Bitcoin fraud victim,75, loses £11k in life savings! Secure your BTC just now!

[Tduty]

BBC reported that a 75-year-old woman is warning others of the dangers of an online scam that has cost her her life savings. She lost 11K EURO!! You can see the news from here, https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-devon-51205126

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

[mk4]

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

From the article: "Frances Foster, from Plymouth, lost £11,000 to a bogus Bitcoin company she saw promising high returns."

To be fair, even if she had the safest hardware wallet in the entire world, she would have still be scammed as she sent the money voluntarily. Heck, the article didn't even mention anything about her holding or sending in bitcoin. Probably read the article first?

[P_Shep]

Yeah, I get the impression that at no point was any bitcoin actually involved.

[Darooghe]

In my earlier crypto days I did the same thing. Was so embarrassing, felt so stupid immediately after I fell for it. I'm a very computer savvy, but greed overrode my sense of "this is a scam". I sent like 1.5 BTC to the scammer though. This was back when BTC was around $750, so it was less USD-wise, but it sure would be nice to have that 1.5 BTC, plus all the forks, now. Honestly, I learned a lot that day, and I'm sure we learned a lot today. stay vigilant out here. Everyone makes dumb mistakes in Crypto, it's all part of the learning experience.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

I mean, yes, web wallets are terrible, but as pointed out above, even an airgapped wallet makes no difference if you are voluntarily sending your coins to a scammer.

The site was called "LTC Markets", so was presumably actually advertising Litecoin rather than Bitcoin? And no bitcoin was involved - she made transfers from her bank. Calling it "Bitcoin fraud" is a bit of a stretch to say the least. Are the BBC usually this poor?

[BrewMaster]

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

i am not sure how hardware wallets are related to this incident since it was a personal mistake and was about trusting random websites with pretty designs.
but i have to say, hardware  wallet is not the only way to go. basically people need to learn how bitcoin works and how to secure their private keys. this is mainly about cold storage and HWs are for special cases where people want to keep accessing their coins and mainly carry it around or maybe connect it to a system that may be compromised and use their coins.

[DdmrDdmr]

LTC-Markets apparently offered accounts that invested in BTC and/or ETH and/or LTC, offering hourly returns of up to 85% … I mean which old grandmother can resist a call from them right?

Their site does not even seem to be online now, and the following link bears some testimonials to similar cases at the same place: https://www.forexbrokerz.com/brokers/ltc-markets-review

They probably never even had any crypto at any point in time - likely just fake ledger balance sheets.

[manbitcoinlover]

honestly this is just sad to see. I hate scams who prey on the weak and poor. This old grandma probably did not know much about BTC and since she is an elder was tricked easily. I really do not understand some people, how can they be so soulless and evil to scam like this. Honestly, 11k pounds is not that much, but still not good.

[TimtheYoutuber]

She invested in an obvious scam. Hardwares are certainly worth it though if you care about the money you are holding.

[Ucy]

BBC reported that a 75-year-old woman is warning others of the dangers of an online scam that has cost her her life savings. She lost 11K EURO!! You can see the news from here, https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-devon-51205126

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent!  

I am not sure if the coin was stolen from her wallet. I think she voluntarily gave the it to the firm.
Wish the bbc site listed the name of the scam company/site... that will probably help readers  understand the nature of scam. Besides, the site where the woman found the scam site advertisement shouldn't have allowed the ad in the first place.

[iamaruf]

what is related to hardware wallet with this news. If you invest your own money then what will do online wallet or hardware wallet?  He invested his money in scam sites and he lost his money.In this case there is no issue about using wallet. Better peoples should know which is scam and which is legit.       

[ChrisPop]

Hackers' tactics and abilities must evolve over time so they keep up with the innovations in the antivirus and protection software. If we don't remain updated about the latest practices and don't make the minimum necessary effort to keep our belongings safe then we shouldn't be suprised if we lose them. The world is full of mischievous people and some will attempt to steal from us one way or another. Be safe out there!

[Vishnu.Reang]

BBC reported that a 75-year-old woman is warning others of the dangers of an online scam that has cost her her life savings. She lost 11K EURO!! You can see the news from here, https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-devon-51205126

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

Hey OP, your post makes no sense. She invested in a scam, and that is the reason she lost her savings. When I first saw the title of the thread, I though someone had hacked the poor lady's online wallet and stole all her coins. But that is not the case. She willingly sent all her coins to some criminal and now there is no way to recover them. And a hardware wallet would have made no difference in this case.

[qiwoman2]

I feel sad that so many people are getting scammed where Bitcoin is concerned. It is not the fault though of Bitcoin. These online scams existed well before Bitcoin came out but the only thing that has changed now is the scammers using Bitcoin instead of Fiat, to generate scams and create fake sites. Also, people want to make fast money without working, which is a passive income source, and too many scammers get into this niche to steal from unsuspecting people.  I think many of us here have been victims of either phishing sites, passive income scams or hackers. If not all three of these, at least from one of these nasty elements that plague this niche, or the earn money online niche at large. The scammers prey on all of us, all the time, we need to be more vigilant. Just don't invest in HYIP scams period.

[dothebeats]

As always, bitcoin being the evil in here when clearly it is the naivety of those involved are to be blamed. As the saying goes, if something is too good to be true, it certainly is. Greed certainly urged the old lady to bite at the offer without thinking about it, more so about considering the fact that it could be a fraud all in all. We all know that these types of scams target the elderly for the most part so why not take extra caution about it?

Even if the lady has the latest and greatest hardware wallet, if she initiated the transaction, there's no turning back from that one. Welp, a hefty sum to be charged on 'experience' I'd say.

[Artemis3]

BBC reported that a 75-year-old woman is warning others of the dangers of an online scam that has cost her her life savings. She lost 11K EURO!! You can see the news from here, https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-devon-51205126

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

Indeed a hardware wallet has nothing to do with anything if you willingly send your funds to a scammer.

Actually you have to re-evaluate what the meaning of a hardware wallet is, do you think its "protection"? Think again. A hardware wallet should be used for small amounts, instead of your smartphone or pc, that's it. Long term holding should be done in a cold wallet, and a seed word phrase (which you also make with a hardware wallet) is enough.

Do not use a hardware wallet to store large amounts, that defeats its purpose. Think of it, buy and save? So instead of seed words, you have seed words, password, 2fa? whatever. This was intended for daily use small purchases, so you could just use a password instead.

A cold wallet does not need a physical device, but you always need your seed word phrase to access it in the future or just in case the thing breaks on its own. Normally you just make a wallet and destroy it afterwards in a PC. Why are you wasting a hardware wallet for that? Any piece of paper works, well and the public address if you want to keep sending funds to it.

What is easier to protect, the seed words, or the seed words + password + 2fa + whatever? If anything, the wallet allows more vectors for accessing your funds. So rather than 1, you have to be mindful of 4. Don't even think for a moment that a hardware wallet is replacement for seed words, if you do not make your seed words phrase, you are simply begging to lose your funds, if your device fail or if you lose its password whatever.

You know why people should keep their savings in a piece of paper? Because its precisely annoying to move them. The small change should go into your "hot" wallet, software or hardware only changes the security of the hot wallet, especially if you are unable to use a secure os / smartphone, it is a perfectly valid alternative. But a hardware wallet should not be used as a cold wallet, you can, but that's not unlike using a laptop unplugged stored somewhere like a bank vault or such. No, its not giving you "extra" security, unplugged is unplugged, be it a laptop, a gadget or a piece or paper.

If all you want is a password to access your words, any thumbdrive works, just encrypt a text file. But then you risk if the flash ram gets damaged to lose your funds forever. Not a smart long term plan, same issue as using a hardware wallet or laptop.

[boyptc]

When I have read the article declares "Bitcoin company"; okay here we go again. Another scampany.

She probably have invested to a HYIP because the returns made her encourage to invest there. Sorry for the experience that she had with her life savings but she really has to research first before investing.

[MURONDI]

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

from the news it is very clear that it is not a matter of a hard wallet or online wallet, look at him investing in a fake bitcoin company, even if he uses a hard wallet he will still be fooled because he has sent it to another wallet, So the news warns about online fraud sites not about online wallets.

[sovie]

Guys, don’t think too much to spend 100-150 USD, buy a hardware wallet right now! You are not safe in any online wallet by 100 percent! 

From the article: "Frances Foster, from Plymouth, lost £11,000 to a bogus Bitcoin company she saw promising high returns."

To be fair, even if she had the safest hardware wallet in the entire world, she would have still be scammed as she sent the money voluntarily. Heck, the article didn't even mention anything about her holding or sending in bitcoin. Probably read the article first?

That's correct. there is no defense against human negligence. People lost bitcoin due to there own mistakes and blame bitcoin that its not secure. If you investing in crypto market then you have to be careful against scam projects, its not bitcoin responsibility.

[davis196]

Unfortunately it's way easier for older people to fall victims of such scams.
In my country,there are lots of phone call scammers,threatening old people to just send them money,or they will kill a member of their families.In this case,we are talking about a classical HYIP scam and no person with decent internet skills and knowledge about cryptocurrencies call be trapped into this shit.