Guide to buying gear on the internet
So you’ve decided to buy your gear on the Internet! After hanging out on steroid discussion boards, becoming trusted, and keeping your ear to the ground, you’ve finally arrived. Your contacts have trusted you with the e-mail addresses of several internet steroid sources. You’ve got the money to spend, and you’ve decided to avoid paying overinflated gym prices. But where do you go from here? E-mailing a source for a list is simple, but what do you do once you know what you want to buy, and who you want to deal with? What do you do when something goes wrong?
Setting up an email account
The first step in the whole process is to get a secure drop-box e-mail at either
www.ziplip.com or
www.cyber-rights.net. There are others out there too, but these two seem to be the most popular. Both of these services are free, like Hotmail and Yahoo!, but have security features that make them safer. Use this account STRICTLY for juice-related matters. Make sure your e-mail name has nothing to do with your real name, job, hobbies, etc. and change it up and abandon your account every couple months. Also delete lists that expire so you don’t get confused about which list(s) are current.
One useful tool to have is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). I’m not sure exactly how it works, but PGP is a program used to encrypt your emails so they can’t be intercepted and read in transit. It’s always good to use PGP (you can download it for free on the Internet), and some sources have had policies in the past of giving a discount to customers who use it. There are resources out there that describe what PGP is and what it can do in depth, so run a google search to learn more.
Contrary to what you may have heard on the boards, buying/acquiring steroids for personal use in Canada is non-criminal (it's still not 100% legal, but you can't be criminally prosecuted for it). However, if you're buying a large amount you may be viewed in the eyes of the law as a TRAFFICKER, and this DOES carry a criminal penalty. If you're in doubt as to whether your purchase is small enough to be considered personal use, it probably isn't! To play it safe, log onto your juice e-mail account through a proxy server (you’ll find info on how to do this through an Internet search), or go to an Internet café. Internet cafes are the safest and easiest bet.
Getting lists
Once you’re set up with your account, use your account to e-mail each of the sources you know and ask for a list of products available from him. To stay safe, most of these guys only work through referral, so mention the moderator or board member who referred you or they’ll probably ignore you. On a related topic, guard your source's info at all times! Don't give his e-mail address out to just anyone, and avoid posting or discussing his name and reputation in public. The more attention you bring to your source, the greater the chance of getting law enforcement attention brought on him as well. This is bad for your source because he can get taken down, and bad for YOU because you'll then have to find another great source!
Ordering
Once they all get back to you, compare lists and decide who you want to order from. Canadian orders have almost zero risk of seizure, since the mail system is internal and doesn’t usually go through Customs. International orders, like from China or Eastern Europe, might be more attractive because of lower prices, but you have a higher risk of seizure. Also, be warned that although buying steroids is non-criminal in Canada, IMPORTING them into Canada from a foreign country IS a criminal offense. Bear this risk in mind when ordering internationally.
Also, be ready to LOSE all your money. Don’t spend more than you can afford to lose! Sometimes good sources get in a bad financial spot and take your money to pay off their debts to “organizations”. Sometimes the source leaves his house to go get and mail your gear, and gets arrested on his way to the post office. And sometimes someone may just decide one day to become a SCAMMER. Above all, AVOID flashy web sites like PharmaGroup.com, steroids.com and other websites with pictures etc that sell steroids. These are usually SCAMS, and even if they do really sell steroids their prices are crazy and seizures are high.
Once you’ve decided what you want and how much of it you need, send an email to the source stating that. He’ll get back to you with a total price and instructions on where and how to send money. You can try to bring this price down a bit through bargaining, but usually he won’t budge more than 10-15%. The markup vs. risk on steroid products over the internet is usually fairly low because of heavy competition in Canada and internationally (gym prices are another story!). Your source will also ask which address you want the gear sent to. Use your real address if you have to, but use only your first initial and change your last name a bit—if your name is Adam Gladstein, put “A. Goldstein” for example. This way you can claim your pack at the post office with ID if the mailman leaves a delivery notice card (you can say “I ordered these computer parts over the phone and it looks like they didn’t hear me well and butchered my name”). This way there’s still enough of an error there so that your lawyer could get you out of trouble if you ever have legal problems.
All Canadian transactions are usually done through cash only, sent by Xpresspost so it can be tracked. That way nobody screws anybody—if the money was sent it’ll show it was sent, and if the money was received it’ll show it was received. Also, Xpresspost carries a base amount of $100 insurance on a shipment in case it gets lost. Because you’re sending cash in the mail you need to disguise it too. 3 LAYERS of protection from prying eyes is a good guideline. You want to make sure that if the corner of your envelope gets torn, the postal worker won’t look in and see a bunch of $20 bills floating around inside. The best way to go is to put the money in an envelope, the envelope in the center of a paperback book (tape it closed), and the book in a yellow bubble envelope. That way if the tough bubble envelope gets torn, all anyone would see inside is some cheap book. You can do the same with CD cases or magazines. Don’t use magazines like MAXIM or a Musclemag with tits and ass on the cover, or the postal worker may just decide to open the pack to read it on his lunch break. Use something boring like CAA magazine or Better Homes and Gardens if you must use a magazine.
With international orders, there are usually more options available. You can send the money through Western Union, Moneygram, evocash (
www.evocash.com), or using a blank money order, depending on the source's preferences. Sending cash through the mail to foreign countries is always a bad idea, so avoid it if you can.
Potential Problems
Damaged gear
Once your source has the money he’ll send your product to you, again by Xpresspost. If anything is broken or damaged, let him know right away through email. A good source will send you a replacement right away. Proper packaging to avoid damage to the goods is his responsibility. Also, if a dirty ampoule or vial full of “floaties” was sent by accident (it happens), again let him know right away. Your source doesn’t want you injecting unsterile crap into your body, because a bad experience with his gear (like an infection) means no repeat business from you.
Delays
Sometimes a source will be overzealous or just may have screwed up, and they’ll accept your money without actually having the product in stock. They THOUGHT by the time your money came they’d have it, but they were wrong. So you might end up waiting a few days or sometimes even weeks to get your stuff. In cases like this just wait it out, and of course don’t do business with that source again.
Seizures
If your International order never shows up, either you’ve been scammed or it’s probably been seized by Canada Customs (if the reputation of the source is good, Customs is almost always the culprit). If the order was sent Express or registered, then you can track it and see for sure. If the tracking shows that Canada Customs inspected it and the tracking details stop there, it’s been nailed. Often there’s no tracking on an international order because express/tracked shipping gets more attention from Customs, or because you didn't want to pay an additional $30 or more for express shipping. So if an order with no tracking number on it is never received, you’re pretty much screwed. The source has only your word to go on, and a lot of people try to scam him—why should he trust YOU? The exceptions are usually A) When you’ve been a good past customer of the source and/or B) When you’re a veteran ("vet") or Moderator on an Internet steroid discussion board, who’s trusted by the internet juice community. Sometimes a vet or Moderator can intervene for you and vouch for you on your behalf with the source, but it doesn’t guarantee anything.
Usually when you’re new and the source doesn’t know you, what you need for your case is a Seizure Notice from Canada Customs. A seizure notice is supposed to be sent when Customs grabs your non-legal-for-import goodies. Basically it’s a paper telling you what was seized and why it was seized. If you scan your seizure notice and e-mail it to your source, he’ll usually resend right away. There are two problems with seizure notices though: First, because of government bureaucracy they usually take a LONG time to get to you (months). Second, Customs is getting wise to the fact that Seizure Notice = Re-send from source. So now, in most cases where steroids are seized, they don’t send the Notice at all.