Bitcoin Forum

I am interested in buying an account on here but the seller said that he does not have signed messages available.  Could someone please explain this to me.

It means he can't really prove the account is his by signing a message from a bitcoin address associtated with that account to prove that the account hasn't been hacked etc.

See the following if you're unsure what is or how you sign a message:

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3898/how-does-sign-message-work
https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/1526413-how-do-i-sign-a-message-with-a-bitcoin-address-

what the reply you got is correct

but my question is if anyone is using the web wallet like xapo or coinbase address  then how can they provide the signed message as i have seen that this sites dont provide signed message. then how can they sell their account if they are using the web wallet address.

Coinbase does allow you to sign bitcoin message, here is how to: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=990345 , but xapo does not allow to sign bitcoin messages.

If I were you, I won't buy that account as signed message was very important in account sales (based on my observation). There's a chance that the account was hacked. Just look for another seller that can provide a signed message for security.

Better safe than sorry ::) Good luck!

So I did some research on the account I am looking to purchase and it looks like there was never a BTC address attached to the account.  Nothing mentioned in the posts or in the messages.  No loans and no trust issues.  It has only been used to talk about mining and things.  Please give opinion on this.

Could have just hacked the account and deleted all the previous posts with messages in for all you know. It's up to you whether you buy it or not but buying any account on here always comes with risks.

Thank you for the information and I appreciate the warnings.  I am concerned with it a little, but it just looks like an account that was not bothered with for a bit.  You never know.  Is there any tell to determine if the account was hacked?

Based on how you are describing the account, I would say there is a fairly high chance that it was hacked. Or at least the risk of it being hacked is very high.

This is based on the following:

• No signed message available -- this will generally be the case with hacked accounts, however a hacker may sometimes try to tick you by posting a BTC address one day then the next present a signed message in order to make you believe that they are the true owner. Any signed message that you accept should be from an address posted/associated with the account a long time ago.
• No address has ever been posted -- this goes hand in hand with the above. As hilarious mentioned it would be possible that the hacker deleted any previous BTC addresses that were posted.
• The account being inactive -- it is possible that someone hacked an email address associated with an account, and reset the password via email. The owner of the account would have a low chance of noticing the hacked account at least initially, so no thread would be made asking for help

And the account have recently changes password , you can monitor who's change password recently here https://bitcointalk.org/seclog.php .
Also op the title looks misleading, you say "buying account" , actually you have trouble in buying account. Goodluck and be careful on buying or selling account here.

Buy the account through a reputable escrow. He can prove that you bought the account. But if it is hacked, the original owner can still claim it back.

It is great to hear that there are ways to protect your account from stealing and attempt to claim it back. A few days ago a friend got hacked and almost lost his account, he was able to log back and restore it somehow.

How did he get hacked? Has the password not changed by the hacker?
Curious to know so as to protect myself in the future.

If you provide a signed message with an old staked account, in a very specific format, theymos or badbear will reset your password and send you your new password over email.

This is why a signed message is important in account sales. It proves you legally bought the account, so the old owner cannot just claim it back with the admins.

So, in short, you can protect your account in the following ways:
- use a password manager (like keypass), always generate a strong, unique password for all your online activity's (including bitcointalk)
- stake a bitcoin address ASAP, just post it in the address staking thread from tomatocage, and ask if somebody can quote you. Make sure you can sign a message with this staked address