Many thanks for the info on safer use of the laptop. I did regard Bitcoins as more a bet than an investment and it's not the end of the world, but I certainly accept your general points here: there are some bad people out there, and being less than extremely vigilant with security is inviting them to help themselves.

The key thing for me is to learn from this and be a lot more careful in the future.

Trickle

Many thanks to all for your responses.

In answer to why I waited so long: having bought at around $13 last June, I was waiting until the price got back somewhere near that until I did anything with them. I simply put them to one side as I would a company's shares. Obviously I should have kept them in a wallet, but naively thought they were safe. My password was very strong and unique to my Mt Gox account.

I take it that Mt Gox is completely accountable to no-one?

Regards

Trickle

I had around 300 Bitcoins stolen from my MT Gox account on Sep 8th/9th 2011. I found out after receiving an email to say that my account was up for review and eventually getting a working password from them that got me into my account. I reported the theft to Mt Gox and their response was to say that transactions are irreversible and the only thing they can do is to give me a free yubikey to stop it happening again. My account, with a strong password, was compromised due to the insecurity of their systems, but they refuse to accept any culpability or responsibility for my loss.

I don't expect (and surely won't receive!) any sympathy from fellow posters. I knew this was a risky business before I got in; I naively trusted the security and integrity of such a large exchange; I should have transferred the coins to an application; I could have sold at a good profit and got out quickly; I gambled and lost - learn and move on.

What remains slightly surprising however is that such a cowboy outfit should be handling so many transactions and retaining the trust of so many traders. Their website boasts of trading securely and with confidence; this apparently stated without irony. Yet, when a customer's account is hacked, it's just tough luck, one of those things....

In conclusion, if you hold bitcoins or cash with Mt Gox, be very careful. If you should suddenly find your balance is unaccountably zero, you'll wait a long time for any redress or even sympathy. Meanwhile, if anyone does have any ideas on how I might retrieve my Bitcoins, I would be very grateful.

Regards

Trickle.