Advertisement
Advertisement
And because of the explosion in demand for cryptocurrency, anyone using bitcoin today faces rising transaction fees and lengthy wait times for payments to be processed.All of this means that people like our guy who are very rich on paper (or, more accurately, on the blockchain) must devise highly complex methods to convert their ill-gotten gains, or risk losing quite a bit of value, said Tom Robinson, co-founder of the blockchain analytics company Elliptic. “Funds from illicit activities are just lying dormant, and they are waiting to find effective means of cashing out,” he said.Dark web vendors were among the early investors in bitcoin. Now, those holding virtual millions are stuck in limbo.
Advertisement
Advertisement
LIKE MANY aspiring international criminals before him, our guy eventually turned to a Swiss private banker. In January, he approached Olivier Cohen, an experienced broker based in Geneva who recently established a company called Altcoinomy to help high-net-worth individuals invest in cryptocurrencies. At first, the guy claimed to have built up his bitcoin cache running a trading service. Cohen was skeptical of bitcoin and its origins, as bankers tend to be, so he traced the payments. The journey ultimately took him back to the dark web.“They are ready to pay big time.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
- The drop and run: LeagueMode operates on the Wall Street Market, one of the most popular dark web markets, and has traded in malware and stolen banking credentials since 2010. He said most vendors use multiple bitcoin wallets — he has more than a dozen himself — combined with automated, personalized scripts to “mix” the bitcoin through micro-transactions to avoid detection. He found a person living locally who wants to regularly buy bitcoin. So once or twice a week, he transfers bitcoin into this person’s account, “and a few hours later he brings a bag of cash to my porch,” he explained. “One-to-one exchange, no fees, and we both stay happy.”
- An oldie but a goodie: A vendor using the handle Med3l1n sells stolen credit cards and IDs on the Wall Street Market. The 24-year-old, who is also a moderator of the WSM forum, said there are a number of ways of cashing out, if you know what you’re doing. One way is to send your bitcoin to a company that charges a prepaid debit card that can be used in the real world. “The card emitter doesn't even know that it was recharged with bitcoins because there's a company that does this service for you,” he said. You can get around demands for ID simply by buying fake documentation on the dark web — using bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, of course.
Advertisement
- Go to Western Union: Alpha_xxx, a 24-year-old U.S.-based drug dealer on the Point dark web marketplace, said he goes through Western Union to help cash out bitcoin. First he uses one of a number of services that automatically transfer bitcoin to Western Union accounts, then has a third-party — called a picker — collect the cash as a further layer of protection.
- It’s easy, if you know how: Dr Lysergic, who sells cocaine, LSD, and MDMA, dismissed claims that you can’t cash out bitcoin anymore. “If anything, it’s becoming easier to cash out for me than when I first began,” he said. He wouldn’t reveal what method he uses to offload his bitcoin, but he said he typically cashes out $3,000 at a time, losing around 2 percent in the process. “If some of these novice vendors were smart and sit and think about it, there are so many ways to do it,” he said. “Sometimes it may be tedious and a long process, but that’s what we signed up for.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement