2018 Crypto theft overview

[tesco]

[OmegaStarScream]

I don't know what is sadder, the losses or the fact that these thefts could've been easily avoided If only people took some basic security measurements.

[Potato Chips]

Pretty sure its gonna be way way more than the estimated amount. Just the ICO's and ponzi schemes alone can prove that, as there's tons of them, not to mention that there are other types of thefts too where lots of them are not even that well known to be put in articles.

If you don't wanna be the next victim, prevention is better than cure.

[Steamtyme]

I'd be interested to know if the Value of loss was based on it's going rate at the time, or when the stats were being gathered. If it's at the time then 2018 being 50% more than all other years combined makes sense.

Sadly we are already on an early start for Jan/Feb, with QuadrigaCX. Probably be a few years before anyone can put an exact number on it.

[magneto]

Main takeaway is that you should never blindly trust centralised exchanges to hold your funds safely. They may claim otherwise and say that they use the best security protocols or whatnot, but ultimately, your coins aren't in your control and you're the one that will be losing funds if anything does go wrong with an exchange's system.

Also, just use your common sense. I can't believe that people are still greedy enough to be investing in ponzis and scam ICOs that are honestly, quite easy to spot. And these are just the major ones - we aren't even accounting for the more minor ones here.

I'd be interested to know if the Value of loss was based on it's going rate at the time, or when the stats were being gathered. If it's at the time then 2018 being 50% more than all other years combined makes sense.

Most likely given that prices were significantly less in previous years.

[bL4nkcode]

[...]

Don't actually get what you're saying. But the fact that having strong passwords are not enough for security if the whole platform/site you used has been hacked. It's about choosing platform/websites/exchange/wallet to use that we trust.

Also, just use your common sense. I can't believe that people are still greedy enough to be investing in ponzis and scam ICOs that are honestly, quite easy to spot.

Addition for those who still use new exchange that are actually scam.

[1Referee]

I don't know what is sadder, the losses or the fact that these thefts could've been easily avoided If only people took some basic security measurements.

Ah, well, people have to be reminded of how unsafe/unfair the real world is, and thefts/hacks/scams are part of that.

The problem that people here struggle with is that they believe that because we're further in time, exchanges are subjected to more regulations, that they're safe and sound, but that's obviously not the case. Coinbase is the perfect example of how one single exchange managed to obtain so much of people's trust, that they hold almost 900,000BTC in their cold wallets, and then they have a giant stack of hot wallet coins.

What happens with trust as time goes by? It breaks one way or another.

[nc50lc]

"Electrum Hack $900k" just for December 2018?
Then the recent Phishing Scam ("Hack" isn't the right term IMO) of some malicious servers will easily make it to $1.3mil+.
Don't know how much was stolen but if you've checked the destination address(es), you'll notice that it had been consolidated to a lot of addresses with 30/40BTC each.

Like this address: bc1qhsrl6ywvwx44zycz2tylpexza4xvtqkv6d903q (could be an exchange or mixer address, don't use as evidence/reference)

[magneto]

Also, just use your common sense. I can't believe that people are still greedy enough to be investing in ponzis and scam ICOs that are honestly, quite easy to spot.

Addition for those who still use new exchange that are actually scam.

Indeed. This raises an interesting point because I do see a lot of people that love to just go out there and use whatever exchange they find, and also use new, unproven exchanges. They seem to just use whatever they find off google.

A lot of these exchanges do exit scam, go rogue, or get hacked as a matter of time, and since they are new and unregulated, and support is generally completely nonexistent there is no recourse that anyone scammed is able to take. But this can be easily avoided - people just keep making the same mistakes.

And the thing is that these losses aren't even included because of the high amount of coins that are stuck in limbo this way. It's impossible to even estimate given the scale of the problem.

[Botnake]

"Electrum Hack $900k" just for December 2018?
Then the recent Phishing Scam ("Hack" isn't the right term IMO) of some malicious servers will easily make it to $1.3mil+.
Don't know how much was stolen but if you've checked the destination address(es), you'll notice that it had been consolidated to a lot of addresses with 30/40BTC each.

Like this address: bc1qhsrl6ywvwx44zycz2tylpexza4xvtqkv6d903q (could be an exchange or mixer address, don't use as evidence/reference)

Just today I was a victim of this one. the same address above where my BTC goes.
You can check my address - https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/158BpFWP32CU1wv54Rm2NqKGosFLvZbacd


I was transacting today using my electrum desktop wallet (electrum-3.3.2) but I count not proceed because  it prompt that I should update and go to this site -https://www.myelectrum.org, so since the message was shown in the app that I was using without a problem so I trusted it.

Next, I downloaded the " Windows Installer (signature) " it showed a file name ( electrum-4.0.0-setup.exe) and them installed it.

Afterwards I open the electrum app, then proceed to transact, actually I entered the right address but when I send it, it does not prompt to ask password like the old ones, so I was thinking, it could be because of the new update... then check the blockchain and to my dismay I have not seen my transaction which suppose to be instant.

So, I checked the history in my electrum app and saw that I sent it to the address " bc1qhsrl6ywvwx44zycz2tylpexza4xvtqkv6d903q " as you can see in the blockchain explorer link.



This is real, I hope everyone would read this so they will see this as a warning, they have to be careful, luckily I did not transact a higher amount.

So guys, what I should do now? Do I have to uninstall the new one I installed and then just install the old one? What if it will prompt again that I cannot transact?

[milewilda]

This is real, I hope everyone would read this so they will see this as a warning, they have to be careful, luckily I did not transact a higher amount.

So guys, what I should do now? Do I have to uninstall the new one I installed and then just install the old one? What if it will prompt again that I cannot transact?

I dont know if that myelectrum.org is real but i do only always prefer with https://electrum.org when it comes to download. About that patch or update its already been announced into this forum

You can read up here for more info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2702103.0

[TryNinja]

So guys, what I should do now? Do I have to uninstall the new one I installed and then just install the old one? What if it will prompt again that I cannot transact?

Yeah... there is no Electrum 4.0 and this is a fake website. You should definitely do a clean reinstall of your OS and create a brand new wallet. Both are probably compromised. You should always only download Electrum from their official website (ELECTRUM.ORG) and always double check the file you're downloading.

The fake messages were fixed in the latest version. If you can't transact because of the malicious server, you should just change the server and try again.

I dont know if that myelectrum.org is real but i do only always prefer with https://electrum.org when it comes to download. About that patch or update its already been announced into this forum

You can read up here for more info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2702103.0

The ONLY website Electrum has is ELECTRUM.ORG;

[peonminer]

I'm surprised to see 3 51% attacks on there. It's like there's a literal Dr. Evil out there, waiting, plotting, looking to destroy and profit from the next coin they can.

[Botnake]

So guys, what I should do now? Do I have to uninstall the new one I installed and then just install the old one? What if it will prompt again that I cannot transact?

Yeah... there is no Electrum 4.0 and this is a fake website. You should definitely do a clean reinstall of your OS and create a brand new wallet. Both are probably compromised. You should always only download Electrum from their official website (ELECTRUM.ORG) and always double check the file you're downloading.

The fake messages were fixed in the latest version. If you can't transact because of the malicious server, you should just change the server and try again.

Lesson learned, I was in a hurry so I was not able to check if the website was proper, the prompt looks real to me as it's their app and I never installed any app in my pc. Just uninstalled the fake app now and reinstall the old, tried one transaction and worked, so I guess I don't need to reformat my PC.

I have my files in my computer like a txt file and excel where I put some of my private key in MEW, is there any chance my information within the file will be stolen?

You can read up here for more info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2702103.0

It was mentioned in the link it's 3.0.5 but the in the site the latest update is Latest release: Electrum-3.3.4 , so I should download the latest?

[nc50lc]

It was mentioned in the link it's 3.0.5 but the in the site the latest update is Latest release: Electrum-3.3.4 , so I should download the latest?

Yes, the latest or at least v3.3.3.
That link (Thread) was old and was there since the release of the vulnerable version, that's why the suggested version was outdated.

The latest release is 3.3.4 from electrum.org. Any other site (except Github.com/spesmilo/electrum) is fake as mentioned in the official site:

Do not download Electrum upgrades from any another source than electrum.org.

[Botnake]

It was mentioned in the link it's 3.0.5 but the in the site the latest update is Latest release: Electrum-3.3.4 , so I should download the latest?

Yes, the latest or at least v3.3.3.
That link (Thread) was old and was there since the release of the vulnerable version, that's why the suggested version was outdated.

The latest release is 3.3.4 from electrum.org. Any other site (except Github.com/spesmilo/electrum) is fake as mentioned in the official site:

Do not download Electrum upgrades from any another source than electrum.org.

Got it, already installed the correct one, I hope this mistake will not happen again.
I guess there's a lot of victims today, OP in this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5114712.new#new also lost about £100 in btc .

[tesco]

2019 hacked list also big
and binance already joined .

[Botnake]

2019 hacked list also big
and binance already joined .

First major theft for this year? Binance lost $40 million dollars with the recent hack and I hope all exchanges will have SAFU fund to cover the loses.
source : https://www.coindesk.com/binance-may-consider-bitcoin-rollback-following-40-million-hack

[cfolo]

2019 hacked list also big
and binance already joined .

First major theft for this year? Binance lost $40 million dollars with the recent hack and I hope all exchanges will have SAFU fund to cover the loses.
source : https://www.coindesk.com/binance-may-consider-bitcoin-rollback-following-40-million-hack

this is time to find a good Alternatives to Binance

https://alternativeto.net/software/binance/

[milewilda]

2019 hacked list also big
and binance already joined .

First major theft for this year? Binance lost $40 million dollars with the recent hack and I hope all exchanges will have SAFU fund to cover the loses.
source : https://www.coindesk.com/binance-may-consider-bitcoin-rollback-following-40-million-hack

this is time to find a good Alternatives to Binance

https://alternativeto.net/software/binance/

Good alternative? I wont tend to consider on using up Coinbase.

Ill give those exchangers mentioned on that link
Coinbase
Omgfin Exchange
Bitfinex
CoinEx
SimpleSwap.io
CODEX.ONE
bitqist
Nazca
Troca.Ninja
Crex24

Some are familiar and some are just new and fully unknown.
I didnt even expect that Binance would have that hacking problem suddenly. We wont know if it is just some alibi or pure hacking incident.
This is why i dont trust too much.