I could not find a topic about this yet, but it is seems worth mentioning.. Looks like the silk road follow up is a scam..
Check out this Bitcoin wallet right here: 1EiVHZnDVjFH6Tic1YmWUSfYmVUnUZdnMU
There are exactly 39,918 Bitcoins sitting there; at current Coinbase buy prices, that is roughly $46 million.
Maybe some readers are scratching their heads right now and asking: “What is Sheep Marketplace? A market for Sheeple?”
Sheep Marketplace is one of the many Silk Road copycats that arose after the US Government takedown of Silk Road in the beginning of October.
Weeks ago, the admin of Sheep Marketplace announced that withdrawals would be closed for a few hours as a site-wide Bitcoin tumbler was being implemented. Sheep Marketplace users were eager for the new tumbler to be built into the site and were patiently waiting. In the last few days, many Sheep Marketplace users have been following their funds move from their accounts where they were deposited to other wallets aro
Weeks have passed.
Sheep Marketplace’s forums have been closed, but the site remains up and “operating” without withdrawals.
However, before the forums were closed a few of the top moderators on the forum began confirming the scam. Screenshots taken from the forum show messages by forum moderators ctrlaltweed and The Sheppard that confirm Sheep Marketplace’s admin’s stark silence.
The most vocal of Sheep Marketplace’s victims have claimed that the Forum was shut down to prevent users from finding out about the scam; further more, they posit that the TOR accessible site is still running to catch unsuspecting depositors that do not use the forums and may be unaware that Sheep Marketplace is essentially insolvent. The Sheeple at Sheep Marketplace (is it OK to call them Sheeple now?) are resorting to innovative methods to warn unsuspecting users, such as having vendors update their listings with pictures informing users of the ongoing scam.
If Sheep Marketplace’s shadiness triggers any memories for any of you, maybe you’ve seen this post on reddit from a month and a half ago. Reddit user /u/theduded23 traced some internet mojo associated with Sheep Marketplace’s TOR address to the clearweb address
www.sheepmarketplace.com definitively back to a single IP in the Czech Republic. That is even more embarrassing then the personal email signup that tied the real life identity of Ross Ulbricht to Silk Road’s Dread Pirate Roberts. Wary and intelligent users heeded this warning and chose to avoid Sheep Marketplace like the plague and it seems their decision was indeed a wise one.
There are currently international drug lords on the trail of a middle-aged Czech skilled in web development but perhaps lacking in online security; anonymous postings have surfaced on the Deepweb offering tens of thousands of dollars for personal identifying information about the missing admin of Sheep Marketplace. What will happen to him when he gets caught is anybody’s guess.
The fact of the matter is we may never know what happens to this anonymous head of the Sheep Marketplace. It is even possible that malicious actors initially tracked him down and forced him to steal all of his loyal users’ funds. Either way, Sheep Marketplace’s users, mods, and vendors are not going to be seeing their funds ever again.
If Sheep Marketplace somehow comes back from this debacle, I”ll let you know as well.
Update:
For some in depth information of the developments, check out deepdotweb’s in-depth write-up.
Sheep Marketplace’s admin has been “doxxed” as: Tomáš Jiřikovský
