[Share]: Someone lost all of his BTC from malicious chrome extension

[Baofeng]

I just want to share the story of a crypto enthusiast who lost all his bitcoin stash because he fell for the malicious chrome extension in Google.

He was a victim of Warning: Fake KeepKey App Phishing Attempts.



https://twitter.com/ericsavics1/status/1271446842979409920

So this is just a reminder to everyone that you really need to be very careful on installing any supposedly chrome apps.

Damn, it's 12 BTC and according to him, it took him 7 years to accumulate it and this money is to supposedly buy him apartment.

[1715142560]

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[pawanjain]

It's not the first time when people have fallen for phishing scams. As a crypto user it's our duty to use crypto wisely.
It's very well known that anybody can create a fake extension and use it to scam others.
If we are not paying attention on the little details, it's a huge risk for us since little mistakes tend to make big losses.

I don't understand why people keep all their savings in one place. If the person would have stored it in different places then he would not have encountered the entire loss.

[Jawhead999]

Well ericsavics is a crypto enthusiasts since 2013, but he still doesn't know how to prevent from phishing attack. Also, hardware wallet never ask to write seed in your PC. The most important thing is you shouldn't only trust the extension if it's listed on Google, because listed on google is not mean the extension is 100% safe, you need to check in their official websites too. It's better to download from their official websites rather than on google.


Anyway this thread has been discussed before Be Careful Fake Keep Key Chrome Extension

[joniboini]

I don't understand why people keep all their savings in one place. If the person would have stored it in different places then he would not have encountered the entire loss.

It will make the backup somewhat difficult to handle and some, if not most people don't really like that. Saving in one place is not bad in general. Getting phished and not doing any due diligence is. What we can learn from this is you should not trust Google always list a good extension (even malware can go past them). And to be honest this is not the firs time.

[supine]

Sadly there isn't a way to recover those hacked Bitcoin it would also be hard to trace those hackers.
And I think he isn't the first and wouldn't be the last to fall victim of this phishing sites or chrome extension.
We should be aware of what we are downloading or visiting specially if we hold a huge amount of crypto don't just click or install anything you want always check if they are safe to use and doesn't have any virus.

[Jating]

It also shows that even though Eric has been in cryptosphere for many years, yet he still look very inexperienced and that is a huge lost for him and I do hope that this will open the eyes of crypto holders to really be very careful in handling their assets.

Unfortunately, we all know that he won't get it back and as saying goes, very expensive lessons to learn. And I do hope that Google will look at their policy regarding chrome extensions being added on your platform. So that it will be a safe place for everyone.

[Japinat]

For investors who has this kind of big amount, it's better have a dedicate computer to access the hard wallet as we never know what program is malicious or not. 12 btc is already a huge amount and will be bigger in the long run as bitcoin is expected to rise, however I won't say that it's the end of his journey in crypto, hopefully he will learn from that and start accumulating again.

but 2013 up now, that really hurts, but that is the reality one needs to accept.  

[thesmallgod]

it is very hard to recover stolen coin. He has probably lost it for life. This is why it is very important to be careful of installing any addon that might compromise your address you want to send coin into. Crypto and blockchain technology is evolving and every day, people are still learning new things or the other and this chrome extension is part of what hackers have developed to steal coin from individuals. The scammers must have used bitcoin mix services and the transaction will be difficult to trace

[ChrisPop]

I feel sorry for the guy, but we should all be more careful with the ways we store and use cryptocurrencies. In a modern world, the new thieves are the hackers and the best defense is to be informed with the latest security practices and I'd say that you can stay safe if you are careful with your internet activity. Double-check everything you click on and what you download.

Moreover, if you possess a significant amount of BTC and any other cryptocurrency I would recommend keeping them on a hardware or paper wallet.

[Blank-Head]

Third Party Chrome extensions are really very harmful to use for your personal data.You should not use these extensions without any verified source.

Anyway This scam tricks aren't new and already many people scammed and lost crypto currencies.

On March 28 Someone lost 14908 XRP( Aprx: 2577 $) because of using a fake ledger wallet extension from the Google Chrome Store.

If you need more details then visit here Fake Ledger Chrome Extensions Continue to Steal Crypto From Victims

So be aware next when you use any Third party chrome extension for your safety.

[kryptqnick]

I just want to share the story of a crypto enthusiast who lost all his bitcoin stash because he fell for the malicious chrome extension in Google.

He was a victim of Warning: Fake KeepKey App Phishing Attempts.



https://twitter.com/ericsavics1/status/1271446842979409920

So this is just a reminder to everyone that you really need to be very careful on installing any supposedly chrome apps.

Damn, it's 12 BTC and according to him, it took him 7 years to accumulate it and this money is to supposedly buy him apartment.

I don't think it's possible for him to get those coins back, but it's really sad he lost them. It's very important to be careful with Bitcoin because there are many ways to lose coins. The only crypto-related Chrome extension I even installed was Metamask. I don't trust extensions and only install those which are very popular and reputable. I've seen such scam before with a casino claiming that one has to install an extension to get the money one won. Frequent hacks and scams is what makes me believe that a crypto insurance could become really popular, but it seems that entrepreneurs are not rushing to fill this market niche.

[davis196]

Yeah,this is awful.Chrome Webstore is full of extensions that aren't safe.I used to use Chrome web browser two years ago,but I had to switch to a Mozilla Firefox browser,so I don't use any extensions or add-ons.
I assume that this guy didn't have some antivirus program installed on his PC.
Never trust browser extensions.It's pretty easy for some scammer to code such malicious extension and upload it on Google Chrome.Activating a Chrome developer account costed $5 one time fee,5 years ago,as far as I remember.

[Wexnident]

Give it up I suppose? I mean, we can all pity him all we want but really, those coins are lost. It's a fact that even though he's had 7 years of experience with Crypto, he still uses third party extensions to store his coins. Sure, the original KeepKey may be nice and all but really, it's that fact that managed to make him elude his notice and well, scam his coins. It's kind of hard to acknowledge Googles mistake here, yes, Google has some kind of responsibility for it since it accepted it as an extension, but it's not the first time Google has done this.

[pooya87]

Thank god I've just bought a hardware wallet and from now on never have to worry about any of this sht

you do realize that the story is actually about someone using a hardware wallet who lost his coins, right? if it isn't clear KeepKey is the name of the hardware wallet he was using.
as i have always warned people, it is dangerous to think you are safe just because you are using a common method of storing your bitcoins. you are only safe when you educate yourself about correct ways of securing your coins and following them.

[Oasisman]

I understand, out of frustrations, he was trying to find a way to recover those stolen Bitcoin, but like the majority is suggesting, It's "almost" impossible to recover those.
I used the word "almost", because at least for the people like me, who aren't that tech savy or a computer wizard, It is impossible to recover stolen Bitcoin.

It's just so heart breaking to hear him speaking in front of a camera https://mobile.twitter.com/ericsavics1/status/1271589769336598528  
He was just trying to add extra layer of security, but It turns out that he has been stripped off from the security that he was looking for.

So, I guess this is gonna be another precautionary event for those who are fond of visiting crypto related websites.
I suggest, asking the community first when you're totally uncertain or having a doubt about a certain website and softwares.

[Vatimins]

     I'm not even surprised anymore to hear another horror story like this happening to fellow crypto currency enthusiasts. This thing happening is so common since I have entered this industry that I can't even count how many stories like this I have encountered. When you get into any thing new which you have never tried or been in before, it is obviously best to test the waters first, learn as much as you can and exercise high caution. This is what many people forget to do or does only for a while and just relaxes too much. Being over worried is better than losing all you have. Just hope this never happens to anyone anymore. This really saddens me.

[serjent05]

I feel sorry for the guy.  Imagine it took him 7 years to accumulate that BTC and just a single mistake, all his BTC savings is gone.  I hope this serve as a lesson not only to him but to us as well.  That, we must stay vigilant at all times.  Never click any suspicious link or install any untrusted chrome extension.

Sadly for him, it is very hard to trace who stolen that Bitcoin and impossible if it went through mixers.

[Molise]

Well ericsavics is a crypto enthusiasts since 2013, but he still doesn't know how to prevent from phishing attack. Also, hardware wallet never ask to write seed in your PC. The most important thing is you shouldn't only trust the extension if it's listed on Google, because listed on google is not mean the extension is 100% safe, you need to check in their official websites too. It's better to download from their official websites rather than on google.


Anyway this thread has been discussed before Be Careful Fake Keep Key Chrome Extension

[Kakmakr]

I think this is why more and more hardware wallet manufacturers and developers are working on their own third party Apps now... and not going for browser extensions anymore. The problem I see with this is the proprietary code being used by these developers. If they use Open source code, people know what they are getting.

I also nearly lost some coin with my Ledger wallet, when a hacker replaced my App with his own fake App. Things looked different and I checked with the site and I saw that there was no updates and that I was running the latest App... so I knew something was fishy. (The about option went to a error message) 

The guy should also not have stored all his coins in one wallet. (very noob mistake)

[sunsilk]

That's a lot already for me and I don't know how to react if I'll be that guy. One reason to refrain downloading extensions that you don't know. Check the official website of your hardware wallets if they support extensions but mostly, they don't.

Thank god I've just bought a hardware wallet and from now on never have to worry about any of this sht

The guy bought a hardware wallet named KeepKey which is also a good choice. But he fell for a wrong and fake app which he thought that it's an official google extension.

Ledger also keeps on reminding everyone through their subreddit regarding these phishing websites and fake google extensions. They have a note that they are not asking for our recovery phrases.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ledgerwallet/comments/ck6o44/be_careful_phishing_attacks_in_progress/