade them to suckers for more bitcoin and repeat?
- i_am_nomad 8y agoA friend of mine was scammed in exactly that way. So, yes.
- randyrand 8y agoIt’s interesting they couldn’t decrypt his computer. Does anyone know if FileVault on mac has any known exploits?
- oliv__ 8y agoThat's what they say.
- jdironman 8y agoIt could be what they would say if they wanted to keep you using it. Although, they could say they decrypted it when they didn't to get people to switch to something possibly less secure. This is all speculation though.
- saagarjha 8y ago> It could be what they would say if they wanted to keep you using it. I mean, for most users it's better than nothing, since they're not likely to use anything else.
- _underfl0w_ 8y agoIt seems to just fall back to the user's password, at least on my Hackintosh. That's not an exploit but it does require repeating a password. I've never heard it said that it also explicitly doesn't do something like falling back to hardware encryption a la BitLocker. That's just paranoia-baiting though.
- stevespang 8y agoViolent raids are all part of the mystique and bravado that benefits recruiting efforts of agents - - - as well as the image fake news portrayed to the world that American agents are the baddest asses of them all, don't mess with us . . .
- nodesocket 8y agoCurious how much bitcoin he had. > When they searched Johnson’s body, they found a computer thumb drive jammed in an ankle holster. The device contained 50 screen grabs of text messages. Wallet word seed?
- gambiting 8y ago>>Johnson had served three years in federal prison for selling pirated copies of Microsoft Office. Like, that's just fucked up.
- airstrike 8y agoHow so? He committed a crime. He wasn't in prison for having a pirated copy of Office – he was literally profiting from selling it to others.
- gambiting 8y agoBecause I'd like to think that we put people in prison when they are danger to others or the society. Someone selling pirated copies of Office is neither. Fuck,I'm a software developer and I wouldn't want someone selling pirated copies of our product to go to prison. Especially not for 3(!!!!) years. Especially not in an American prison. Maybe my complaint should be with the ridiculous system that allows this to happen though - there's plenty of other punishments that could be used instead of locking someone up for three years.
- cwkoss 8y agoIs simple possession of counterfeit cash illegal in and of itself, or only when spent? I have a collection of 'fakes' and this would be a fun addition, but wouldn't want to risk federal prison for it.
- ddebernardy 8y ago[Scratches head...] If you're worried that it is illegal, are you sure you shouldn't be posting this anonymously?
- cwkoss 8y agoIf I had intended to do it regardless of legality, I would not have asked about legality.
- cphoover 8y agoHmmm if you are collecting them with no intent of using them, I would think you would have a good freedom of speech defense, (but don't quote me on that INAL). From : https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/can-i-be-charged-with-using-counterfeit-money-if-i-di https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/can-i-be-cha... "Crimes Involving the Use of Counterfeit Currency The use of counterfeit currency can violate both federal and state law. Under federal law, the use or attempted use of counterfeit currency is illegal if the person has the intent to defraud the recipient. A conviction for the offense carries up to 20 years in prison and a fine. A conviction for producing counterfeit currency similarly carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a fine, as does a conviction for merely possessing counterfeit currency. All of these crimes require that the prosecutor prove that the defendant acted with the intent to defraud." "intent to defraud." being key here...
- cwkoss 8y agoHmm, interesting. I'm in no rush, so will certainly be doing more research. I currently have some counterfeit boullion and fake Magic the Gathering cards. I find the idea of effectively-worthless items that appear very valuable to be quite aesthetically appealing. Fake art seems cool, and I've been looking into movie prop money. "Real" counterfeits would be an interesting collection item, but would probably deface the back/front of each bill with word "FAKE - do not spend or accept" so I could display them, but reasonably say I did not intend to spend them.
- Izmaki 8y agoHow can someone buy a truck for $58,000 in cash and not set off one billion alarms?? :O
- airstrike 8y agoIt's not like using cash is an egregious practice. Assuming he provided his driver's license / ID, proof of residence and any other necessary documents, the seller has no reason to suspect the buyer
- Consultant32452 8y agoThe strategy drug dealers use is they know the cash limit before required notification. Let's say it's $5k. Buy a $4k car, drive it a couple months, trade it in for an $8k car paying the difference in cash, rinse and repeat.
- atemerev 8y agoPerhaps he wanted to die, but wished for something more dramatic than shooting himself in the head. It is good that he didn’t kill anyone else.
- cglace 8y agoI find it ironic that the guy spent so much energy prepping for the end of the world. Then he chose a profession that would end his life severely prematurely.
- mensetmanusman 8y ago‘They were so good that even I accepted them as legal tender!’