Trust No One

[kaoD]

don't trust online wallet services

I wish more people heard that.

I see advanced users giving advice to newbies such as "use them, it's simpler and works fine!". I try to tell people to avoid that advice but... it's everywhere!

Even for low volume wallets it's a risk I'm not going to take.

[OfekA]

good to know BTC

[securityguy]

Which is risky'r an online bitcoin wallet or a mainstream bank (think cyprus)?

[servvs]

I like this post, and now I am going to be contacting my vps and vpd providers to never accept a request for a password change through my email. Does anyone have a good idea of how to protect your other accounts such as these? Maybe I could tell them to only abide by a request when they call me and I answer the phone and answer a security question? I'm not sure it would be very easy to hijack a call but I know they could spoof my id so maybe this would be the best bet. At the same time a fisher could gain access to my security question answer by pretending to be my hosting provider and say, "We have detected a possible intrusion and think it would be wise to change your password, can you answer your security question so we can rectify the situation." Or something along those lines. Anyone have any better ideas?

[vleroybrown]

I was spoofed for 13 BTC in my new sellers account on silkroad off a torwiki site.  Just wanted to exchange silver coins for BTC there

[virtualmaster]

Trust only in Satoshi.

[AHA8]

nice comic.

[Fiery Winds]

If you don't know if you can trust someone, stop and ask around.  Don't put your money on the line on a hunch that "things should be fine".  There are a lot of startup scams looking to take your money, and given that legit sites are popping up as well, it can be hard to tell the difference. 

[deadweasel]

I was spoofed for 13 BTC in my new sellers account on silkroad off a torwiki site.  Just wanted to exchange silver coins for BTC there

What exactly happened?

[aslam645]

A lot of people will learn this the hard way with BTC, especially as more and more ordinary Joes start using it.

[deadweasel]

A lot of people will learn this the hard way with BTC, especially as more and more ordinary Joes start using it.

That's why this thread is here.  If you want to put a chunk of your money somewhere new, you'd better do your research and discover all possible points of failure.  Then protect against them using a COLD WALLET and TRUST NO ONE.

Use Escrow if needed, use it from a TRUSTED MEMBER that has a good WoT rating (this is arguable, I know, but every little bit helps), and make sure there are no questions from any of the 3 parties before starting a transaction.

Good luck people.  Stay safe and read up on everything. 

[aslam12675]

I'm good at that most of the time, but when I slip up !!!!

[aslam174523498]

Thanks for this.

[Nito]

Is there not a whitelist here, where people who have made a succesful transaction name eachother?

[bdebruin]

A lot of people will learn this the hard way with BTC, especially as more and more ordinary Joes start using it.

Is ripple more or less secure?

[agento2]

Is there not a whitelist here, where people who have made a succesful transaction name eachother?

Wouldn't scammers just then vouch for each other?

[janez]

Beware of many frauds selling virtual stuff for btcs

[laura2010]

I guess Skype is an awesome way of communication and to gain trust. That's why I guess good traders should make it public.

[Dxx]

Any advice on these marketplaces:

• Vircurex;
• Bitcoin-24;
• Mt.Gox?

Also, are there mining pools to stay away from? (Right now I'm getting acquainted with Slush's pool, Mt.Red, Triplemining, Eligius, Bitpenny, ABCpool.)
I'm fairly new with Bitcoin the mining and so on, you see.

[petersodm]

Thanks for the info