Anonymous Identity

Joel Monegro writes about his experience purchasing some furry boots from a deep web marketplace. Much of what he describes sounds similar to any nascent P2P marketplace. However, given the illegal nature of the products being offered, there are some interesting measures to create anonymous identities. In particular, this example stood out where a buyer identifies himself through the possession of a dollar bill:

One user put down the address of his local post office as a shipping address instead of his home. As a recipient, instead of his name he submitted “Holder of Federal Reserve Note number #NNNNN”, #NNNNN being the serial number of a dollar bill in his possession. Apparently he went to the post office holding the bill, correctly identifying himself as the holder of that federal reserve note, and was given the package (which I can only assume contained drugs).