Writing for ZDNet’s Zero Day blog, Catalin Cimpanu noted that “in this midst of all of this, one of the site’s moderators –named Med3l1n- began blackmailing WSM vendors and buyers, asking for 0.05 Bitcoin (~$280), and threatening to disclose to law enforcement the details of WSM vendors and buyers who made the mistake of sharing various details in support requests in an unencrypted form. The seizure message that replaced the homepage of the Wall Street Market on on May 2. Signs of the dark market seizure first appeared Thursday when WSM’s site was replaced by a banner saying it had been seized by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). These three defendants also face charges in Germany. The complaint charges the men with two felony counts – conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and distribution and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. The defendants charged in the United States and arrested Germany on April 23 and 24 include 23-year-old resident of Kleve, Germany a 31-year-old resident of Wurzburg, Germany and a 29-year-old resident of Stuttgart, Germany. Prosecutors say they believe approximately $11 million worth of virtual currencies was then diverted into the three men’s own accounts. The complaint alleges that for nearly three years, WSM was operated on the dark web by three men who engineered an “exit scam” last month, absconding with all of the virtual currency held in marketplace escrow and user accounts. “Like other dark web marketplaces previously shut down by authorities – Silk Road and AlphaBay, for example – WSM functioned like a conventional e-commerce website, but it was a hidden service located beyond the reach of traditional internet browsers, accessible only through the use of networks designed to conceal user identities, such as the Tor network,” reads a Justice Department release issued Friday morning. Image: Dark Web Reviews.Ī complaint filed Wednesday in Los Angeles alleges that the three defendants, who currently are in custody in Germany, were the administrators of WSM, a sophisticated online marketplace available in six languages that allowed approximately 5,400 vendors to sell illegal goods to about 1.15 million customers around the world. The now-defunct Wall Street Market (WSM).
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