Warning: Scammed by receiving a Private Key

[Delphinus]

This is the first time I've been scammed and I haven't seen any post about this technique before. Like everyone; I see scamming attempts on a daily basis. Send 0.1 ETH and I'll triple it; Visit B1nance.com; Submit your private key here, etc.

I thought I was pretty good at recognizing them. When I'm bored; I participate in a lot of airdrops so I have a spam email account for that purpose. Last week; I received an email that I had won some tokens in an airdrop.

The organizer send me an email with a public/private key to an ETH address with ~$5,- in tokens on it (not ETH, different ERC20 tokens). There was no ETH to pay the fee to get it out. I transferred ~0.001 ETH from my own account to cover the transfer fees but a bot immediately transferred the full amount to the next address.

Looking more closely, I actually noticed several other small ETH deposits made that day and immediately getting transferred out.

It isn't the most profitable scam (most people transfer $1-10,-) but it was a new one for me.

NEVER transfer any currency to an address if someone generated the private key. It's tempting to see $5,- in an address when you hold the private key; but you'll just lose whatever you send there to cover transaction fees.

[siddartha1492]

I don't know why someone like you who says "is pretty good at recognizing scams" would first of all access wallet of someone else and then transfer your own ETH to get some random airdrop token..? Once they sent you a private key to get your airdrop tokens, you should have understood. But the good thing is you weren't ripped of a big amount.

Between, it would be wise to do a through malware scan of your PC, in case you directly clicked links from this email. Also consider transferring your funds to some other address and make sure to check the address. There are some bots which can change the copied address in your clipboard.

[BTCLovingDude]

taking advantage of other people's greedy nature is the oldest trick in the books. it has always been like this. ages ago (and i still sometimes see this) there was a common scam where they called you saying you have won something from our store, like one of those big supermarkets and they told you, you have won a toaster for example. then they asked you that in order to receive the reward you have to make a payment, write a check or something to cover the "costs". then you made the payment and the reward never came!

[tamango]

Thank you for the advice.. I try to pay attention to everything come to my email but sometimes scams are hidden very well

[Monkeyseemonkeydo]

Thatnks for advice but hopefully I'm never transferring anything to somebody, also not giving any personal information or something like that. But I will look carefully, thanks ! 

[fabskie21]

By reading your situation, its very clear that its a scam at the first place. Why would they send their private keys to someone? That would be so dumb. Anyways, its a charged experience for you. Dont get yourself easily lured by a few dollars.

[kevoh]

Looking more closely, I actually noticed several other small ETH deposits made that day and immediately getting transferred out.

It isn't the most profitable scam (most people transfer $1-10,-) but it was a new one for me.

On the surface, scams like this might not look profitable but if you dig deeper you will find out that the accumulation of these small ETH deposits by over a hundred thousand people is a lot of money for the scammer. The $1 to $10 is just a smokescreen!

[Crypington]

I've seen this scam run before with Omni tokens.  Same deal, except you have to deposit Bitcoin to sweep the wallet.  I've heard it referred to as a "honey pot" scam.

[Ponya]

Useful info. First to hear about that

[Betwrong]

This is the first time I've been scammed and I haven't seen any post about this technique before. Like everyone; I see scamming attempts on a daily basis. Send 0.1 ETH and I'll triple it; Visit B1nance.com; Submit your private key here, etc.

I thought I was pretty good at recognizing them. When I'm bored; I participate in a lot of airdrops so I have a spam email account for that purpose. Last week; I received an email that I had won some tokens in an airdrop.

The organizer send me an email with a public/private key to an ETH address with ~$5,- in tokens on it (not ETH, different ERC20 tokens). There was no ETH to pay the fee to get it out. I transferred ~0.001 ETH from my own account to cover the transfer fees but a bot immediately transferred the full amount to the next address.

Looking more closely, I actually noticed several other small ETH deposits made that day and immediately getting transferred out.

It isn't the most profitable scam (most people transfer $1-10,-) but it was a new one for me.

NEVER transfer any currency to an address if someone generated the private key. It's tempting to see $5,- in an address when you hold the private key; but you'll just lose whatever you send there to cover transaction fees.

This is the first time I see a scam like this. But on the other hand this reminds me of the so called "Nigerian Prince" scam, which is similar to this one. You receive an e-mail from someone "belonging to" the Nigerian royal family. They say that they need to transfer a big sum of money and they want to use your bank account. They will give you 10% for that. If you agree, some time later they ask you to cover a fee, like $100, which compared to what you will gain in the end looks insignificant. After transfering that fee you won't hear from them again.

[CoinEraser]

Unbelievable how creative scammer are, even if it is only small amounts. Thank you for this information. 

[Lyne1982]

This is the first time I've been scammed and I haven't seen any post about this technique before. Like everyone; I see scamming attempts on a daily basis. Send 0.1 ETH and I'll triple it; Visit B1nance.com; Submit your private key here, etc.

I thought I was pretty good at recognizing them. When I'm bored; I participate in a lot of airdrops so I have a spam email account for that purpose. Last week; I received an email that I had won some tokens in an airdrop.

The organizer send me an email with a public/private key to an ETH address with ~$5,- in tokens on it (not ETH, different ERC20 tokens). There was no ETH to pay the fee to get it out. I transferred ~0.001 ETH from my own account to cover the transfer fees but a bot immediately transferred the full amount to the next address.

Looking more closely, I actually noticed several other small ETH deposits made that day and immediately getting transferred out.

It isn't the most profitable scam (most people transfer $1-10,-) but it was a new one for me.

NEVER transfer any currency to an address if someone generated the private key. It's tempting to see $5,- in an address when you hold the private key; but you'll just lose whatever you send there to cover transaction fees.

I'm one of this who have been scammed by that greed people, But you know the lesson that I learned is never trust those people who are sending you with good words and promise you to get double or triple because I notice that there is no easy money to get. If you want to be rich then you have to strive and work hard.

[bakujo0817]

This is the first time I've been scammed and I haven't seen any post about this technique before. Like everyone; I see scamming attempts on a daily basis. Send 0.1 ETH and I'll triple it; Visit B1nance.com; Submit your private key here, etc.

I thought I was pretty good at recognizing them. When I'm bored; I participate in a lot of airdrops so I have a spam email account for that purpose. Last week; I received an email that I had won some tokens in an airdrop.

The organizer send me an email with a public/private key to an ETH address with ~$5,- in tokens on it (not ETH, different ERC20 tokens). There was no ETH to pay the fee to get it out. I transferred ~0.001 ETH from my own account to cover the transfer fees but a bot immediately transferred the full amount to the next address.

Looking more closely, I actually noticed several other small ETH deposits made that day and immediately getting transferred out.

It isn't the most profitable scam (most people transfer $1-10,-) but it was a new one for me.

NEVER transfer any currency to an address if someone generated the private key. It's tempting to see $5,- in an address when you hold the private key; but you'll just lose whatever you send there to cover transaction fees.

this good warning for those people airdrop scammer this is day is more agressive and lots of trick just to scam people lets be more suspicious specially from email we got saying we win some token or money.

your luck you only small amount of money.

[celtic99]

DUde it's only 1 dollar.... Thanks for posting this anyways I guess someone who is stupid might transfer a larger amount.

[sindikat]

Needs to be a complete idiot not to see in such a primitive scheme fraud. What should be done to pay 300% of the Deposit? It's obvious! Greed of people is always an income opportunity for scammers. But don't be upset. The amount you lost is very small. Think about that you bought a very cheap experience.

[shinratensei_]

The organizer send me an email with a public/private key to an ETH address with ~$5,- in tokens on it (not ETH, different ERC20 tokens). There was no ETH to pay the fee to get it out. I transferred ~0.001 ETH from my own account to cover the transfer fees but a bot immediately transferred the full amount to the next address.

Where are you getting the bot? Said it looks like you have used the bot that has been sent by a scammer, right? This case is very similar to the trading bot which has been putting a backdoor by the scammer to send victims amounts through API.
Remember 3rd party is untrustable, in my opinion. A scammer has programmed it.

[coingrow]

WOW. These scammers are getting smarter day by day. Tbh this is the most intellegent way of scamming I have read about in crypto.
I remember when people used to get scammed at slack channels of ICO's, which then followed with twitter fake profiles trying to scam people for which a lot of people initially fell prey too also, and maybe some still are.

[jennerpower]

You should NEVER ever give your PRIVATE KEY to anyone especially if you don't know what you're trying to do and in any conditions. Even if they said that they will give you $1M. This is clearly a scam. No one will ever buy PRIVATE KEY from anyone they can create one in several websites. You should protect it like your password. PASSWORD is like PRIVATE KEY and since it is said PRIVATE you should not publicize.

[Delphinus]

The organizer send me an email with a public/private key to an ETH address with ~$5,- in tokens on it (not ETH, different ERC20 tokens). There was no ETH to pay the fee to get it out. I transferred ~0.001 ETH from my own account to cover the transfer fees but a bot immediately transferred the full amount to the next address.

Where are you getting the bot? Said it looks like you have used the bot that has been sent by a scammer, right? This case is very similar to the trading bot which has been putting a backdoor by the scammer to send victims amounts through API.
Remember 3rd party is untrustable, in my opinion. A scammer has programmed it.

No, my expectation is that it's a bot from the scammer who monitors the blockchain continuously and transfer any funds out directly after they arrived.

[Delphinus]

You should NEVER ever give your PRIVATE KEY to anyone especially if you don't know what you're trying to do and in any conditions. Even if they said that they will give you $1M. This is clearly a scam. No one will ever buy PRIVATE KEY from anyone they can create one in several websites. You should protect it like your password. PASSWORD is like PRIVATE KEY and since it is said PRIVATE you should not publicize.

I'm aware of scams that try to get your private key. In this case, the scammer actually sends out his/her own private key on purpose. That part was a first for me.