BBC Learning English
Words in the News
FBI shuts down Silk Road website
4 October 2013
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The hidden internet marketplace for drugs and illegal services, which is known as the Silk
Road, has been shut down by the FBI. The owner of the site, which also advertises
computer hacking, has been arrested in San Francisco. The BBC's Alastair Leithead
reports from California:
The Silk Road is a website that exists in a hidden part of the internet known as Tor,
which allows people anonymous access by hiding their computer's identity and location.
For two and a half years the site has featured thousands of adverts for illegal drugs,
services to hack into people's computers, counterfeiters and even hitmen for hire.
Buyers pay using Bitcoin, an online currency not tied to any government, rather than
credit cards, to protect their identity and make transactions untraceable.
The FBI has closed the site down and arrested the owner, named as Ross William
Ulbricht, who is 29 and also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, in San Francsco.
The FBI said undercover officers used the Silk Road to buy illegal narcotics and
services, and have charged Ulbricht with conspiracy to traffic drugs and conspiracy to
hack and to launder money. More than $3.5m of Bitcoin currency was also seized.
The criminal papers, issued in New York, described the Silk Road as the most
sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet today.
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Vocabulary and definitions
anonymous without revealing their name
counterfeiters people who make fake money and other items
hitmen for hire people who offer to kill others in exchange for money
untraceable impossible to find where or who it comes from
undercover officers agents of the law who use a disguise
conspiracy secretly planning to do something bad or illegal
to launder money to move money through banks and legitimate
businesses to disguise the fact it was obtained
illegally
sophisticated made complicated in a clever way
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/10/131004_witn_hidden_website.shtml
Related story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24371894
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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