Did The #2 Largest Dark Net Market, BlackBank, Exit Scammed?

So, BlackBank market, one of the 3 current leading markets has been down for the past week or so for “security maintenance” (Does implementing a tumbler ring any sheep bells?)
The most recent news posted on Blackbanks’ sub Reddit by blackbank_team, one of the market support staffer, seems to indicate that the admin, MDparity is no longer communicating, a strong indicator that this might be another exit scam in a long line of markets who decided to vanish with their users funds – with evolution being the biggest so far, this is the Reddit thread posted by the support staffer:

I know, you’re afraid and i’m afraid too that mdparity will never ever come back
But to answer all of your questions
My messages here aren’t usually pgp signed, but there are only 2 persons who have credentials for this profile
I can’t believe mdparity has decided to exit scam now, if he has done it i’m astonished, but i believe he hasn’t done it, some might have happened to him, since he’s not answering my messages
I will give him until the first day of june before declaring BlackBank dead, so let’s wait toghether
MrDoe

Since many markets are currently experiencing Ddos attacks and are currently down, it might be an easy opportunity for market admins to disappear without anyone noticing until its too late.
To be clear – this is not a confirmed exit scammed, but it sure starting to look like one, so we will be following and updating.

Pandora Market: Scam or just Down?

I get the feeling that we are going to have to keep this image around:

We really wanted to report something about this case – but this is the only info

We had some reports about Pandora market being down, both site and forum – probably again, “take the money and run” type of scam, we will follow and update if needed. it wont be a big surprise if it just stays that way.
We had few people mailing us, one comment left, we there was also a few people reporting about this in Reddit and in SR2 forums. Hopefully this will turn out to be false alarm.

Lets make this clear: Most of the (Tor) Deepweb Marketplaces turn out to be scam sites eventually – Silk Road1  & BMR  – were exceptions, people know that and try to take advantage of that – as it became well known that there is a lot of money to be made with scam markets – so use your common sense!

Silk Road Admin Ross Ulbricht (DPR) Sentenced to Life in Prison

The Silk road saga came to an end when Ross Ulbricht, the convicted founder of Silk Road, has been sentenced to life in prison for running the underground online drug bazaar Silk Road (1), signaling the government’s seriousness in combating Dark net markets.
Before the sentencing the parents of the victims of drug overdoses addressed the court. Ulbricht broke down in tears. “I never wanted that to happen,” he said. “I wish I could go back and convince myself to take a different path.”

New DeepWeb Site Offers Free Ransomware Creation

Not long we reported about a new market selling Zero day exploits, and it seems that exploits are becoming more common than ever on the deepweb. Recently a new site was launched and started offering free creation of ransomware – in exchange for 30% of the BTC profits made from ransoms. According to the site itself (toxicola7qwv37qj.onion):

What is Tox?
We developed a virus which, once opened in a Windows OS, encrypts all the files.
Once this process is completed, it displays a message asking to pay a ransom to a bitcoin address to unlock the files.
How do I make money with Tox?
You can subscribe (no mail or other shit needed) and create your virus. You will have to decide the ransom to unlock the files.
Once you have downloaded your virus, you have to infect people (yes, you can spam the same virus to more people). How? That’s your part. The most common practice to spam it as a mail attachment. If you decide to follow this method be sure to zip the file to prevent antivirus and antispam detection.
The most important part: the bitcoin paid by the victim will be credited to your account. We will just keep a 30% fee of the income, so if you specify a 100$ ransom, you will get 70$ and we’ll get 30$, isn’t this fair?
F.A.Q.
Are you serious?
Yes, why not? This is the best way for us to infect a lot of people and make a lot of money.
Am I safe?
Sure, as long as you use tor and don’t use personally identifiable information: we don’t need to know you, and you don’t need to know us. The only thing we’ll ask you is the bitcoin address to withdraw your part.
Are you going to steal my profit?
Nope, why should we? The best way for us to make money is having you helping us.
Then why aren’t you spreading the virus yourself?
We are! But with you, we’re going to have a bigger income.
Why is the file a .scr?
Because in this way people will not suspect anything (who knows what is a .scr?). If you wish, you can change it to .exe it’ll work the same.
How does the virus look?
Sexy. The virus has a .src extension (same as .exe files) and it has the icon of a word document, so the victim wont be suspecting anything.
Will you actually decrypt the files once the ransom is paid?
Yes, we will. We want people to trust us, so that more people will pay the ransom.
How dow I withdraw the money?
In the virus section you can monitor the status of all your viruses. When you have bitcoins to withdraw, just enter your address and press the Withdraw button

We did not take the ransomware to a test drive, but a blog post from mcafee.com shows exactly how it works. It was reported by other blogs that several anti virus softwares are able to detect the ransomware.

Bitcoin News Roundup - 31 May 2015

Recapping the week’s biggest Bitcoins stories from around the web.
The “Silk Road saga” is over, the founder of illegal online market Silk Road has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. US District Judge Katherine Forrest was not convinced that Silk Road was created “out of youthful naïveté.” On the top of the prison sentence, Ulbricht has to pay a fine of nearly $200 million.
Australia plans on making a criminal offense to informing people about the benefits of cryptography.
As Justin OConnell of CryptoCoins News reports, academics and cryptography researchers in Australia could face up to ten years imprisonment in the event of even lecturing on cryptography. According to Australian Department of Defense, “university researchers would need prior permission from a Minister at the DoD to communicate new research to foreign nationals or to publish in any research journals.”
Switzerland might consider establishing the first bitcoin bank. As Sarah Jenn of NewsBtc writes, according to Handelszeitung, Switzerland’s major newspaper, arrangements are in progress for a bitcoin bank to acquire the licenses to start operations.It is also confirmed by various sources in the financial industry that the Financial Market Supervisory Authority is aware of the project and the license application will be submitted with the forthcoming weeks.
Canadian universities are increasingly acknowledging the bitcoin potential and openly support the cryptocurrency technology. As JP Buntinx of Digital Money Times writes, students at Simon Fraser University are allowed to pay for their textbooks in bitcoin. Additionally, the campus provides three bitcoin ATMs.
Regulation
The American Bar Association (ABA) is hosting “Bitcoin and other Digital Currencies: Emerging Issues in Regulation and Enforcement” event. The event will take place on June 26^that the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC. As John WeruMaina of CryptoCoins News writes, the ABA plans to investigate the latest improvements in bitcoin compliance and regulation issues, including whether the digital currency should be regarded as money or as a commodity.
Taxes
New Jersey favors tax breaks for companies that embrace the bitcoin. As Katherine Fletcher of Coin Report writes, New Jersey Assemblymen Raj Mukherji and Gordon Johnson introduced a bill that would block municipalities from launching their own tax regulations on bitcoin. Registration with the Department of Banking of Insuranceis mandatory for the companies that operate in the cryptocurrency industry. Additionally, the bill includes incentives to attract more businesses to adopt the bitcoin and expand the use of the digital currency in New Jersey.
Payments
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) joins forces with Ripple Labs. As Jeffrey Maxim of Bitcoin Magazine reports, CBA will capitalize on Ripple technology to expedite payments between its subsidiaries. The CBA has tested the cryptocurrency technology before taking the decision to explore the benefits of intrabank transfers using the Ripple protocols. According to CBA CIO David Whiteing “Bitcoin is a protocol which is now being replicated by non-asset based vendors like Ripple and others. We are about to launch using Ripple as a means to transfer payments between our subsidiaries.”
Bitstamp launches a new prepaid debit card. As Maria Santos of 99bitcoins writes, the London-based Bitcoin exchange has partnered with the payment processor AstroPay to enable Bitstamp’s clients to acquire debit cards in USD, Euros and/or GBP. The debit cards could loaded in fiat currency or in bitcoin and they will be available within the European Union.
ChainPay, the global bitcoin gateway partners with Payment Goblin to facilitate seamless bitcoin transactions. According to Bitcoinist.net, the partnership will enable the customers of Payment Goblin, the UK-based payment processor, to accept bitcoin by using its API. According to an announcement by Payment Goblin “Through this partnership, we hope to introduce merchants currently using traditional card payments to the benefits of digital currency.”