US Government court document reveals deceased AlphaBay admin was forum member
07-21-2017, 08:35 AM
^Yep.
Paypal would probably give a reliable IP trace that was hard data on who he was. They probably figured it out without it based on his profile and staking out on the forum. How many U.S. expats in Thailand are there, really? That already cuts down the search to a limited geography and manageable search very well. If he's bragging about swooping girls and dropping money at a young age, that's damn near the perfect profile to mark as a possibility.
Then they just needed something that would hold up in court. IP records may have just been that. Proof that we wasn't just a big baller troll. I'm not sure if those are something they have access to already or if it requires a subpoena.
"Ok, this forum member seems to be the AlphaBay guy based on XXX and XXX but he always goes through Tor."
"Oh, look. Here's an IP address from when someone bought him gold!"
"Yeah that's a Thai IP"
"Looks like that IP is going to some interesting places that our target is as well"
"We've got him, let's write up a report and send it to the Thai government"
Aren't Thais notoriously brutal to drug offenders? Probably one of the worst places in the world to be if you're involved with it.
Paypal would probably give a reliable IP trace that was hard data on who he was. They probably figured it out without it based on his profile and staking out on the forum. How many U.S. expats in Thailand are there, really? That already cuts down the search to a limited geography and manageable search very well. If he's bragging about swooping girls and dropping money at a young age, that's damn near the perfect profile to mark as a possibility.
Then they just needed something that would hold up in court. IP records may have just been that. Proof that we wasn't just a big baller troll. I'm not sure if those are something they have access to already or if it requires a subpoena.
"Ok, this forum member seems to be the AlphaBay guy based on XXX and XXX but he always goes through Tor."
"Oh, look. Here's an IP address from when someone bought him gold!"
"Yeah that's a Thai IP"
"Looks like that IP is going to some interesting places that our target is as well"
"We've got him, let's write up a report and send it to the Thai government"
Aren't Thais notoriously brutal to drug offenders? Probably one of the worst places in the world to be if you're involved with it.