Thought this would be a helpful thread for us newbies. It seems hacking horror stories are all too common nowadays, such a shame. My question is how does it happen? Can you guys list the most common and stupid ways people lose their portfolios? I dont do much on my laptop but vosk, coinbase, youtube, and memes on facebook. I keep my browsing to a minimum. Im not experienced enough for a cold wallet yet so I wanna be safe. Cheers.
Now would be a good time for you to get educated on using a cold wallet. I recommend Ledger products.
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I second that
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On my to do listâŚwas gonna save for a miner but I suppose cold storage is more important huh
Cold storage only costs $50-$150. I would get that taken care of first
The simple truth is if you can imagine a scam/hack, a starving hacker somewhere is actively doing it.
While thinking of ways scams occur⌠Iâd be typing for days. All of the classic concepts apply but they are amplified with crypto. You know about email scams, generally. Well, just assume every single place you have signed up for crypto has been hacked for every email in its data base. Emails are often a users log in name. So every time you sign up and give email, expect that email to be entered into every exchange in the world, when the exchange replies âinvalid passwordâ they just figured out your log in name.
For instance, If I was a hacker , I would hack this web-forums data base, take every email account, then enter them into every exchange , looking for a âincorrect/invalid passwordâ response , Iâd actually run that from its own program that utilizes proxies. Iâd call that my âAccount Checkerâ. Once I had ran my account checker on every email address I got from âthis siteâ . How many of those emails would return as an account name 1/2 ⌠1/4 ⌠more?? Itâs that easy. And you might think , But I have google 2FA , well youâve heard of Swatting? Instead of Swatting Iâd just Swatt your phone # to my phone and use your email credentials to set your 2FA to my phone. And you might think, what about passwords, Brute Force, that âAccount checkerâ has proxies, so once it finds an account name it starts cycling proxies running brute force until it cracks the password. All Automated.
Other ways are simple programs that look for documents with 12 words or 24 words, or the number â1. -24.â . That would be your 12 word seed phrase and why everyone says âwrite your 12 word seed phrase on a piece of paperâ.
Honestly, how many of you guys right now have a 12 word phrase copy/pasted to notepad sitting on your device? (donât answer in a reply)
Now lets double down, Of those who do have a 12 word seed phrase on your computer now, How many have the account password written on the same document??)
Itâs that easy.
Did you sign up for this forum with the same email you sign up for CoinBase with ?
Sprinkle on every scam youâve ever heard of, add no governing authority and international laws and you have the perfect scam just waiting to brew.
I probably touch on 0.001% of the possible scams/hacks in my comment here. (didnât even bring up Telegram, twitter⌠heck depending who you ask BSC might be the biggest hehe)
A joke in the crypto world is to say âhave you verified your wallet today?â , meaning scammers will ask you to verify your 12 word seed phrase while claiming to work for binance or something. Just like crypto, itâs all about the #'s. for ever 500 people who say âFF OFFâ that 1 persons sayâs ⌠âwhat do you mean, somethings wrong, please explain what I need to do. And explain slow, Iâm Newâ
Start crypto, with security in mind. You wouldnât build fort Knox by putting gold in a building first. In crypto , you are the security from the foundation up. Study Study Study. When you sign up for an exchange and they try to suggest security, read it and maybe do it to the Word. Donât associate your 14 year old google (gmail) account (or any old account) with your $25,000 crypto wallet.
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thanks for taking the time to write all that