Claims

Qualified triples from the transcripts. Origin, speaker, and evidence stay attached. These are not independently verified facts.

Welcome to Video investigation and takedown INVOLVES Welcome to Video

The investigation and takedown concerned the Welcome to Video dark web market.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“the Welcome to Video investigation”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 32011–32045

Welcome to Video investigation and takedown INVOLVES National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Investigators shared the seized material with NCMEC, which assessed the uniqueness and scale of the videos.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“When they share all of this stuff with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 52244–52337

Welcome to Video investigation and takedown INVOLVES Korean National Police Agency

The KNPA cooperated in surveilling and arresting Son Jung-woo and seizing the server in South Korea.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“they needed the actual Korean police, the Korean National Police Agency, the KNPA, to actually carry out this arrest”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 45700–45816

Welcome to Video investigation and takedown INVOLVES Homeland Security Investigations

HSI partnered with the IRS because the IRS investigators lacked the manpower for the large investigation.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“IRS had actually partnered with Homeland Security because they didn’t have the manpower to do this massive investigation”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 27790–27910

Welcome to Video investigation and takedown INVOLVES Reactor

Reactor was used during the investigation to trace payments and identify users and administrators.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 131 Details

“using the Chainalysis Reactor tool, they were trying to get information on the users of the site”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 23172–23268

Cypherpunks RELATED_TO Tor

Andy says the Cypherpunk movement gave rise to technologies and projects including Tor.

Explicit Confidence 97% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“that movement gave rise to everything from VPNs to Tor to WikiLeaks”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 3365–3432

Matthew Falder USES Welcome to Video

The NCA found that Falder was a customer of Welcome to Video.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“on his computer they found that he was a customer of Welcome to Video”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 9687–9756

Reactor USES wallet clustering

Reactor clusters wallets into groups based on common interests.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 131 Details

“It’ll then start to cluster those wallets into groups of common interests”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 13334–13407

Welcome to Video USES Tor

Welcome to Video operated on the Tor network, which hid the site and its users.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 131 Details

“Welcome to Video was on the darknet using the Tor network”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 10047–10104

Jonathan Levin USES Reactor

Levin suggested entering a Welcome to Video Bitcoin address into Reactor.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Andy Greenberg EP 131 Details

“Jonathan Levin suggested that they just put one of those addresses into Reactor”

Andy Greenberg · offsets 14284–14363

Reactor USES cryptocurrency tracing

Reactor is used to trace cryptocurrency flows and identify laundering techniques and endpoints.

Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 131 Details

“Reactor software will show that a person bought some Bitcoin at Coinbase, then transferred it to another wallet, and then they cashed out at Binance”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 13527–13675

Tigran Gambaryan USES View Source

Tigran reportedly used View Source to inspect the site's code and find exposed thumbnail IP addresses.

Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 131 Details

“he just I think right-clicked the website and hit View Source”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 37100–37165

Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation USES Reactor

The IRS investigators used Chainalysis Reactor to investigate Welcome to Video users and payments.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 131 Details

“So using the Chainalysis Reactor tool, they were trying to get information on the users of the site”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 23169–23268

Dread DEVELOPED_BY Hugbunter

Hugbunter coded and built the Dread site.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“He coded the site. He did all of that”

Sam Bent · offsets 45100–45137

IP leak DISCOVERED_BY Hugbunter

Sam says Hugbunter identified and reported an IP leak to the market administrators.

Explicit Confidence 98% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“He was like, hey, you guys have a IP leak”

Sam Bent · offsets 43509–43550

exposed config file DISCOVERED_BY Hugbunter

Hugbunter found an exposed configuration file on the darknet market site.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 132 Details

“Hugbunter found an exposed config file on the darknet market site”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 43288–43353

Operation Bayonet INVOLVES Hansa

The episode identifies Operation Bayonet in connection with the takedown of Hansa and arrests of vendors.

Explicit Confidence 96% · Jack Rhysider EP 132 Details

“Hansa went down – your stuff is all over that database. That was taken over by the feds”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 60355–60442

“Operation Bayonet, yeah”

Sam Bent · offsets 60591–60614

Operation Dark Gold INVOLVES Gold

Operation Dark Gold involved Gold after he was arrested and agreed to work with federal investigators.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 132 Details

“Gold agreed to work with the feds, which became Operation Dark Gold”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 57549–57616

Operation Dark Gold INVOLVES Sam Bent

Operation Dark Gold involved Sam as a person who sent Bitcoin to Gold and received cash in the operation.

Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 132 Details

“So, that’s when Sam sent him some Bitcoin and he sent Sam some cash”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 57618–57685

Sam Bent MENTIONS Silk Road

Sam says he had exposure to Silk Road and initially thought it was a federal sting operation.

Explicit Confidence 98% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“I remember when Silk Road had came out; I honestly – I thought it was a scam”

Sam Bent · offsets 3215–3291

Sam Bent SAME_AS killab

Sam Bent says killab was his hacker alias.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“and killab; that was my hacker alias for a while”

Sam Bent · offsets 1138–1186

Sam Bent SAME_AS DoingFedTime

Sam Bent says he is mostly known online as DoingFedTime.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“Also mostly known as DoingFedTime online”

Sam Bent · offsets 1097–1137

Sam Bent USES thermal printer

Sam used a thermal printer to print shipping labels, believing it avoided microprinting.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“I bought a thermal printer because with a thermal printer, it doesn’t use ink”

Sam Bent · offsets 23341–23418

Sam Bent USES Tails Linux

Sam used Tails Linux when accessing the darknet marketplace.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 132 Details

“He used the Tails Linux operating system”

Jack Rhysider · offsets 16774–16814

Sam Bent USES Dread

Sam served as an administrator on Dread and performed administrative work on its forum.

Explicit Confidence 99% · Sam Bent EP 132 Details

“My job coming on was to be an admin and actually do stuff on the actual forum”

Sam Bent · offsets 45181–45258