Hyderabad: When C. Chetan, 20, a BTech student from Nallakunta, wanted to buy two 300-gram Orange Sunshine LSD blotters from a seller named KittenHuffer Communication (KC) at Silk Road, a Darknet market place, he turned to his friend to get a review of the seller to make sure he won’t lose his money. His friend told him that KC was “very good, quick to respond and seemed like a nice guy”. His friend had made his first purchase as a treat. “He said it was just £10 a blotter, which for such strong blotters was really good. He had seen Albert Heijn, another seller, give away the same blotters slightly cheaper. I thought this was a really good deal. And went ahead and placed the order with KC, trusting him. The big mistake I made was paying with my father’s credit card,” says Chetan.
“KC said that the shipping process is foolproof; it will only take a few days (for the drug) to arrive from the Netherlands. I waited and waited having spent more than Rs 75,000 on the product. A month passed and there was no drug and no reply. KC finally replied speculating that the product must have been seized by Indian Customs officials,” said Chetan. Buying drugs online comes with the extreme risk of losing money to scammers. Chetan used his father's credit card to buy Bitcoins to buy Ecstasy from the buyer on Darknet, and lost over Rs 75,000.
Like Chetan, many others who have lost money to fraudsters took to posting their experience on a thread on the website reddit.com. It is not possible to verify if the seller is genuine in Darknet market places — these sites are deliberately made difficult to trace. The payment is upfront at such markets, but there is no assurance for buyers, who cannot even go to the police if they are duped since they are engaging in an illegal activity. On Silk Road, an-ybody, who knows how to browse the site can place an order for drugs. Another user, hooaway123, probably a native of Hyderabad, on his Reddit thread, revealed that he lost '3 lakh to a seller named ‘Abrakar’.
