Bitcoin Forum

You remember how they say, you should think like a thief (Criminal) to catch a thief (Criminal). I've I've doing a lot of that lately, after I got contacted by a scammer. The narration of the conversation following that event could be found on this thread titled  Scam calling  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5351549.0.). Scam has come to be a trend in our modern delay society and it isn't going to go away, no matter how hard we try, the least we could do is pirate there scam schemes and even device a possible scheme ourselves, create awareness on it to aid others from falling victims. Having this in mind, I came to a thought that could be the next phase of scammers and also a way to stay secured in a public place including a way to be secured with a friendly foe.

Scammers never sleeps, why should you?

Okay, my revelation came to me while I was on a public bus headed for a known location that was 58km away, on a 2hrs drive. As someone who happens to be conscious of time and felt there is a lot I could archive with my 2hrs wait time to arrive at my destination, I decided to put in some work on trades, check out some mails and other routine jobs I do online. So, as I set to my task, so focused on my device and all, it downed on me that, I was using a public media and with the falling of the sun and the near dark of the vehicle, my device light shown bright which would earn me some attention and there is a possibility that someone could be paying attention.
For sure, I might be very fast on my keys, making it almost impossible for someone to keep track and recall accurately what is being down but then, there is a way to this I thought to myself.

Technology plays a role to your safety or getting scammed
Technology has taken a different toll on the world in recent times, there have been advances in every field especially in terms of camera as it concerns what I'm about to discuss. You can agree with me that, the innovation behind camera advancement has drastically changed over the years and one with one of these suffisticated devices can have an edge on your operations in a public place from a distance. Looking at my situation on the bus, that was what came to my mind as, it is more easier for a scammer supposing there was one who thought that way with his or her device. Turned there camera on and focused on my screen and what I was doing, zoomed in and videos it all. The scammer could easily get back home, replay the video slowly by setting the lapses time and getting back at you and on all your activities at that moment. That was my thought and it did stood as a warning to my security in public places.

Your security, your big business! Let's all be mindful of the things we do when we are out.
I really hope this helps someone.

I understand the point you're making, and I somewhat share in your thoughts or paranoia as some people would call it, though I don't think it actually is, the thing is, for whatever it is worth you should try not to open wallets, accounts profile or any aspect of your account that will display your passwords, personal data or your funds when you're in public, especially when you're close to people or in a place were there could be cameras or prying eyes, the actual danger may not be too high, but being as security conscious as possible isn't bad at all.

The thing is, since people erroneously believe crypto people are rich, there could prolly be a danger of a $5 wrench attack if someone gets to know you're into crypto or sees how much your have through accidentally seeing your wallets or one of your profiles/accounts.

Using the phone alone already attracts attention to a lot of people around especially now that you mention the time of the day. This is why at evening, I tend to just keep my phone in my pocket at all times even if I am really wanted to check on something and for this instance, it would be like me checking the price of Bitcoin. Even if it is just a quick "btc to usd" search in Google, I am not even risking it.

It's good practice to be vigilant and conscious when one is in public places. You never know who's watching. I use google authentic code for all my financial applications on my phone just to be safe. The token changes every 50 seconds on the clock making it extremely hard for scammers to manipulate.

OP, I'm sorry, but I find it funny. Do you always use your phone in public places? I mean, use it for important operations? I don't think even that could be dangerous. Well, a person will take a video off your screen. So what? You should notice this anyway.
 The rule of not using public Wi-Fi should be a priority. Having got into your phone, that is, having hacked it through a public network, a fraudster will receive a lot of data about you, you risk losing more than just showing the screen of your mobile.
I don't think smart people use their phones while riding the bus and do any financial transactions at the same time.
Well, if a person is very businesslike, he will at least have his own car.

That's another one, phone hacks or taps from public wi-fi. Well, this coming from you, I very much understand not getting to come from the same world. Out here in Africa, there is no much of public wi-fi and as such, hacks using this means is rarely possible but then, when it's gets to the videos, not like it's happened before as I'm not aware of any case but, it was just a thought that came to me.

Anyway, there was nothing smart about my decision to engage in some financial transaction, was just feeling a little bit of concern for the time I would be wasting and as such, chose to make the most of it before it downed on me that, I was just headed to doing it wrong. Putting my accounts in danger to save time, huh, wrong move!

I don't know if you've seen a really bad road before but, there are some really bad roads out here in Africa that, you would really wish as a private car owner that your car doesn't dare traveldown that road. Such roads was the case here and I usually reserve that for the public buses. Most persons out here do, as the buses are better made for such journey. In the city, everything could be smooth but while journeying through some internal roads in some interior towns, your out to face some disaster looking stricken roads, lol. In times like that, public transport is just the way.

I also read your last post so I understood why such a short trip takes as much as 2 hours, so now I appreciate good roads much better - because usually in 2 hours a bus can cover about 200km.


If you have such concerns about bus safety, you can try to reserve a seat at the end of the bus so that no one can look over your shoulder, but again what if someone has installed mini cameras all over the bus? One can always find a reason to be paranoid, but I think sometimes we can really overdo it. In addition, even if someone recorded what you were doing on your mobile phone or laptop, the passwords you type are mostly hidden (in the form of dots) so I don't see any danger there.

I fully understand that it is not easy to lose 2 hours literally doing nothing useful, but if you are so worried about safety, maybe you can use that time to read a good book or something like that ;)

It is best to avoid using public Wi-Fi but if you use it, open your VPN.

• The Security Issues in Using Public Wi-Fi  —  “Honeypots” And “Pineapples” (https://hackernoon.com/the-security-issues-in-using-public-wi-fi-honeypots-and-pineapples-okt3u5z)
• Why WiFi is a Security Risk for Your Business’s Wireless Network (https://resources.anscorporate.com/why-wifi-is-a-security-risk-for-your-businesss-wireless-network)
• A hacker intercepted your WiFi traffic, stole your contacts, passwords, & financial data. (https://hackernoon.com/a-hacker-intercepted-your-wifi-traffic-stole-your-contacts-passwords-financial-data-heres-how-4fc0df9ff152)

I never store my Bitcoin, my personal details in my laptop and bring it around, connect it to the Internet especially public Wi-Fi. Important things, I store them at home, and barely connect it to the Internet.

Frankly,  I have a little fraction of Bitcoin in my laptop, but just minor amount, ready to use just in case.

@CryptocurencyKing
You might want to consider purchasing a "privacy screen protector ^{[e.g. like this one (https://youtu.be/yiVo2UE6zDo?t=335)]}" for your mobile devices.
^{- Some of them aren't that good and I'm not sure if you would be able to easily find one in Africa, but having said that, I still wouldn't use it for viewing sensitive information on a public bus.}

They could still see the manner in which you tap your screen and easily replicate it ^{[unfortunately]}.

If on a public transport, I barely look at anything that I may consider private. Browsing Bitcointalk falls under the private category, as I wouldn’t really want anyone snooping that I’m on a bitcoin forum, even if I’m just reading through. People tend to look if given the chance, and not necessarily with the intent of snooping, but because eyes often get drawn to devices and such.

Some public transports may expose you more than others, and it’s not necessarily the cheaper ones that expose you the most. Travelling on a high speed train in business class, is an open invitation to see confidential information from your seat’s partner, as well as those in front of you (not to mention the phone conversations that take place) for hours on end. Being somewhat privacy conscious shouldn’t go amiss …

Note: Not really sure why the mirror is behind.

I've had this fear before and it all got fixed by 2 things: low brightness and a 4-way privacy screen protector. 4-way protectors make the screen black from anyone looking at the phone from any angle besides yours as an owner. If you want things to become even less evident, use a movable keyboard on your screen so that you don't always have to type on the lower bottom of the screen when you have text to insert. This way, it's harder to predict which keys you're touching.

Doing sensitive jobs in public is a bad idea imo. There will no doubt always be people who'll stare and you never know what kind of ideas you may be giving to a person you'd never even think would try to hurt you. Sensitive jobs shall be done in safe places.

You're on a public transport so you have to understand that and stop anything sensitive like reading your mails or opening your trading accounts. You don't know who you're on the bus with so why risk it. Sure you don't want to waste 2 quality hours but considering everything that can go wrong why not scarify that two hours instead of regretting ever using it.

Already we know people are something else this day, you meant not know who is on that bus with you. They could be kidnappers and you exposing to them that you're into crypto is already a risk. Don't forget there's the common thought that those involve in on-line business most especially cryptocurency has money so we're always a target or haven't you heard of the cases of crypto enthusiast were targeted and got robbed of their coins?.

Preferable have double mobile phone, don't compromised your business. We (crypto enthusiast) are always a target in the country, from the security officers down to the scammers, avoid be an example (escape goat) instead learn from others mistakes.

More these technologies grows then more our privacy will be affected in someway even now we have been under the survilence of manybeyes in the name of smartphone and other tech gadgets. When it comes to security atleast we can save our money by avoiding the silly mistake which starts from downloading pirated application to clicking the unknown links.