A player on the site asked me to post this on his behalf.
Hi All,
I have an unfortunate request to ask of you. I recently opened an account on Bitstamp to manage some funds for friends, family, and to show the viability of Bitcoin to a non-profit that I'm interested in working for. I believe that Bitcoin represents a viable way to generate long-term revenue for non-profits particularly because it sidesteps traditional ways of collecting donated monies (credit cards, EFT's, etc.) and because it dramatically reduces the time until funds are received (many non-profits have to wait months to receive any sort of commitment - credit cards don't offer a much better alternative either due to their transaction costs and several day wait time for them to clear).
My brother happened into town last week (from the 18th-21st) and naturally we entered into a discussion about bitcoins (seems that's all I talk about these days). He was eager to learn about how I traded, what websites I used, etc. Normally I delight in teaching people about cool things but here's where I made two grievous errors. First, I showed him how to access my Bitstamp address (in passing, just to show him what it looks like). Second, I mentioned that I had lost a little bit over at Just Dice in the past.
My brother has had some difficulty with gambling issues over the last couple years. In retrospect it was an extremely poor decision to link those two things together (my Bitstamp account and Just Dice) and I thought nothing of it at the time.
Apparently he accessed my Bitstamp account (by using my secured, though not secured enough, passwords) and sent several funds to Just Dice where he subsequently lost most of them.
I've spent the last day trying to determine the best course of action and to try and preserve what assets we have left. I can hardly turn him in to the authorities (he is my brother after all) but I owe most of those funds to other parties. It's a true predicament.
Here's the blockchain.info:
https://blockchain.info/address/1DFNMGP4MoSmwtBfxXNT6vjATJHEEHyu6RYou'll see that he moved just under 14 BTC. I currently count about 2.4 BTC worth in my Bitstamp account (which has since been turned back into fiat due to some dramatic price fluctuations over the last day). He wouldn't tell me how much he lost but I assume it to be about 10 BTC.
I've discussed the matter with the staff over at Just Dice and they were kind enough to post this message for me on your forum. They said that they can't refund the losses, which seems fair but that some of you might be willing to help out given the situation and past experiences. Honestly, I doubt that we'll recover anything by doing this. But if you can find it in your heart to donate a small amount, I know my family and friends would all be much obliged. Furthermore, because it seems appropriate given the circumstances, I'm going to donate 10% of anything we receive to a gambling addiction group, though it's been hard for me to find one that accepts bitcoin (as I mentioned above, bitcoins are really an as yet untapped resource by many nonprofits... truly a pity). If you'd like you can send your donations to:
1DQUU757jYhayznM2zc5DfZztjazb2B6am
Merry Christmas.
