Stack Overflow Email Mistake
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A story about how Ross Ulbricht, creator of Silk Road, was identified through a Stack Overflow post that linked his real identity to his online alias.
"In 2010, Ross writes into Stack Overflow, a popular developer forum, asking 'How do I connect to a Tor hidden service using curl in PHP?' He lists his website as rossolbright@gmail.
Immediately after posting, he changes his username from Ross Olbright to 'Frosty.' This became significant because the very first time anyone referenced the Silk Road, it was by a username 'Frosty' on a forum called Shroomery.org, where he wrote 'Has anyone seen this cool new thing called Silk Road where you can buy and sell anything anonymously?'
In another thread, using that same username 'Frosty,' he posts something saying he's working on a site that helps people sell and buy anything and needs help.
This connection helped investigators identify him. They discovered he had previously gotten in trouble when Homeland Security found a package with 20 different fake IDs with his picture. They started monitoring his social profiles and noticed he was talking about libertarian ideas and Bitcoin. That's how they initially connected Ross to the Silk Road."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.