How to avoid getting scammed of your bitcoin (for newbies)

[gmdever]

I recently had someone try to hack me, and they almost succeeded; thus I'm making this simple guide-by a newbie,  for newbies.

#1,  Check which address you're sending to:
This should seem obvious but it wasn't completely to me.  I almost got scammed recently because I had downloaded and ran malware that swapped the bitcoin address I was sending to.  The variant I got made the change very visible, but there might be types of this malware that can change it right as you paste it.

#2, Keep your BTC secure:
Do not use a web wallet to store most of your funds,  it may be convenient,  but if a hacker manages to get your login AND sim swaps you they will be lost.
I use electrum to store my funds,  it's very simple still, and I get to keep my private keys.  I keep my bitcoins on two computers.  One never touches the internet or has anything downloaded on it and the other one I keep very little bitcoin on.  I also have a backup of the wallet on the cold storage computer on a flash drive that's encrypted.

#3, Don't fall for those Ponzi's:
I've seen too many people advertising ways to get 8% a day or 900% a year and such.  Just don't invest your bitcoin in anything way too good to be true.  It should seem clear,  but I've seen a lot of comments proving it isn't to all.

[1714599062]

1714599062

[Velkro]

Its good that you try to help and its good that you apprently wrote it yourself but...
For me its too generic to actually earn merit and actually help someone. There are already guides here about security in general but covering topic deeply and accurately.

[gmdever]

Its good that you try to help and its good that you apprently wrote it yourself but...
For me its too generic to actually earn merit and actually help someone. There are already guides here about security in general but covering topic deeply and accurately.

Thank you for your consideration.  Yes,  there are many guides here and a lot go into more detail.  I thought this simple one might be helpful for my fellow newbies though!

Great content for a start! Keep helping people! Number 1 seems simple, but it can easily be not noticed. A simple checking of the address can help a lot.

Thank you and you're right.  I was probably going to fall for it if I wasn't thinking on my feet a bit there.  Hadn't heard of it before it actually happened to me.

[joniboini]

#2, Keep your BTC secure:
Do not use a web wallet to store most of your funds,  it may be convenient,  but if a hacker manages to get your login AND sim swaps you they will be lost.

You should add more point to this. Don't ever use exchange wallet to store your funds. Some newbies do that and I'm not surprised to see that almost new user from my country do this. Exchange wallet was never made to act like a personal wallet, it's just a temporary address which exchanges provide for their users to deposit their funds and trade.

The risk of using exchange wallet (which some of them called a web wallet) is that you were never in control of your BTC. No private key, not your BTC.

[naska21]

snip

And #4, don't tell anybody you own  bitcoins, otherwise you could  risk losing' all of them due to  both social and "physical" engineering methods (if applied) that make you valnurable. Friend of mine gave up all that he had after physical abuse was used towards him.

[The Cryptovator]

There is lot of topic about hack wallet with more information. OP just post generic point that I think almost newbie aware about that. OP doesn't add anything new. However, its might be reminder post. Not bad remind again and again, so that people's will more aware. And obviously OP should try to post something unique.

[nngella]

I tried also making a guideline before.

These are some of major concerns for newbies:
1. Note that your ETH Address is different from your Private Key
2 How to get your bitcointalk profile
3. What is ERC20 ETH wallet


Especially the number 1!
Many newbies give their private keys instead of their ETH address

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I love the fact you tried to be original not coping someone's else work but this type of topic have been repeated numerous times and me meriting your post will just encourage others to duplicate what you have just done.
I do hate the fact you only made this post after you tried using other people post to earn yourself some merit and was declined also immediately after creating this post you went right back to the thread to update a link to you post and from you account activities it seems you're focus more on service related discussion well welcome to Beginner and help board. You have to do more than this if you desire to earn some merit to your account.

[nakamura12]

#1,  Check which address you're sending to:
This should seem obvious but it wasn't completely to me.  I almost got scammed recently because I had downloaded and ran malware that swapped the bitcoin address I was sending to.  The variant I got made the change very visible, but there might be types of this malware that can change it right as you paste it.

About what you have experienced when pasting different wallet address that is not what you have copied from the start and it's really not your wallet address that you wanted to send some btc. There is a malware like that can switch what you have copied just like what you experienced. Actually, that kind of malware that switch the wallet address you copy to a different wallet address is called Clipboard Hijacking that target your browser's clipboard. More information about that malware can be found in the following links below https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/03/new-malware-highjacks-your-windows-clipboard-to-change-crypto-addresses/
and definition about these clipboard attacks can be found in the link below.
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/26419/clipboard-hijacking-attack.

[okala]

I have hard several cases like this before where malware change the address you pest in you receiver's column on your wallet, but I guest this is popular with web wallet and that is why we are always advice to use hardware wallet to store our large found.

[BitBustah]

snip

And #4, don't tell anybody you own  bitcoins, otherwise you could  risk losing' all of them due to  both social and "physical" engineering methods (if applied) that make you valnurable. Friend of mine gave up all that he had after physical abuse was used towards him.

No reason to live your life in fear.  All those public crypto figures and none of them get attacked or kidnapped.  The chance of those things happening is so slim that its not worth living your life as a hermit.  Go out and be who you truly are to the world.

[ranman09]

snip

And #4, don't tell anybody you own  bitcoins, otherwise you could  risk losing' all of them due to  both social and "physical" engineering methods (if applied) that make you valnurable. Friend of mine gave up all that he had after physical abuse was used towards him.

No reason to live your life in fear.  All those public crypto figures and none of them get attacked or kidnapped.  The chance of those things happening is so slim that its not worth living your life as a hermit.  Go out and be who you truly are to the world.

Well, I guess because those public figures can really afford security. If you're a simple person holding some money better keep the amount to yourself. I think it will be good if we keep it that way.

[GreatArkansas]

#3, Don't fall for those Ponzi's:
I've seen too many people advertising ways to get 8% a day or 900% a year and such.  Just don't invest your bitcoin in anything way too good to be true.  It should seem clear,  but I've seen a lot of comments proving it isn't to all.

Additional those ICO which are totally scam, just like what happened in 2017-2018 which a lot of people conducted their ICO and most of them are not legit like copy-paste whitepapers, fake team members, roadmaps are trash.
Also, check this guide on how to spot a scammer: [EDU] How to spot a scammer (Read this before doing any transactions!)

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> Well, I guess because those public figures can really afford security. If you're a simple person holding some money better keep the amount to yourself. I think it will be good if we keep it that way.

I’m with you on this one. When the amount of crypto that you hold start to amount to something meaningful, it is an unnecessary risk making the amount known to third parties. Blabbing it out loud voluntarily, or being doxed by others has put quite a few on a tight rope before.

[nakamura12]

As what they have said do not live your life in fear even if you almost got scam and become a victim yourself because no matter what scheme that the scammer can think there is always a prevention or a way to prevent it from happening and the person behind the scheme did also know that it can be prevented and they mqay succeed or failed just like the Clipboard Hijacking so all they have to do is to find a person with less knowledge about the scheme they plan to use.

[jossiel]

Add to #2 that you can also have an option to buy a hardware wallet. It's most preferred of those that has the availability to buy it. Security isn't expensive if you are protecting your funds wholly.

And #4, don't tell anybody you own  bitcoins, otherwise you could  risk losing' all of them due to  both social and "physical" engineering methods (if applied) that make you valnurable. Friend of mine gave up all that he had after physical abuse was used towards him.

Good point.

With those news that I've read about a bitcoin enthusiast robbed physically and those robbers got into his house. There's a tendency that he boastfully announced that he owned a lot of bitcoin, stay quiet and relax.

[traderethereum]

I already saw #1 in my friend laptop, and I see with my eye when he shows me an example to send some bits.
He adds another wallet in the recipient address, and then the address was change by itself, and I see that is happening.
But if he writes down the letter by himself, the address will not change so he can send it to the correct address.
In the end, my friend bought a new laptop, and he says goodbye the old one, thank you for your support so far.

[Siren]

Its good that you try to help and its good that you apprently wrote it yourself but...
For me its too generic to actually earn merit and actually help someone. There are already guides here about security in general but covering topic deeply and accurately.

Even that there are topics created for security in general still newbies need to see more often something like this.we know that newbies don’t have enough knowledge how to find each created topics years ago .maybe this is generic but for noobs this is a good tools to help them out and prevent from being a victim

As what they have said do not live your life in fear even if you almost got scam and become a victim yourself because no matter what scheme that the scammer can think there is always a prevention or a way to prevent it from happening and the person behind the scheme did also know that it can be prevented and they mqay succeed or failed just like the Clipboard Hijacking so all they have to do is to find a person with less knowledge about the scheme they plan to use.

Right and also just make it a learning lesson to move on and have more security in future,OP is lucky because he didn’t become a victim and we must be thankful as he was concerned about others like him as newbie

[anu1908]

I already saw #1 in my friend laptop, and I see with my eye when he shows me an example to send some bits.
He adds another wallet in the recipient address, and then the address was change by itself, and I see that is happening.
But if he writes down the letter by himself, the address will not change so he can send it to the correct address.
In the end, my friend bought a new laptop, and he says goodbye the old one, thank you for your support so far.

that's really overkill. if you were attacked by malware like that, either you need to remove the malware or do a clean install. buying a laptop just because your previous laptop was attacked is not really a good solution imo.

imagine spending $200 while you can simply do a re-install for 30 minutes without spending any money at all.

[pixie85]

I already saw #1 in my friend laptop, and I see with my eye when he shows me an example to send some bits.
He adds another wallet in the recipient address, and then the address was change by itself, and I see that is happening.
But if he writes down the letter by himself, the address will not change so he can send it to the correct address.
In the end, my friend bought a new laptop, and he says goodbye the old one, thank you for your support so far.

that's really overkill. if you were attacked by malware like that, either you need to remove the malware or do a clean install. buying a laptop just because your previous laptop was attacked is not really a good solution imo.

imagine spending $200 while you can simply do a re-install for 30 minutes without spending any money at all.

I've learned to verify each transaction after reading about this malware. Every experienced trader does this and it doesn't even take much time. After pasting the address you just check again the first and the last 3 or 4 letters and you're done.

There's a good rule of thumb. If you hold money somewhere be sure to invest 1% of it into security. If it's your computer buy a good antivirus software and get a spare detachable drive where you'll hold copies.