Bitcoin Forum

So the short of it is. I got complacent, and was just outright stupid. I have been scammed before, when I was brand new. Since then I've avoided and called out countless scam attempts. The difference was they came at me in an expected fashion through platforms I was more than familiar with. This was a little different in that it used some social engineering, and was on a platform I use but not to often. I'm also sure I've either met this person, or they know the person they impersonated rather well. I am choosing to write this for the following reasons, of what I think everyone should do when they get scammed/robbed etc. I knkow this is not a new method, but hopefully this snaps it back to the forefornt of peoples minds if you were starting to slip as I did. Being distracted and busy are no excuse, to drop the ball.

First, feel it. Let it piss you off or do whatever you need to get through it. I tend to take things in stride and normally would have just grabbed a cold one, or burned a little something. Due to a lifestyle change I'm rolling with for a bit, I couldn't do either, but I prefer not to stew on shit. What's done is done. You now need to do the responsible shit.

Swallow your pride. You got ripped off, but that doesn't mean the next person has to. It might make you feel better to just keep it a secret between you and the degenerate shitbag that now has your funds but you're only helping them. To be honest you've already done more than enough for them, so no more free favors. That's what this is, I'll give a small tip on how to find the unique identifier that doesn't change with account names or anything else on discord. It's an account ID number which for some reason isn't shown by default.

Finally, though it seems futile file a police report or whatever option your country has for a cyber crimes unit. Will this recover your funds, don't count on it. You will likely just feel a little more stupid, hopefully for the last time. What it can do though is lead to bringing down these scam operations... eventually. In my case they used Discord, so there is a chance they slipped up and with plethora of information Discord tracks on it's users - fingers crossed - they will be tracked and charged with Fraud. Not a big win, but might help someone else down the road.

Maybe this is the finally, but say good bye to your coins. Ignore what they could have been or what they are. It's a loss, but also a valuable lesson. So I'd prefer my loss to be a lesson to many others.

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How it went down. Most scams come at you trying to promise big gains, in one way or another. These are easy to spot. This person came at me through Discord PM, impersonating someone from a small server I'm a part of. My first mistake was allowing random PM's, I have since disabled those. If someone really wants to talk they can post in the server. Second mistake was not checking the photo well enough, I usually check it on mobile, and being complacent and just plain stupid I didn't notice the sizing difference, or I just chaulked it up to "mobile" version. Then I didn't actually look through the users of the server to notice this duplicate, I got close but dropped the ball at a half assed attempt to vet the account. Then came the ask, this was the one I was most likely to fall for, no big gains, a small offer of "interest" in helping out in a tight spot, with what they needed. Small stupid story about coins being held up that they needed for a customer and couldn't access from the exchange while not being near their home wallet.
Yeah I know, dumb dumb right here.
It became clear over the next couple days that there were countless excuses, and that I F'd up. I had that sinking feeling shortly after sending the coins, like did I just do that. At that point it's to late. Again we choose to be our own bank and need to remain vigilant.

So for now I am taking the steps of shame and reporting the issue; discord is all but useless in providing canned answers but I have a ticket open and documentation regarding the incident. They now have a duty to work with the authorities and provide what little factual information they have gathered. Now if you use Discord here is how you find an account ID - this number cannot be changed and is used for filing complaints. It is the only identifier that cannot change regarding an account.

Go to User Settings -> Appearance -> then toggle on developer mode. This allows you to right-click their profile and copy their User ID which can be used to verify them.
Edit: See HCP's post here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201992.msg53116809#msg53116809) for additional information on finding "developer" mode settings and additional discord Id's for servers and messages.

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So again in summary - Don't be stupid like Steamtyme was. You can perform due diligence a hundred times and forget it once, the result is still lost funds.  
For reference here is what a scammers User ID looks like on Discord - 632346824509882369

I read every single word of your post, though I'm yet to be scammed on the network, but the good part of your post is that it has also reduced my chances of being, as I've also learnt a lesson from it. I use discord, and i am not aware of user ID, but now I am, I'll be looking out for it, I enable pm's, but right before this post of mine, I've disabled them(lesson learnt)

It doesn't feel good to be scammed, no matter how little, you just feel you were outsmarted and that is a really terrible feeling, but it's really good if we open up just as you did, it would help someone else to avoid the same fate, let's create more awareness, till this scammers can no longer feed off other people's hardwork.

Sorry this happened to you.

Yes, you absolutely need to report these crimes to authorities. If the amount above a threshold where they actually take a report. That's the reason why these scammers are so bold - they think their uncatchable because nobody tries to catch them. But they leave a lot of breadcrumbs so it's possible to catch if enough users complain.

You didn't say how this person (or the person you thought they were) knew about you having coins, but that's something I never do - tell anyone about my coins. If someone asks me about it outside of BCT then I know they're fishing or somehow followed me from BCT or some leaked exchange e-mails or whatever - all good reasons to avoid them.

I think at this day it's better to just assume that everyone is going to scam you, and then you try to prove to yourself that they don't in fact hold such intention. This means you should always ask for additional details and clarifications. Good scammers know how to con people, so we should never drop our guard, even if people seem very trustworthy, and even if they are friends or relatives. I was scammed on this forum once, when I was a newbie, and up until the scammer disappeared, they seemed like a very genuine guy.

This is all even more important in Bitcoin, when you are being your own bank, but it's also true with fiat - bank transactions aren't always reversible, and cash isn't very reversible either.

You weren't stupid. You just didn't have your defences up to the standard on this occasion and they probably got lucky with their timing as well.
Being tired from avoiding scammers all day, at one point you need to trust somebody you think you know. It is sad but scammers are lurking in all social media, stealing identities and creating scripts that are convincing enough.
I understand you completely and I agree that the only way to damage the scammers plans is to report what happened and create awareness.
Otherwise someone else will fall victim. The information you provided was useful as this might happen to anyone of us.

I'm glad you were able to take something away from this. Glad you haven't fallen victim and hope this helps keep that streak alive.
They would have known through the server. Not that I had any coins per say but that any member could have potentially had some. It's crypto related. On that note I do also discuss BTC and crypto with people irl. I will also continue to do so, I won't let fear prevent me from spreading information to potential new users. I just won't go letting my guard down again.
It is a good point, and not something I will be forgetting again. They really just got lucky through a combination of circumstances, but that's all it takes.
For me that is what was stupid. It's not being hard on myself I just like to state it as a fact for this situation. I appreciate the kindness though and am glad you find the tale of warning useful.

I don't have the same story as yours but I just want to reiterate your "Don't get complacent" point.

I almost fell to a phishing site and that was around 2017 IIRC where I got an email saying I got free tokens. I didn't suspect at first because I've subscribed to the site that they copied. I almost gave my private key but thankfully, I was distracted by someone for a few minutes. When I got back to the fake site, I was like "wtf am I doing?". I ended up reporting it and informing some people I know not to fall for such trick.

Sad to hear that !

And yes i use discord now over 4 years and everytime when i get some kind of spam pm and in the same time i see an Friend request from this user i know whats coming.
99% of them are advertising for some shitcoins or they asking for help and send coins blah blah blah because of they cant withdraw from exchanges and others .

You can click on the name with the right mouse button and a drop down menu shows up and there you have the option profile , click on it and there you have "Same server"
Click on it and it shows you the same server you use as the User you got the pm and you can see from where he is coming and server he use.

Most times i write in this server channel and report this Users to the Channel Mod or Admin so they get banned and other users know about the situation.

I am a regular user of Discord and your detailed explanation may save me losing my bitcoins. I wished i could helped you but i can only pray your loss get recovered by some other ways in life.

I admire your courage to come out and speak about it. Not everyone can do it. I've had my fair share of phishing and scams. Once on Telegram and one via a website a friend of mine sent ( we both got scammed anyway). If there's one thing I've come to learn about the crypto space is that, scams do exist and they're rampant. One thing that has kept me safe for a long time is this quote that I stamped in my subconscious

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Another thing I try to put under check is my emotions, particularly greed. If not probably controlled, greed will make you get scammed regardless of any principles or due diligence you do.

You surely messed up, no doubt about that. But one more thing is for sure though, Discord should have more countermeasures to prevent things like this from happening. In my opinion, it's just not THAT easy to tell accounts apart especially if you're new to the platform.

I also know one friend of mine that got scammed a year ago(thankfully, a pretty small amount) that was also decently internet savvy. He contacted me immediately(to have a second opinion as for if he really got scammed or if he's just over-paranoid) after the person he's transacting with wasn't responding for 15 minutes as he immediately smelled something fishy. I took a look at the accounts, and it took longer than it should to see the difference between accounts.

When even decently internet savvy people are getting scammed on your platform, you definitely know that you should do more things to prevent these things from happening. Hopefully Discord does something about this.

Yeah I wish I had had that moment, and early on definitely ran into a few situations like that. Usually though it was with a platform that I knew the ins and outs better, or with a non crypto payment that I understood fully what to expect.
Yeah this was some of the small checks I did do, and just a complete ball drop on my part not going further or actually PMing or posting in the channel. Live and learn and forget those Satoshis, I guess.
Yeah I've gotten good at not necessarily chasing the get rich quick schemes they are generally fairly flimsy and transparent. Where I must and will improve on is the helping hand shit I do, seemingly far to often. That is another easy way to prey on folks especially when impersonating someone.
I agree, I was less than impressed with their canned responses to the situation. It was almost like they didn't read the first email, at least the second response gave me the info I was looking for. A direct inquiry line for the authorities to follow up on. I have and will continue to make suggestions to them about their platform, like having the User ID present and permanently visible under users profiles. That simple step would have stopped this in it's tracks, and my carelessness wouldn't have been my undoing this time around.

It's funny how little Discord has adjusted to what it has become. It's no longer just a gamer chat platform but is used by almost all crypto project launches to maintain a community server. Most platforms tend to see the problems that develop and attempt to mitigate risks through simple changes, them not so much. Either way the steps I've taken moving forward will ensure this doesn't happen for me again, and hopefully anyone who reads through this. Even if the discussion dies down here, I will continue to bump this topic every now and then just to keep people on their toes. Hell maybe  even make avoiding scams one of my [Info] videos.

Really it's still a loss, in the end it's a decent excuse to unload a bag or 2 of coins I had high hopes for that seem to be stagnant. Maybe the scammer helped me out, you know, less wallets to update and projects to follow.  :-\

You know, I was also scammed on Discord, although it began with a Steam profile message. Same social engineering shit, persuasion and finally the ultimate "Get scammed" finale.

Like you, I was very wary of those scams but still one managed to come by due to greed. At some point you might just be "blinded" and by the time you realized your folly, it's too late.

Sometimes we just have to learn things the hard way to fully understand. Just like "You never know if you don't try".

I made a thread some time ago on how to protect your capital and also protect yourself from scams. And the major pointer I stated was that we should, view every offer as a scam and then look for reasons to prove otherwise.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5169648.msg51977684#msg51977684
If one starts from a position of skepticism, you would be more wary of such unsolicited messages. However I guess anyone can slip up at some point, and you'll likely not be a victim anytime soon.

Sorry for your loss.
However, there is an important lesson here.

I know most people here are tech guys, with little knowledge about traditional investments.

One very important thing to consider when dealing with bitcoin as an investment (which is what you are doing, as you are even lending it) is to really understand its potential performance in your portfolio and the risks involved.

An asset like bitcoin which may increase its 10-20% per day has enough volatility by itself. You don´t really need to lend it for 5% interest rate a year (which is almost negligible compared to nearly 300% gains, only this year). Lending also increases your risk exponentially.

If you want fixed interest rates, you should buy bonds. Exchange your bitcoin to your local fiat and get your 1-5% per year (depending to your country). Bonds are highly regulated and nobody is going to run away with your money (possible but highly unlikely).

Bitcoin lacks regulations, so anyone can runaway with your money and you can't do anything. Authorities probably can't help you, as your coins are probably in a company in another continent.

Lending is simple not worth the risk.

It surely is specifically made for gamers( to talk to each other(as how it was initially advertised as far as I remember years ago) and probably not primarily as a chatroom for people to look for people to transact with, but yea, they should definitely adapt. It really isn't new for certain platforms to not be used mainly for the specific purpose that they're made for.

A very good post. Not always easy to say publicly "I fucked up"... Hopefully will serve as a warning to others and who knows... it might just save one person from being a victim!


Also, just FYI, the "Developer Mode" setting is in a slightly different location on Android and iOS versions of Discord... Android it is in "User Settings -> App Settings -> Behaviour" and on iOS it is "User Settings -> Appearance -> Advanced".

Refer here: https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/206346498-Where-can-I-find-my-User-Server-Message-ID-

That article also explains how to find "Server" and "Message" IDs. I could see the "Server ID" being useful to avoid being invited onto "fake" servers.

hello
I invested $1000 usd in a mining manager Tony Montano on the 2 Nov now i cant cash out until i pay him over $900 in fees. Most of the pages of the site are all 404 error pages and go nowhere thats a start his site is Antpoolmininginternational.com I have the wallet address but I dont know how to read the data. Is there anyone out there that can help me with this situation. Ive been staring at the bitcoin explorer for a few days on and off but my understanding is still very limited. any help will be gratefully accepted. Thanks

The "real" Antpool is a Chinese based mining pool here: https://www.antpool.com/

antpoolmininginternational.com is nothing but a scam. Your money is gone. DO NOT "invest" or sent them any more money. You will not get anything back.



The address is useless to you. If you don't have the private keys you do not have access to the coins.

I have some steps to check unique user IDs to find out scammers who fake accounts of real developers. Scammers can do more complicated things to scam but those investigation steps can help.
Discord & scammers. Check user IDs and user colors of strangers send you PMs (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5171908.0)

I hope you didn't lose much, I can imagine it's not nice even when the amont wasn't high and you know it was possible to avoid because normally you don't fall for it.

Discord is also a platform where I'm not very active (I'm just following a few groups but don't use it for regular communication) and yeah, a different medium of communication isn't trivial to know all the features what's leading to mistakes.

When someone is asking for money, no matter where I'm always like that:

https://i.imgur.com/frnKYlT.jpg

Especially if there is no chat history, the PM comes solely for asking for money (all accounts can be hacked) or trying to get some other sort of information. Even links should be suspected.


Right now, I've enabled PMs in Telegram (that scammers can PM me) and I get behind their stratgies to list them and educate less experienced people like Royse777 does it in their List of (un)known methods scammers user to scam users with honorable mention (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5171618.0). I'm only sending money on Telegram et al. unless I'm 100% sure the person is trustworthy and 100% not an impersonator or hacked account.

But sharing your story here is much appreciated. +100

You do make good points here. Tech guy definitely doesn't describe me all to well. I would say 95% of what I've learned or sone with computers has been due to getting involved in BTC, and choosing to mine. I still have tons to learn, and am trying to find time to dedicate to getting better. That or I might start getting the "OK Boomer" from my daughter in a few years  ;)
I actually got into lending as a way to try and make BTC work for me in it's form without selling it and then converting. So far it's been a mixed bag, and probably not something I will continue to do in the future. -This Scam not part of that consideration. I also like to spend BTC when I can for purchases that would otherwise be done through PP or something like that. With a percentage saved always, as I do want to benefit from price increases in the future. I'm not yet convinced that it's sole purpose moving forward should be a store of value, I would hope that it could be a means to large scale purchases not needing to be completed within seconds or minutes, with other coins or systems designed for quick everyday purchases - A crypto commerce ecosystem.
You aren't wrong about the risks though, as 1 bad deal on lending can result in wiping out profits from 100's of deals depending on the interest rates you work with. I added a link to your post in the OP. A similar article was how I figured out where to look for User ID's, obviously to late. I should have though to link it in, glad you thought of it. It's a must if you want to report someone on Discord for any reason so it's funny they tuck this info away in the first place.
Nice thread every bit of information out there helps.
It's funny because I had been contacted through telegram once and put the person to task to prove their identity, and it was who they said they were. In that case they were not a person I had met IRL, so that's where my guard dropped. Obviously this person wasn't someone I had met IRL, but did just enough to fool me, and had I done a few extra simple steps on my part this would have been avoided. Live and learn, help others learn at the same time. ;)

It is good to share the story even if you feel shame. I respect that.

What were they offering you though that made you fall for this particular scam?

When someone contacts me on pm I don't mind but 99% of the time I am expecting spam or someone wanting money in some way. I always start reading and think to myself "so where does the part where I need to give you my money come in" I keep reading and the next message or so sure enough.... They want money. People who need investors do not contact you in a pm. Think about it. Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously for this great idea of theirs want to act like a beggar on social networks? Those guys basically lurk around waiting for victims. Only a scammer will contact you so directly. (please do not be confused by people who want to contact you directly after you have spoken elsewhere, that is fine so long as you can trust the person as far as what they say but do not trust some random pm ever ignore or read for humour)

Then I also would like to just add a few other things. When you buying something no matter what it is. Investing or anything. When you give someone else your hard-earned bucks, the last person you should listen to is the person trying to get your money. Ask other people. It is illogical to trust the person selling the service item or investment since they will say whatever they need to in order to part you of your money. Ask anyone else but the seller.

I read here someone said something about exposing they scammer or giving their personal info away. It doesn't help. These people are shameless and don't care if you know who they are. Most of the time people just move on ado nothing. Which is wrong. It is your money you should do something about it.

I know you got ripped off by some random person it sounds like but I was scammed twice locally. I got my money back the first time. I started calling around and found other people he had ripped of and found out about him. Where he lived and who he lived with. We knew what car he drove and everything. So we told him we know all these things about him and he better pay me my money back because you stuffing around with the wrong person. It took a few months but I got my money back. He used every trick in the book to delay and things. He cried and everything. Put on quite a show. I didn't fall for that shit like other people do. I know a scammers mind. So yeah I got my money back and reported him. I didn't bother to check up on it since I was so angry and I gave them everything bit of info I had.

The last time I was scammed it was very strange and the person seemed legit and ever during the scam seemed legit. Even telling me they had been scammed before. I lost my temper with them and they even told me they will not lower themselves to my level. lol yeah.... A thief tells his victim this? >.< That comment just made me so angry so I got my bank to open an investigation and I will go as far as the law will allow me to lay charges against this man and his wife (in on it too)

My cases were not random ones online these people had websites and everything. The latest scammer actually took his website down when I started blasting him on social media. I made sure his brand name was destroyed. "brand name" I bet he never owned a single item on his website. I am just telling you about them so people do not lose hope. You can catch some of these guys.


Then the last thing I want to say is. None of this would happen if you use an escrow. Always escrow. When it is someone online and you don't know who they then use escrow. It might cause some implications but of they are legit they will agree. Remember a scammer will never agree to such things since a scammer wants to get in and out as quickly as possible the rinse repeat. They don't even feel anything they like machines.

Sorry about your loss. But now you know for next time you beat these suckers. Now other people hopefully will learn from us and not do what we did.

I have to say that this is a classic example of what it means to ‘Be your own bank’.
I put much thoughts to it after reading your post, and remembering instances where I foolishly lost my crypto. Good to see the words you used in your topic caption, and good to see this on Beginners & Help board, because If you decide to ‘Be your own bank’, you’ve taken up a huge responsibility.
It comes with a whole lot of benefits (which is very much discussed), but it’s best people learn that there’re consequences when you fail in your responsibilities as a ‘Bank’.