Thank you. The report by Millard was a good read!Fixed it
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
What happened to BOP?
- Thread starter Swolldier
- Start date
This is a obvious move taking the previous extortion attempts of sources by hackers infiltrating steroid sources on several boards over the last couple of years.
Hackers once successful in getting into a sources proton or tutanota acct's would send similar "Ransom" emails to the source demanding a one time payoff(in most cases) from the source. If the source complied by a deadline set by the hackers they would be left alone from that day on(thee hackers word was given here). If the deadline passed without the ransom paid the price to be left alone went up and in most cases the source was treated to a preview of what was to come.
A flood of spam emails would ensue. It took an inordinate amount of time for the source to sift through the spam to find legit emails with orders and payment requests and info of pending payments.
I spoke with a few sources who told me it was going to be impossible to exist with the hacker doing his thing. He would be out of business in short order.
The guys I spoke with ALL paid the one time ranson payment and ALL have been left alone since.
The sources were successful and it made business sense to pay and write it off as the cost of doing illegal business.
Its easy to justify and rationalize their payoffs when looking at the situation from a strictly business point of view.
Reverse scams, seized int pkg's and other things happen that cost a source but they have cash flows of varying amounts that correlate with the varying levels of success and the hackers were bright enough, as they seem to be in the BOP case, to demand reasonable ransoms that weren't chosen haphazardly.
If the email hackers had asked the sources I spoke with for $1,000,000 they would've been laughed off as that's not a reasonable amount for sources working on steroid boards we are familiar with.
One of the guys I spoke with decided that the one time payment of $2,500(to be paid with bitcoin) was a # he could live with and made the payment and moved on. I am not privvy to the amounts paid by the other guys I spoke with but all complied and all but 1 is still actively sourcing. The 1 source left for reasons not having to do with the hacker.
The hackers do their homework. They inquire what it costs to source on the specific boards their targets source on. Its no secret.
A smaller board like anabolicboard charges a relatively small quarterly fee of $500 as of a year ago.
A larger traffic flow board such as professionalmuscle charges as much as $3,000 a month for a large banner with prime placement.
This type of criminal extortion and hacking is low risk with a high dollar amount payoff for the criminals involved.
The source is involved in an illegal biz to begin with. The chances of him going to LE to report his problem is extremely low. He may drop an anonymous tip with the email of the hacker used to contact him.
The email is a dead end if it was simply looked into without specifics as far as the crime committed. LE is too busy to waste time on possibly baseless reports of criminal activity from anonymous sources having to do with shadows behind emails that know how to cover their tracks.
There are formulas used when deciding what the offer will be from a potential buyer of a business. Same is true when a person or entity owns a business and is going to offer it up for sale. There are generally accepted ways to come up with these amounts. Banks that finance the purchases of a business or a car or anything for that matter have formulas based on reported income of the busibess in question and how that income relates to the total debt carried by that business.
Crime of the kind we're discussing is, afterall, just business.
What PAIN and BOP have going for them is that threats to alert LE are threats they will, without question, laugh off because LE already is familiar with BOP and all the other popular sites...meso included.
That we are reading the ranson note here in the open tells me that PAIN has chosen to make public his situation by sharing details with his fellow board owners. He has an oversized ego which is telling him to out the hackers and do his best to embarrass them.
Hackers once successful in getting into a sources proton or tutanota acct's would send similar "Ransom" emails to the source demanding a one time payoff(in most cases) from the source. If the source complied by a deadline set by the hackers they would be left alone from that day on(thee hackers word was given here). If the deadline passed without the ransom paid the price to be left alone went up and in most cases the source was treated to a preview of what was to come.
A flood of spam emails would ensue. It took an inordinate amount of time for the source to sift through the spam to find legit emails with orders and payment requests and info of pending payments.
I spoke with a few sources who told me it was going to be impossible to exist with the hacker doing his thing. He would be out of business in short order.
The guys I spoke with ALL paid the one time ranson payment and ALL have been left alone since.
The sources were successful and it made business sense to pay and write it off as the cost of doing illegal business.
Its easy to justify and rationalize their payoffs when looking at the situation from a strictly business point of view.
Reverse scams, seized int pkg's and other things happen that cost a source but they have cash flows of varying amounts that correlate with the varying levels of success and the hackers were bright enough, as they seem to be in the BOP case, to demand reasonable ransoms that weren't chosen haphazardly.
If the email hackers had asked the sources I spoke with for $1,000,000 they would've been laughed off as that's not a reasonable amount for sources working on steroid boards we are familiar with.
One of the guys I spoke with decided that the one time payment of $2,500(to be paid with bitcoin) was a # he could live with and made the payment and moved on. I am not privvy to the amounts paid by the other guys I spoke with but all complied and all but 1 is still actively sourcing. The 1 source left for reasons not having to do with the hacker.
The hackers do their homework. They inquire what it costs to source on the specific boards their targets source on. Its no secret.
A smaller board like anabolicboard charges a relatively small quarterly fee of $500 as of a year ago.
A larger traffic flow board such as professionalmuscle charges as much as $3,000 a month for a large banner with prime placement.
This type of criminal extortion and hacking is low risk with a high dollar amount payoff for the criminals involved.
The source is involved in an illegal biz to begin with. The chances of him going to LE to report his problem is extremely low. He may drop an anonymous tip with the email of the hacker used to contact him.
The email is a dead end if it was simply looked into without specifics as far as the crime committed. LE is too busy to waste time on possibly baseless reports of criminal activity from anonymous sources having to do with shadows behind emails that know how to cover their tracks.
There are formulas used when deciding what the offer will be from a potential buyer of a business. Same is true when a person or entity owns a business and is going to offer it up for sale. There are generally accepted ways to come up with these amounts. Banks that finance the purchases of a business or a car or anything for that matter have formulas based on reported income of the busibess in question and how that income relates to the total debt carried by that business.
Crime of the kind we're discussing is, afterall, just business.
What PAIN and BOP have going for them is that threats to alert LE are threats they will, without question, laugh off because LE already is familiar with BOP and all the other popular sites...meso included.
That we are reading the ranson note here in the open tells me that PAIN has chosen to make public his situation by sharing details with his fellow board owners. He has an oversized ego which is telling him to out the hackers and do his best to embarrass them.
It is also not in our best interest as members of this Community to hope the hackers are successful in their attempts to extort BOP. Its equally not good for other owners if they are successfully paid off or, conversely, if BOP is shut down.
A dangerous precedent will be set with a payoff or an ominous future could be on the horizon should LE shut BOP down.
A dangerous precedent will be set with a payoff or an ominous future could be on the horizon should LE shut BOP down.
T&H
Member
In your opinion, what do you think will happen with BOP? Will they be shut down for good?
Sorry for the trip post. A prediction...PAIN would never come out of pocket for this kind of thing...nor should he. His ego would never allow it even if it made sense.
We used to be at big here at meso on discussions of not frequenting boards that weren't hosted by offshore servers based in Countries without agreements to cooperate or extradite.
It was part of vetting a source. If the source was already on a board with a USA based server they would get a big strike against them.
Even better, the host Country should have a track record of not cooperating after pressure has been applied by our gov't.
Its not wise to underestimate the powers of influence our gov't has.
It often depends who is in power at any particular moment in time as far as if a gov't will cooperate with our gov't. The past may not be a good indicator of future or present behavior.
If it would benefit the powers that be financially to cooperate and hand over requests that had been previously denied they may cooperate.
Decisions these days are rarely made based on principle. Decisions are more often than not based on how much cash the recipient can make at the moment or over time that could come about giving in to the wealthy US Gov't.
We used to be at big here at meso on discussions of not frequenting boards that weren't hosted by offshore servers based in Countries without agreements to cooperate or extradite.
It was part of vetting a source. If the source was already on a board with a USA based server they would get a big strike against them.
Even better, the host Country should have a track record of not cooperating after pressure has been applied by our gov't.
Its not wise to underestimate the powers of influence our gov't has.
It often depends who is in power at any particular moment in time as far as if a gov't will cooperate with our gov't. The past may not be a good indicator of future or present behavior.
If it would benefit the powers that be financially to cooperate and hand over requests that had been previously denied they may cooperate.
Decisions these days are rarely made based on principle. Decisions are more often than not based on how much cash the recipient can make at the moment or over time that could come about giving in to the wealthy US Gov't.
FUCK PAIN
He's all about his money.
If you don't like seeing
FUCK PAIN
You should reconsider your thought.
He's all about his money.
If you don't like seeing
FUCK PAIN
You should reconsider your thought.
JP1979
Member
Big Mike is the hacker
I kind of answered....NO...BOP is not gone for good. They will be back on. Them not being online right now probably has nothing to do with the hackers. I would say definitely not directly because of the hackers going to the feds and its offline because the feds shut it down.
And probably not cuz of the hackers and PAIN shut it down temporarily to allow for updates and server change. Probably not but its possible. Every boad is down at some point...some more often than others.
I have to admit my betting that BOP wasn't shut down by the feds is a safe bet. If the feds did shut it down there would be a big cover page announcing that the site was shut down and it would have been put there by the FBI. I've seen it before.
There would be a warning to those trying to access the site that the board was hosting and responsible for the illegal activity and that citizens of the USA would also be subject to prosecution if they participated in any illegal activity there. [emoji724]
Its bad news for members if ransom is paid or if a board is shut down....bad news in the way of selection and accessibility to quality gear and in the rising prices of gear overall is possible.
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You didn't quote me but its looking like I'm holding the thread hostage...speaking of ransoms...but if you were responding to my posts, would you please elaborate?
My personal feelings towards PAIN is a matter of record as I've posted about him and BOP many times over the years and as recently as yesterday in a post I made about PAIN and his belief he is entitled to make a living off of Community members based solely on his existing as long as he has here.
I've also been banned on different occasions over the years using different user handles calling out scamming sources exiled to BOP that harbors and protects scamming sources and does so without concern for members being scammed on his board.
T&H
Member
T-Bagger
Member
How does one find out if a board is hosted offshore vs here in the US?
WhoIsHostingThis.co* and similar sites that are free and open to the public.
That type of info is open and free. .as it should be, to the public.
I am sure that there are people trying to charge for info that is open to the public.
Sometimes you have too look a little harder for free info as its buried under adds and people paying for placement ahead of the sources providing the info for nothing.
Exactly.
Not all offshore hosters may be protective as some WILL turn over info to US law enforcement upon presentation of a warrant especially if such country has agreements with the US to share information.
Lol. With all this $ to be made. It will be up and running before this weekend.
Think I heard that somewhere. Hopefully on an offshore server this time.
Glocker
Member
Wonder if all the BOP members that signed on to ASF will stay with their new home, jump back, or split their time (not likely since the amount of time and effort to frequent both.)
Prob a little bit of both. Some will go back some might not or like you said split there time with all boards. I'm a member on couple different boards but I dont get involved with the bullshit. I'm not here to rep for a board. I'm here for knowledge and help some guys out on my way and get good quality gear. I dont do the whole bashing other boards thing. We all are here for the same thing cause we live the BB life style but some guys come off like assholes and arrogant and think they run shit but that only last so long until they are pushed out.
If BOP got shutdown they wont be the only ones. I doubt that this hacker is a nice guy and really dosent care which board it is. It's all about $$$$
Omegistosalex
Member
to be honest I do have some issues now with a big source from bop and also other forums, they were great in the past but now I am waiting for 18 days and yet my pacakge is not shipped, I do think some sources will exit scam with this opportunity as you can't post anything now that the site is down
MASSIVE1000
New Member
The following is a message forwarded to me from Blaster. He is one of the 1st sponsors and original sponsors on BOP. With his permission, I am posting what the extortionist sent to him:
DWBO still claims that BOP will be up by the end of the week. So far forum has been down for 10 days. It equals to $15,000 rent they have to send back to sponsors.
Why forum has been down?
Why domain is still in clienthold status?
Why domain should be released? Are they going to hire lawyers ;-)
Do you want to come back to corrupted and unstable forum?
Members already moved to ASF. Sponsors found new home on ProMuscle, SF, ASF and IM.
Rent was $1,000 USD Bitcoin for 1 month. Why would any of you pay this again if
every other board will charge less?
Do you remember what DWBO promised you? That BOP is a drama free board that doesn't
delete or edit threads.
He was right. It's a drama free board. They don't delete nor edit threads.
BOP has been down since September 30th. BOP has been reported and suspended by
Registrar without possibility to re-activate domain.
Ask for refund. They owe sponsors more then $200,000
Never again pay any forum rent in advance. Big A from ProMuscle never requests money
for 2,3,6 or 24 months.
Don't get scammed again by scums like DWBO or PAiN.
DWBO still claims that BOP will be up by the end of the week. So far forum has been down for 10 days. It equals to $15,000 rent they have to send back to sponsors.
Why forum has been down?
Why domain is still in clienthold status?
Why domain should be released? Are they going to hire lawyers ;-)
Do you want to come back to corrupted and unstable forum?
Members already moved to ASF. Sponsors found new home on ProMuscle, SF, ASF and IM.
Rent was $1,000 USD Bitcoin for 1 month. Why would any of you pay this again if
every other board will charge less?
Do you remember what DWBO promised you? That BOP is a drama free board that doesn't
delete or edit threads.
He was right. It's a drama free board. They don't delete nor edit threads.
BOP has been down since September 30th. BOP has been reported and suspended by
Registrar without possibility to re-activate domain.
Ask for refund. They owe sponsors more then $200,000
Never again pay any forum rent in advance. Big A from ProMuscle never requests money
for 2,3,6 or 24 months.
Don't get scammed again by scums like DWBO or PAiN.
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MASSIVE1000
New Member
This scammer is now going after anabolicsteroidforums.com and ironmagazine.com All of the sponsors there have received the email threat. I see a lot of people here bashing the BOP board. There are good guys there and sources there. Unfortunately, there are people who have had bad experiences. For those of you saying "good riddance" to BOP, be careful what you ask for. These scammers are going to continue trying to extort boards as long as they possibly can.
