Leave the Scammer-op behind
Posted by: DeepDotWeb
February 6, 2014
We have found some interesting post at the Outlaw market forums, made by their admin, we guess that the original intent was to point out the security and the integrity of their own market, but this is not the reason that we are posting this, we are re posting this because this post offers some interesting theory regarding the marketplace scams / arrests that we have witnessed (Sr1, Atlantis, PBF, Sheep, Atlantis, Tormarket and the future ones..).
This may sound at first like a nice conspiracy theory and nothing more, but those of you who were following closely and remember these the following events might find this theory interesting, and since this not the first, nor the second time that we hear this theory (with not much real evidence) we decided to repost this:
Event 1: Few big vendors that were warned about a week or two before SR1 Went down and pulled their listings.
Event 2: The vendors that were warned before Atlantis went down and had time to pull their listings (and some were able to take their money out).
Event 3: The group of big vendors that were allowed to withdraw their funds out of sheep and write about this on the sheep forums, when everyone else couldn’t (hard to tell if the collaborated or were just used by the Sheep admins)
We do not endorse or reject these theories, we just bring them as something interesting, we would love to hear what you think. (but regardless, we do agree that not online wallets should be used on any market in the current reality)
This is the quote from the OP (http://outforumbpapnpqr.onion/index.php/topic,86.0.html):
This is my speculation why all big markets are always using online wallets and PIN.
I have thought about why only OUTLAW uses user friendly safety features like PGP secure login and, most important, has no online wallet that needs to be funded before purchases can be made.
What is the reason for all major shops using always the same system that makes scamming so easy? How is it possible that new markets pop up and attract ten thousands of customers very fast and then close down, steal the escrow with following markets doing the same?
I do not know, but I can guess.
I can imagine that there is a group of “big vendors” who moves from shop to shop and brings their customers with. Small new shop grow big very fast this way, many more people are attracted, many more vendors come and everything seems perfect. But the scam is planned already.
One day the admins and the big vendors who form the scamming core decide that they made enough money, the involved vendors get their money out, the admins close the shop down and steal the escrow. They divide it with the vendors who supported this scam and move on to the next market.
And do it again. And again. And it always works as long as there is no SAFE alternative.
Small new shops, SR-clones, that do not cooperate with the scamming crew never get enough vendors to their shop to be able to keep the shop going. After some time with almost no turnover and no earnings, they must quit. No honest SR-clone-shop will ever come up.
I think, that all big shops currently only are scam-operations of this kind. Maybe many phishing sites are even actively supported by the scam ops…
OUTLAW is the first alternative on the deep net. We do not have online wallets that could be stolen and we have invented security features like PGP secure login, to create the safest possible shopping experience in the deep net.
OUTLAW is growing slowly, because we attract honest vendors only. We want to stay online really long and become the alternative honest vendors and buyers are looking for.
Deep net business is never 100% safe, as scammers AND law enforcement are unified together against the honest buyers and vendors and the necessary anonymity hinders a totally safe shopping experience, but while the big scam-op-shops try to look very user friendly, they are paying no attention to user safety.
They know that within a few month they will rip them off anyway, so why bother with security?
Their goal is to attract as many people as possible as fast as possible by exploiting the habits of the users and cooperation with some big vendors. Maybe they might even cooperate with phishers and law enforcement for maximal profit within shortest time.
Outlaw came to change this scamming game where a few make huge profits and the masses have to accept losses. Surely, we want to make profit as well, but honest profit by charging fees for service. If we should feel that we earn not enough, we will raise the fees!
If vendors and buyers rather want to behave like flies and fly where it smells “nice” but scam is waiting, we can’t change it.
But we can offer the difference for the buyers and vendors who want to deal honestly and establish long term relation.
Outlaw is the market for the more clever users who care about their safety and who understand that online wallets in deepmarket shops are necessary for scam-ops only. Phishing is not a necessary evil, PGP secure login prevents phishing. No shop needs to only WARN you of phishing sites, it can protect you by offering PGP login!
We are still small, but we are growing and as the mass of vendors and buyers are indeed honest traders and customers who wish for a honest market place, with time we will become the main player on the deep net market, as our concept must beat any scam-op on the long term.
The admins of OUTLAW are eager to support you with every question!
The OUTLAW-team wishes you a positive and secure shopping experience.
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Updated: 2014-02-06