
American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web

The first clue: all of the smugglers had booked reservations the day before a flight. Second, the couriers used only Gmail or Yahoo! e-mail accounts. And third, they had (obviously fake) phone numbers that used a shared formula.
Nick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
There was no fate worse to him than losing control of what he had built.
Nick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
How quickly life changes. One minute you’re making $300 a week as a college researcher. You’re sleeping in a basement and your only belongings are two black garbage bags, one full of clean clothes, the other dirty, and your biggest worry in the world is whether the pretty girl with the black curly hair whom you just met at the drum circle will call
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“As long as we don’t cross [a] line in our pursuit,” DPR wrote to Variety Jones, “then we are only doing good.” “Ha, dude, we’re criminal drug dealers,” VJ responded. “What line shouldn’t we cross?” “Murder, theft, cheating, lying; hurting people,” DPR replied, resentful of the question. “That line. We are drawing a new line I guess you could say.
... See moreNick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
There were two main aspects of the LulzSec arrests the Feds needed to pull off for the takedown to work properly. First, it was imperative that they capture every suspect at the exact same time, even though they were all in different states and countries. They had to ensure that the hackers didn’t alert anyone else about their arrests, or the entir
... See moreNick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
MOST PEOPLE GO through life thinking that tomorrow they’re going to do something great. Tomorrow will be the day that they wake up and discover what they were put on this earth to do. But then tomorrow comes—and goes. As does the next day. Before long, they realize that there aren’t that many tomorrows left.
Nick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
She knew exactly what those things were, and she knew she couldn’t stop him from doing them. He would just keep eating, and eating, and eating.
Nick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
Sometimes he listened to Hope 89.1, a local Christian radio station that would whisper the Lord’s Prayer into his ear, promising that if Carl followed the ways of the Bible and did the right thing, he would be granted the life he had always wanted.
Nick Bilton • American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
She peered at men in the grocery store and wondered if they were undercover cops who knew that she lived with the man who had started the Silk Road.