Be mindful when making transactions on PC

[The Cryptovator]

Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks to God you didn't loss anything. Yea, it's quite important to check the address multiple times that you copied and that your past. It's not only on PC, hackers could take control of your mobile devices as well. So whatever device you have been using needs to make sure the address is right. I often verify the address multiple times to make sure. I always check the last and first few digits of an address when sending funds. So even there is an attack could notice easily.

[PrivacyG]

I usually check the string character by character before accepting the transaction.  Whenever I am in a hurry or lazy enough to care however, I tend to only check first and last 5 characters plus 4-5 characters from the middle.  I have a question for someone with enough knowledge to provide an accurate answer.  What are the chances I fall under this scam if I verify around 15 characters of the address string, if even possible at all?

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Regards,
PrivacyG

[BernyJB]

Well, I'm kinda paranoid, so I check the whole string like 7 times before accepting it...
And even after that, that waiting period to get the transaction approved is terrible. I guess I'll get used to it after a while, but right now, it really drives me crazy...

[molder555]

This malware you're talking about has also been encountered by my cousin few months back on his laptop. He was about to send some BNB BEP20(Binance Token) to one of his wallets and noticed that the address he pasted has been changed to another address. It is a good thing you also checked the last few characters of the address to confirm it. I also have this practice of confirming the first and last few characters of the address making sure that it was correct, it's better to always double check than lose money. Thank you for sharing!

[TelolettOm]

Yes, this malware is indeed disturbing. Sometimes we are careless and accidentally click on a link and end up losing our set. It is also the world of technology and online, this situation is indeed vulnerable and often happens.
Some hackers send this malware through some links that seem very neat and not suspicious.

Lucky that you can avoid all of this. Hopefully, this will be a valuable experience for you and others too.
This, once more, tells and notices us that we must be more careful everytime going to do something, moreover related to the wallets of our assets, sending any transaction, online wallets, and other activities. It may not only happen to the wallets but also other sensitive data or transaction.

[Lucius]

Well, I'm kinda paranoid, so I check the whole string like 7 times before accepting it...
And even after that, that waiting period to get the transaction approved is terrible. I guess I'll get used to it after a while, but right now, it really drives me crazy...

As many as 7 times and the whole coin address is really a bit paranoid, it is enough to check the first and last 4-5 characters unless you send a transaction that is really valuable. As for the speed of transaction confirmation, you need to learn how to interpret mempool and adjust your fee accordingly if you want your transaction to be confirmed in the next block.

As far as I can see, there were times when you had to pay more for the next block in the last 24 hours, but currently, you can pay the minimum price and get a confirmation in the next block - but again, keep in mind that the time between blocks can sometimes be up to 60 minutes, although this is on average every 10 minutes.

[BernyJB]

As many as 7 times and the whole coin address is really a bit paranoid, it is enough to check the first and last 4-5 characters unless you send a transaction that is really valuable. As for the speed of transaction confirmation, you need to learn how to interpret mempool and adjust your fee accordingly if you want your transaction to be confirmed in the next block.

As far as I can see, there were times when you had to pay more for the next block in the last 24 hours, but currently, you can pay the minimum price and get a confirmation in the next block - but again, keep in mind that the time between blocks can sometimes be up to 60 minutes, although this is on average every 10 minutes.

Yeah, it is.  However, checking just a few characters is a mistake, no matter how you spin it. One character is switched somewhere else, and you lose your funds. It doesn't have to be a hacker, it can just be a mistake. Check it only once, if you like, but check the whole thing.
About block time, thank you, I'll give it a read. In any case, when you're new any delay is a nightmare, and BTC is kinda slow... So, yeah, I'd definitely gonna read a lot more about it. 

[jerry0]

So everyone talks about the copy paste malware on the pc before you send the btc.


Now before you click on send... is it true you only need to take a look at the first few and last few letters of the btc address you are sending to?  People say malware could change it but when they do change it, as long as you look at even the first few letters of the btc address you are sending to, isn't it going to be noticed immediately since its not like they could get the first few letters of the btc address you are sending to the same?

[BernyJB]

So everyone talks about the copy paste malware on the pc before you send the btc.


Now before you click on send... is it true you only need to take a look at the first few and last few letters of the btc address you are sending to?  People say malware could change it but when they do change it, as long as you look at even the first few letters of the btc address you are sending to, isn't it going to be noticed immediately since its not like they could get the first few letters of the btc address you are sending to the same?

No, it's not. It's a shortcut, and like all shortcuts has a degree of danger. You should check THE WHOLE ADDRESS once you paste it. If you check the first and last few characters, there's always the possibility that (for whatever reason) one of the other characters may be changed, and you'll lose your money. It just takes a moment, verify the whole string.

[jerry0]

If you get any malware or keylogger on your pc, do hot wallets of yours automatically become at risk?  For example let say you have software wallets on your pc like electrum or exodus etc.  Those are protected by your seed phrase.  But of course when you log in your pc, you type in your password to each of the accounts to log in.



If you get some kind of malware or anything like that on your pc, does that mean a hacker literally could record any keystrokes you done and literally open your electrum or exodus or other software wallets with the password and then send the coins to their own wallet?  Thus this way even if they don't have your seed phrase it doesn't matter because your computer is compromised?



So could a virus do that?  Or only keyloggers and malware?  I also heard of RAT - Remote Access Trojan... so that would be another method?  So whether you have your computer turned on or not, they literally could empty your software wallets if you just have your password?  Whether your password was typed... or say your password is in a password manager and they could record any keystrokes of you entering your password manager or whatever you are copying/pasting with the password for electrum or exodus?  I also heard if you have teamviewer installed, you need to remove that as well.  So keyloggers, malware, RAT, teamviewer... and what else can cause this? 



If you click on a link and it downloads something to your pc but you do not open it, are you still safe?  If you click on a link but do not do anything are you safe as long as you don't enter anything?



Now if you use windows defender which is free and say malwarebytes the free version, you could catch these malware very easily?  But if you have paid computer security like bitdefender or kaspersky and programs like that... it would detect it the moment you download/open it?  So windows defender isn't as strong and would allow it?



Also what about visiting websites?  I heard of sites where you go there, it would automatically download into your browser.  But if you have bitdefender, kaspersky and those things, would that protect you? 



What about visiting a website that shows as insecure but you are manually entering it and visiting it?  If you click on that website, bitdefender and kaspersky would give you an alert?  What about windows defender?

[Bitbtc8]

My little cousin lost 2000 stratis coin to this crypto address swapping malware in 2019, at first we thought someone came into the house and steal the coins but later we found out that every time he copies his own address and try to paste it the address change automatically.

[jerry0]

Could you remove this malware with your antivirus or you have to reinstall your machine?