
Glowing reviews tout counterfeit cash on the dark web - prostoalex
https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-dark-web-counterfeiter-20190201-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
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mothsonasloth
Why 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.

~~~
tomatotomato37
The 2002 Moscow theater attack shows gas-based raids are not any less
dangerous

~~~
curuinor
well, they're as dangerous if you use carfentanyl. if you just use tear gas or
something...

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>if you just use tear gas or something...

The FBI tried that once upon a time in Texas. Most formulations of tear "gas"
are actually a powder that happens to be flammable powder. It makes nasty
poisonous things when it burns (burning already poisonous things has a
tendency of doing that). It didn't go well.[1] It's generally not prudent to
use tear gas if you're not ok with substantially increasing the likelihood of
many people in the target area dying. What's acceptable when you're trying to
gas some enemy combatants out of a tunnel in a war zone is not necessarily
acceptable for a civilian law enforcement agency to do domestically.

(possibly NSFW)
[https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/attachments/f240/14...](https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/attachments/f240/149052d1270518862-waco-
autopsy-photographs-february-1993-untitled-1.jpg)

~~~
darkpuma
Except for drills and riot control, it's illegal for militaries to use tear
gas.

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gambiting
>>Johnson had served three years in federal prison for selling pirated copies
of Microsoft Office.

Like, that's just fucked up.

~~~
airstrike
How 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
Because 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.

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blattimwind
> 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
Keep 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.

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cwkoss
Is 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.

~~~
klodolph
I looked through 18 U.S. Code Chapter 25. I am not a lawyer. It does not look
like simple possession is illegal, you have to spend it with an intent to
defraud.

That said, it could also be illegal to buy counterfeit currency, even if you
don’t intend to sell it.

~~~
Balgair
I wonder how research gets around it. Most printer/copiers have detection
software in them to determine if someone is trying to print out money and then
cancels the print job. I can imagine that those kinds of folks would need
counterfeits to test against. Also, there is a good case for educational
purposes and museum collections, in addition to things just like stamp
collecting.

~~~
_underfl0w_
> Most printers/copiers have detection software

Do you have a source for this? I've never heard of it but would be really
interested in looking at, say, a disassembly of applicable firmware.

~~~
hexadec
The Eurion Constellation is how this is usually done. Most US bills above a
certain value and most larger Euro bills have this embedded somewhere.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation)

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cglace
I 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.

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thecatspaw
Oh wow, providing a tracking number, huge OPSEC mistake

~~~
CharlesColeman
> Oh wow, providing a tracking number, huge OPSEC mistake

Double mistake: he habitually used the same postbox to mail his packages. He
might have had better luck if he drove well out of his way to mail them.

Though I'm kinda surprised the police weren't able to get a firmer lead on him
from the tracking numbers. Is it really possible to get those anonymously
issued? I'd assumed they'd at least be able to track him back to a store with
security camera footage.

~~~
JimboOmega
The article mentioned that he mailed them from a box across from a police
station, not a store.

And basically yes. You get the tracking number when you create the shipping
label, and the info is generated when it's first scanned, no need to be
physically present when that occurs

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nodesocket
Curious 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?

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randyrand
It’s interesting they couldn’t decrypt his computer.

Does anyone know if FileVault on mac has any known exploits?

~~~
oliv__
That's what they say.

~~~
jdironman
It 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
> 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.

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Izmaki
How can someone buy a truck for $58,000 in cash and not set off one billion
alarms?? :O

~~~
Consultant32452
The 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.

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mensetmanusman
‘They were so good that even I accepted them as legal tender!’

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atemerev
Perhaps 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.

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zozbot123
It'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
because the payment would be in bitcoin, can't counterfeit bitcoin.

~~~
hopler
wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spending

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dawhizkid
It cost $120 in bitcoin to buy a $100 counterfeit bill? How does that make any
sense

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reverend_gonzo
> four fake $100 bills for $120 in bitcoin

You get $400 for $120 in bitcoin.

~~~
crowbahr
A 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
Trade them to suckers for more bitcoin and repeat?

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i_am_nomad
A friend of mine was scammed in exactly that way. So, yes.

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gammateam
> “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
Is 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.

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nootropicat
That'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
Exactly 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.

