Young computer criminal Robert Ulbricht ran a darknet marketplace. The Federal Bureau of Investigations detained him in 2015, and he was later charged with a number of felonies, including money laundering, computer hacking, and conspiracy to trade narcotics. (Aspinall, 2014). He used the internet alias The Dread Pirate Roberts. He established the Silk Road Market, a location where illicit trade could be conducted.
The first darknet market, also referred to as the first online illegal market, was the Silk Road. It was notorious for its involvement in the drug traffic. (Aspinall, 2014). The web site maintained a considerable amount of anonymity and the users in the website had to acquire accounts in order to engage in the illegal trade. The dark website also employed the use of online currency such as bitcoins which were virtually untraceable. The activities on the website were masked with the Tor Network.
Dread Pirate Robert was Robert Ulbricht's pseudonym which was borrowed from a novel titled, The Princess Bride (Aspinall, 2014). The name referred to the ruthless pirate who was highly feared. It was used by Robert to highlight how powerful he was on the dark web. The Silk Road Empire was relatively small with quite a limited amount of traders and buyers who purchased the illegal drugs from the website. Criminals often could see the illegal commodities and services that were provided for on the Silk Road Marketplace. There was a form of an online catalogue which stipulates the product of service and the amount of currency that was needed to transact. The common currency during these illegal business dealings was the bitcoin.
In episode three, Ben Hammersley goes on a trip to Nigeria in order to investigate the online scams that take place in the world (Aspinall, 2014). The reason he chose Nigeria and particularly Lagos is due to the fact that the city is known for its prevalence in the scamming activities. Code 419 is a section of the Nigerian penal Code that provides for criminal activities related to fraud and prescribes the appropriate punitive action for the perpetrators.
The modus operandi for this crime involves the criminal reaching out to a potential victim either via mail, social media or email with false credentials and making a seemingly lucrative offer which can hardly be resisted by the unsuspecting victim (Goldsworth, 2007). The underlying theme in the offer is usually premised on the availability of some unclaimed assets that the scammer cannot access and requires the victim's assistance in retrieving the asset and would give them some commission. The scammer thereafter requests the victim to part with some money as security that they would fulfil their end of the money upon retrieval of the asset that they would be given by the scammer. In other instances, the scammer introduces an impediment to the transaction that requires the scammer to make a part payment in order to retrieve the asset. Some documents are usually adduced to ascertain the validity of the allegations the scammer is stating. After the victim is convinced about the validity of the claims they are usually advised to wire the money to the scammer to facilitate the retrieval process. Most often, the moment the money is sent, the scammer disappears.
References
Aspinall, Will (Director). (2014). Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley [Television Series]. United
States: Tern TV.
Goldsworth, J. (2007). A Nigerian scam examined. Trusts &Amp; Trustees, 13(7), 266-268.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/tandt/ttm046
