https://bitcoinvanitygen.com - not samr7 vanitygen

[NotATether]

As a sort of off-topic but related to this, you should be generating segwit compatible vanity addresses now. Look around the forum for them. They spit out addresses that start with bc1 or 3.

I don't use them anymore as much, I just stick to random ones. You can have seed words for those too.

If the private keys you have begin with a 5, then your software will work, but it is outdated. Compressed private keys begin with L or K, but any address that begins with a 1 is also a legacy address.

There are some more restricted characters that can't be used when generating bc1 addresses: 0, O, l (lowercase L), I (uppercase I); those four are expected because they're not in base58, but also, 1, b, i, o can't be inside a bc1 vanity address according to 1miau:

Nested SegWit (3...) has to start with an uppercase letter or a number. For example 3Fery works but 3fery not.
Native SegWit (bc1q...) has some more "restrictions" and in addition to O, 0, I and l the letters / numbers 1 (except the 1 in bc1q), b, i and o won't work. So sad that I can't create bc1qmiau... 

3 vanity address can't start with a lowercase letter, and I asked about this, and the reply I got is it also can only have prefixes between 31h1 and 3R2c, so 3111 and 3SSS are also invalid segwit prefixes to search for.

So I think that is why people still generate legacy addresses even though they have higher fees, because there are less restricted characters.

[MoparMiningLLC]

no progress - I am at a roadblock - I don't know anything that can be done with expending more $ than I lost already. I will file a loss on my taxes and hopefully recoup it that way.

and the guy who first mentioned the site years ago here on the forums (but never used that address he created) is still showing up here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=303026

[krogoth]

Man...what a story. Why not report him to the FBI cyber crime unit?? https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber

  Try and buy a Mycelium Entropy for key generation and an airgapped computer that only you will ever use.

[MoparMiningLLC]

Man...what a story. Why not report him to the FBI cyber crime unit?? https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber

  Try and buy a Mycelium Entropy for key generation and an airgapped computer that only you will ever use.

I did file a report - not sure if it will go anywhere.

and my set up was an airgapped laptop - he just wasn't using it. I now do all the key generation - will not trust anyone else again.

[krogoth]

Man...what a story. Why not report him to the FBI cyber crime unit?? https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber

  Try and buy a Mycelium Entropy for key generation and an airgapped computer that only you will ever use.

I did file a report - not sure if it will go anywhere.

and my set up was an airgapped laptop - he just wasn't using it. I now do all the key generation - will not trust anyone else again.

    I agree...you cannot leave this in other peoples hands for sure. I even pulled out my wifi card from my laptop to make sure no signal will ever be picked up.

    I am always paranoid of something or someone infiltrating my laptop.

    And I do hope they go after this scum of a person. Over the years i imagine he has stolen BTC valued in the thousands of $$

[MoparMiningLLC]

Man...what a story. Why not report him to the FBI cyber crime unit?? https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber

  Try and buy a Mycelium Entropy for key generation and an airgapped computer that only you will ever use.

I did file a report - not sure if it will go anywhere.

and my set up was an airgapped laptop - he just wasn't using it. I now do all the key generation - will not trust anyone else again.

    I agree...you cannot leave this in other peoples hands for sure. I even pulled out my wifi card from my laptop to make sure no signal will ever be picked up.

    I am always paranoid of something or someone infiltrating my laptop.

    And I do hope they go after this scum of a person. Over the years i imagine he has stolen BTC valued in the thousands of $$

the pc we set up is never online, has never been online, and never  will be online.  With just counting the addresses affected on the few transactions that involved my 21 addresses - there were hundreds of other addresses where funds were taken. He went all out this time and then shut the site down.

[NotATether]

I’m glad that shitty site is down now, but watch out for any new ones just like it that pop up, I found this one about a week ago: ~link killed~

Their method of delivery reeks of insecurity.

Safety is our top priority. Upon completion of your address generation, our system will automatically send it to your email.
We have no access to your keys because the entire process is encrypted, fully automatic and excludes all traces of generation.

Nobody should be sending private keys over plain-text email. At the very least, they should encrypt it with the customer's PGP key. (And if you're not giving vanity generators like this a way to encrypt your keys, then why the heck are you using one in the first place?)

The whole process is definitely not encrypted, because eventually the key is output from samr7 vanitygen in plaintext at some point.

Seriously, people who are trusting others give them private keys better read the fine print like this and use their brain to check if anything is done unsafely.

[LoyceV]

watch out for any new ones just like it that pop up, I found this one about a week ago: http://vanitygenSCAMbitcoinSCAM.net/

If you're worried about the site, why do you provide them with such a nice backlink to increase their search engine ranking?
Please edit and break up the URL:

Code:

[url=http://vanitygenSCAMbitcoinSCAM.net/]http://vanitygen[b][color=red]SCAM[/color][/b]bitcoin[b][color=red]SCAM[/color][/b].net/[/url][/quote]

~snip~

Kill the link please.

Their method of delivery reeks of insecurity.

There's no "insecurity", email is the least of the problem. It's a lie to mask their scam for gullible people. Any offer for a vanity addy that doesn't use a split key is a scam.

Split key:

Instructions
I can just create an address, and send you the private key. This means you have to trust me, my computer, my cat, both our email clients, and by definition it can no longer be used for cold storage. So let's not. Instead, use split key:
Step 1: Goto https://www.bitaddress.org/ move your mouse/type in the field until it shows 100% and wait a second.
Step 1.5: Optional but highly recommended. Download the page, verify the download and run it locally^*.
Step 2: Click Vanity Wallet click the Generate button next to Generate your "Step1 Key Pair"
Step 3: Reply to this thread with your public key and the prefix for your address. Save the private key somewhere safe. You will need it later when I generated your partial private key. Also, let me know if your preferred prefix is case sensitive, or any case is okay (the latter is much faster)
Step 4: Once you received your partial private key, go back to bitaddress.org and click on Vanity Wallet.
Step 5: Go to step 2 Calculate your vanity wallet. In the first field put the private key you saved and in the second field put the partial private key I gave you. Click Add and Calculate Vanity Wallet
Step 6: Copy the Vanity Private Key (WIF) and import it into your preferred wallet.
Credits to shorena for most of these instructions!
If something doesn't work as expected, have a look at this example.

[MoparMiningLLC]

and that is why I run the vanitygen on an offline computer, the keys are printed and adhered to the physical item and covered with a holo - at no time are the keys saved on the computer or are they emailed/transmitted in any fashion.

the whole issue that started this thread for me was my partner skipped all of the above steps and used a website instead because it was easier/faster. when it comes to keys, do not take the easy/fast way.

You either need to trust the person creating the physical item and the address or you need to do it exactly as LoyceV has pointed out.

[malevolent]

If (low) speed is a concern, since this is what seems to have led to going for shortcuts, use samr7's oclvanitygen if you have an AMD GPU, or Jean_Luc's VanitySearch if you have an nVidia GPU. I prefer the latter nowadays, but it only uses CUDA instead of OpenCL so use whatever does its job.

[MoparMiningLLC]

If (low) speed is a concern, since this is what seems to have led to going for shortcuts, use samr7's oclvanitygen if you have an AMD GPU, or Jean_Luc's VanitySearch if you have an nVidia GPU. I prefer the latter nowadays, but it only uses CUDA instead of OpenCL so use whatever does its job.

i am using samr7's - that was what the shop was set up to do, he just wanted to go faster so used that damn scam site.

[MoparMiningLLC]

to update:

looks like he has a new website -

http:// vanitygenbitcoin . net/ (added spaces as I dont want an actual active link to the bullshit site)

this site was just registered on 6/29/2020
but at the bottom it states "2014-2021" -- so my guess is that it is the same guy just with a new domain...


also this person appears to have quite a bit of background looking into the site

https://ushertechs.com/the-bitcoinvanitygen-scam

[UsherTechs]

also this person appears to have quite a bit of background looking into the site

https://ushertechs.com/the-bitcoinvanitygen-scam

Hey thanks for the shout out man, I appreciate it. I’m not on here very often but I just wanted you to know that the scammer’s “new” site is also offline now, so perhaps authorities yanked it or he just gave up. Either way, I’m glad and it shows that being vocal about it wasn’t completely in vain. Now I just wish they’d actually catch the rat behind it all. Maybe in time, as bitcoin becomes taken more seriously and cyberforensics improve.

[MoparMiningLLC]

as a note - the scammer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=303026 still comes to the forums (last was about 2 weeks ago) though has not posted since 2021.

and there is a "new" vanitygen website - vanitygen. net - I do not recommend using it.