I just got hacked - any help is welcome! (25,000 BTC stolen)

[Gameover]

I'm sorry I hope you take no offence, but what are you talking about. How does me going to the media help me in any way? What are they going to do? Donate me some BTC out of pity? The only realistic way to pursue this is using the legal/justice system. I do not mind revealing my identity to the proper authorities.

But thanks for the best wishes.

I would think the media would be your only hope, go to the media, get coverage everywhere so everyone knows, offer some kind of reward, your only hope is if there is a rat close to the person/entity that stole your money who will come forward, more than likely they will go to the person who stole it and extort them in some way since they are most likely a thieving bastard as well, but its your only chance I see.

The cops/FBI are grossly over estimated by the public in what they can do, even when they have all the facts and solid leads they can barely scrape together what happened, this isn't the movies, in real life shit is a lot harder to figure out.  Most crooks only get caught because they make a mistake and leave clues.  With the virtual online aspect of your theft unless you are talking to the cybercrime unit at the FBI you don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of the police helping you in any way.

[Durr]

Im surprised you take this lightly, losing 500k$+ and with no chance of getting it back.

I could only explain it with the assumption you have more bitcoins sitting somewhere or have other wealth. If not, you'll probably end up in a nuthouse now.

[allinvain]

If you believe your anonymity is worth $500K so be it. What do I care, its not my money. Anyway, best of luck to you if its true and if its a hoax.

I'm sorry I hope you take no offence, but what are you talking about. How does me going to the media help me in any way? What are they going to do? Donate me some BTC out of pity? The only realistic way to pursue this is using the legal/justice system. I do not mind revealing my identity to the proper authorities.

But thanks for the best wishes.

Newsflash: the media aren't the ones who find kidnapped children but people do get in the effect because of it.

of course it's not $500K anymore now is it?

more like $375K

I don't care if it drops to a 1:1 ratio. They are still my bitcoins and I have a strong emotional attachment to them - by far more than a newcomer to btc would.

This an issue about the morality of it, not just the value of the btc. Theft is wrong under all circumstances, and I owe it to myself to bring the thieves to justice. That is how a civilized society works, no?

[Durr]

Aren't bitcoin idealists usually anarchists?

[allinvain]

Im surprised you take this lightly, losing 500k$+ and with no chance of getting it back.

I could only explain it with the assumption you have more bitcoins sitting somewhere or have other wealth. If not, you'll probably end up in a nuthouse now.

I'm not taking this lightly. You have a way of reading my mind that I do not know of?

[Bitcoin Swami]

I think having this post constantly on the front page is the worst thing that can happen for bitcoin.  This forum is VERY popular and if this is the first thing new people see.  Well .............  Since its already at the top I'm bumping it, but maybe we should stop talking about it.

[allinvain]

Aren't bitcoin idealists usually anarchists?

Hold on a second. Are you trying to say that anarchists are ok with theft, that they condone the violation of other people's property rights? I'm curious to know what to you constitutes an "anarchist" Are you thinking of anarchists in the navie "break store windows, and cause general havoc" sense?

[Durr]

I think having this post constantly on the front page is the worst thing that can happen for bitcoin.  This forum is VERY popular and if this is the first thing new people see.  Well .............  Since its already at the top I'm bumping it, but maybe we should stop talking about it.

My *selfish asshole alarm* just went off reading this post.

[allinvain]

I think having this post constantly on the front page is the worst thing that can happen for bitcoin.  This forum is VERY popular and if this is the first thing new people see.  Well .............  Since its already at the top I'm bumping it, but maybe we should stop talking about it.

Fine, let the moderators lock the thread then. See how well that would play out. How is this the worst thing that can happen to bitcoin. Why are we treating bitcoin like a cult object?

[unk]

My *selfish asshole alarm* just went off reading this post.

mine is burned out from a year of reading this forum . . .

[Durr]

Aren't bitcoin idealists usually anarchists?

Hold on a second. Are you trying to say that anarchists are ok with theft, that they condone the violation of other people's property rights? I'm curious to know what to you constitutes an "anarchist" Are you thinking of anarchists in the navie "break store windows, and cause general havoc" sense?

The very foundation of Bitcoin is anarchistic.

The system does not allow recovery of bitcoins, there is no regulator or protector here. Just like in an anarchy, if your money would get stolen, no one is going to help you, you can only rely on yourself and family to hunt the thieves.

I can't help it, this is the Bitcoin system.

[allinvain]

Aren't bitcoin idealists usually anarchists?

Hold on a second. Are you trying to say that anarchists are ok with theft, that they condone the violation of other people's property rights? I'm curious to know what to you constitutes an "anarchist" Are you thinking of anarchists in the navie "break store windows, and cause general havoc" sense?

The very foundation of Bitcoin is anarchistic.

The system does not allow recovery of bitcoins, there is no regulator or protector here. Just like in an anarchy, if your money would get stolen, no one is going to help you, you can only rely on yourself and family to hunt the thieves.

I can't help it, this is the Bitcoin system.

Not true. In a true and functional anarchistic social structure there would be free market dispute arbitrators and other free market institutions and organizations designed to deal with the problem of justice. What idea of anarchy is law of the jungle. I'm sorry to say but that is scaling back civilization. If using bitcoins means that I have to accept that type of social structure, then I say "screw bitcoins."

[fenixosup]

Contact slush, find out what IP was logged onto your account and hope they didn't use a proxy (however unlikely)?

[PGPpfKkx]

@op sorry for the question but 25k from mining sounds enormous. did you buy btc? did u have a multiple gigahash rig from dec 2010?
you must have had an enormous mining farm i suppose?

[cschmitz]

Not true. In a true and functional anarchistic social structure there would be free market dispute arbitrators and other free market institutions and organizations designed to deal with the problem of justice. What idea of anarchy is law of the jungle. I'm sorry to say but that is scaling back civilization. If using bitcoins means that I have to accept that type of social structure, then I say "screw bitcoins."

the whole point of bitcoin is to create a system of unregulated, irreversible, pseudo anonymous transactions on the internet. you should have reflected that before putting what seems to be more than you can swallow into bitcoin.
the behaviour you are displaying in the days since you were supposedly hacked is the most self centered, egocentric behaviour i have seen anywhere in an online community for a long time.
initially it was tragic to read that you have lost something, the more you post, the more sympathy i feel with the people who supposedly screwed you over.

p.s.

i still dont believe your story.

[Hundsstern]

I'm sorry if you don't like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEbE3fGfF-o

[allinvain]

Contact slush, find out what IP was logged onto your account and hope they didn't use a proxy (however unlikely)?

I did...no response from slush...

[Aggro]

I did contact the police, but do you honestly think they can do anything? The way the police operates means they cannot do anything in the even to of a cyber crime.

Try the FBI. I think there is a few thousand dollar limit above which they are obliged to take the case and they have a cybercrime unit. I think half a million qualifies If the attacker is abroad it might get more difficult, or it might turn it into a federal crime, expediting things. Maybe you should talk to a lawyer as well, just in case (e.g. what if Bitcoin is outlawed at some point, what if you give permission for your machine to be audited and they come across a copyrighted download or something).

The problem is, statutorily speaking, he does not qualify for thievery since bitcoins are not officially worth anything. At best, this would be a case of information theft for any law enforcement agency, and will be dealt along with the guy that got his nephews pictures stolen by a trojan from his hard drive.

Having dealt in the e-currency market for many, MANY, years (almost since its inception) and moving 7 figures of e-currencies on the daily, I can tell you that no law enforcement agency will do anything about this.

Electronic money security needs to be taken VERY SERIOUSLY, that is the bottom line on this business.

[Aggro]

Not true. In a true and functional anarchistic social structure there would be free market dispute arbitrators and other free market institutions and organizations designed to deal with the problem of justice. What idea of anarchy is law of the jungle. I'm sorry to say but that is scaling back civilization. If using bitcoins means that I have to accept that type of social structure, then I say "screw bitcoins."

Your logic is quite flawed. Forget the anarchistic social structure and take our current political system. BITCOINS ARE CASH. The digital wallet on your drive is the place where that cash is stored inside your house. Your house is your computer.

Say you leave a pile of cash sitting on your living room, like somebody suggested on some blog. You knew the door locks of your house weren't working right, but you still ignored that. Now somebody broke in and stole your pile of cash.

What is the police going to do? Take your declaration, MAYBE swipe for some fingerprints and the like, and that is about it. How are they going to track that cash? How are they going to find the guy who did it when he probably cover all his tracks?

Again, bitcoins are like paper cash. Sure, you can track the block chain, and what not, but guess what? All you really need to avoid that is to send a couple of big payments to mtgox, pokerrooms, mybitcoin etc.. etc... and then do some random, small withdrawals to a virgin wallet. Good luck tracing that.

Please let us know if any law enforcement agency takes your case seriously, it would be interesting to know if they would take bitcoin as a real capital loss.

[allinvain]

Not true. In a true and functional anarchistic social structure there would be free market dispute arbitrators and other free market institutions and organizations designed to deal with the problem of justice. What idea of anarchy is law of the jungle. I'm sorry to say but that is scaling back civilization. If using bitcoins means that I have to accept that type of social structure, then I say "screw bitcoins."

the whole point of bitcoin is to create a system of unregulated, irreversible, pseudo anonymous transactions on the internet. you should have reflected that before putting what seems to be more than you can swallow into bitcoin.
the behaviour you are displaying in the days since you were supposedly hacked is the most self centered, egocentric behaviour i have seen anywhere in an online community for a long time.
initially it was tragic to read that you have lost something, the more you post, the more sympathy i feel with the people who supposedly screwed you over.

p.s.

i still dont believe your story.

What? self centered, egocentric? How so? I am just reporting what happened. I already got some help as a result of it, and that is what I was going for.

Frankly I don't care for your arrogant comments any more. Also I don't care if you don't believe my story.

I'm sorry to say this, but some of you here are just plain assholes..no other way to put it.