I've been hacked (Electrum 4.3.2)

[avp2306]

I do not agree with opinions in the spirit of "OP gets gets multiple negative feedback -> he's no longer able to earn from his bounty/sig campaigns activity -> creditors get nothing". There are enough examples on the forum when, with reputational losses, users continue to successfully conduct business (the tag will be changed to neutral when the lost/stolen funds are refunded).

From icopress   2023-01-10 : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=950662;dt

How is it going to resolve the problem? Because of the tag you left, many campaign mangers will deny him joining their campaign, companies will deny him to give their projects, resulting he is not going to financially benefit from the forum. As per his explanation the forum is his only earning source. sucks but it's reality for him.

Besides, look at the long history he have in the forum. Think logically (since you are a campaign manager yourself) what benefit it brings him to steal the funds and ruin his long established business. Nothing adds up.

You guys are too triggered to leave a feedback to others no matter neutral or negative or positive. I noticed the tendency especially the users who joined from 2017 and later. Some of you feel you are too much responsible to involve in anything that matters the reputation and jump on quick decision. Have I seen a feedback from LoyceV, yahoo62278, NeuroticFish, Hhampuz or me. All of them read the story so far. Others who are regular in reputation board and older members, don't you think many of them already read it but have they left a feedback yet? No.

It's not always black and white. Someone makes a mistake or became a victim of a bad incident and you all show up, destroy them without giving a chance to redeem. Ultimately you are the ones are causing trouble, liable to lose business for two parties. Both the victims. In the specific case, julerz12 will not be able to generate any revenue, results the two company don't get their lose back. How is your feedback helping a single member in the forum?

What would you feel and do if you are in the same shoe of julerz12? I hope your answer is not going to: You will never be in trouble in your life.

Feedback is bit harsh but it serves as a warning to others and lesson for him to learn from.

And if he's willing to repay back the money which lost from his hand then there are so many ways to do it aside from earning it back on the forum. Maybe one thing he needs right now is to show how serious he is on resolving this big issue.

Although this is unfortunate for julerz but he need to grow up with this and we don't want the same issue to happen on other company so I guess the feedback is fine, icopress will provably erase that feedback once julerz will find way to solve this.

[joker_josue]

I'd feel very uncomfortable keeping it in a hot wallet. That's what I would do. It's not just hypothetical, I've handled a similar value in a certain Forkcoin, and the only thing that worked at the time was using a hot (Android) wallet. I only used it after sharing my concerns and the owner told me it's okay and he wouldn't blame me, but still I felt very uncomfortable with it. It took the guy a few days to tell me where to send his coins, and it was a huge relieve when I could finally get rid of them.

Totally agree!

One thing is our money, if we lose it we can only regret it. But when it's other people's money, care must be 10x greater, because there's a lot at stake. It's our reputation and our money.

Losing someone's money is something very serious. And it makes us lose double money, other people's money and our money. You have to be very careful.

I do not agree with opinions in the spirit of "OP gets gets multiple negative feedback -> he's no longer able to earn from his bounty/sig campaigns activity -> creditors get nothing". There are enough examples on the forum when, with reputational losses, users continue to successfully conduct business (the tag will be changed to neutral when the lost/stolen funds are refunded).

From icopress   2023-01-10 : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=950662;dt

How is it going to resolve the problem? Because of the tag you left, many campaign mangers will deny him joining their campaign, companies will deny him to give their projects, resulting he is not going to financially benefit from the forum. As per his explanation the forum is his only earning source. sucks but it's reality for him.

Feedback is bit harsh but it serves as a warning to others and lesson for him to learn from.

Although I think it is a bit exaggerated, at this moment, when the situation is still being addressed.

But I understand icopress. He is defending his working class. As a campaign manager, this type of situation can denigrate everyone's work, and make it difficult to attract new advertisers.

Now it's a matter of time, for things to normalize, if the OP keeps his word to refund all the money.

[FatFork]

I believe it is crucial to base our decisions on whether someone deserves a negative tag on his profile on verifiable facts, rather than allowing personal emotions to play a role. These emotions or personal beliefs can be validly discussed, but should not be the basis for our judgment. This approach is the only way to ensure that the Trust system is fair and impartial to all members, rather than allowing personal affection to create a double standard in our decision making.

Given that there is at least one party who has been damaged (financially) and holds the OP responsible for the missing funds (which, in my view, is a reasonable position), it would be callous not to side with them, as they are the clear victims in this situation. Whether the missing funds were the result of hacking or the OP's deliberate actions, we don't have enough evidence to conclude either point at this time, these facts remain unchanged.

YoMix

2023-01-09

SCAM ALERT. Do not put any escrow to any campaign managed by julerz12. Said it was 'stolen' after few hours after transfer. SCAMMER

Now, I don't think that julerz12 had any intentions of stealing the funds for personal gain (it's just my personal opinion though and I could be wrong), and I feel really bad that he's in this tough spot. Nevertheless, regardless of his intent, he still bears a personal responsibility as a bounty manager and an escrow and, in my opinion, must accept the consequences of his negligence. The only path for redemption and vindication for him is to collaborate with the companies that entrusted him with their funds, in order to repay the debts. In doing so, he can demonstrate accountability, and eventually earn back the trust of the community.

[Poker Player]

For me, everything will depend on how events unfold from now on, if he collaborates and starts a repayment plan I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. If not, I'll support the flag and change the tag.

Most times in these cases we have seen people hide and yet we are seeing him all the time responding and showing his face.

[crwth]

It's just now that I saw this from the thread by Woodie - Campaign managers acting as Escrow

It is unfortunate what happened to you, julerz12. It's careless to use a hot wallet for storing significant funds, and I hope you can recover from this setback and repay what is needed.


I know someone who got hacked automatically transferred the balance in his MetaMask to another wallet. With what happened to you OP, I'm now aware that it could happen with Electrum as well. It would be better to wipe your devices. It might not be the only one infected.

[joker_josue]

I know someone who got hacked automatically transferred the balance in his MetaMask to another wallet. With what happened to you OP, I'm now aware that it could happen with Electrum as well. It would be better to wipe your devices. It might not be the only one infected.

It's not Electrum's fault. It's the way you use your wallet and computer.
There are many ways to be hacked and you have to be aware of all of them. And try to protect yourself as best you can.

[FatFork]

I know someone who got hacked automatically transferred the balance in his MetaMask to another wallet. With what happened to you OP, I'm now aware that it could happen with Electrum as well. It would be better to wipe your devices. It might not be the only one infected.

It seems like you are implying that the Electrum wallet software may have some security issues, however there are no such indications at this time. There are probably millions of Electrum users worldwide, and if there were any security issue with any version of the software, it would have likely garnered significant attention and be widely talked about on the internet by now. Moreover, Electrum's open-source nature allows for many independent developers to rigorously inspect each new version after its release, ensuring the software's security.

Even assuming the OP's story is true, there are many possible ways someone could steal his coins. For example, the OP could have left his computer unlocked while he was gone. He could have been infected with malware at any point over the course of many months and even years before he created his new wallet, or the thief could have used a keylogger or clipboard malware to steal the seed phrase. The OP also said that he doesn't use any AV other than the standard windows defender, which is also a big security risk and a lapse in judgment.

[ltcrstrbrt]

Electrum has a long history of vulnerabilities ( including indirect vulnerabilities ) and many time this wallet got hacked. As you know, because is a lite bitcoin wallet, it needs to connect to servers, If your wallet connects to the network via malicious severs, your money get lost! For these that are new in this, you can find on the internet many attempts and successful attacks against Electrum, and many funds and many funds were stolen. In my opinion, Electrum was and is, the most attacked Bitcoin wallet. You should not understanding me wrong ( I'm using Electrum) but Electrum attracts the hackers (advantages and disadvantages), therfore increased vigilance is always necessary when you use a lite wallet ( and not only! ). Also the most attacks occured  after an update (this is well known thing)

Back in the past, around 2015, my entire system was hacked including the work station, six mining rigs, router, mail account and also Cryptsy account.
The  attackers had full control for several days, until I realized what was happening. They withdrew all the funds on the same day. In that hack I lost around 110k WhiteCoin, 334k DGB, 1300 Dash ( former DarkCoin), 1002 LTC and many other alts .. My BTC was stored on BTC-e exchange ( this account wasn't compromised because on this one the log credentials were stored offline - it was my first exchange which I used).
On Cryptsy exchange were stored around  7 mil Doge and some other alts. All of these were converted in BTC and all of them have been retreated on the attacker BTC address.

Many of you are new in this cryptoworld, even if you are active here on forum for few years...that doesn't mean anything! You should know that everyone is susceptible to being hacked, no matter what's your rank, name, theoretical knowledge etc.. Of course  we must to ensure the maximum security measures but even that it could happen. This is not the gamming world!!  THIS IS CRYPTO!

One mistake and you lose everything without hope for a second chance!
I saw many of you blaming Julerz because o his mistake!! OK! you could do that but It's not OK. Humans make mistakes. It's saddly of course but we can tolerate this. Are we HUMANS?!

I saw many of you with same bussiness like Julerz, blaming him for this mistake.. It's not OK!
Competition is good, but not when someone is knocked down! That fact reveals how weak "we" are.
On this forum, people should help each other especially when such problems arise!
There is room for everyone ( if they are honest of course).

Yesterday was hacked Julerz tomorrow it could be one of you.. You are not a super human!! Nor even Dashjr was a super human! And he is not a "nobody" !! A Bitcoin Core Developer it can be hacked even his funds were stored on a cold wallet!!  According to the judgment of some, Luke should not be anymore a Bitcoin Developer ( even he lost his own funds) right?

Accepting that it was a hack, and also Julerz will manage how to return the stolen funds back to the owners,  I'll not support any red tag !!!

[cygan]

you can see here in his official service thread how many campaigns julerz12 has already led and also successfully completed and there were also some BTC campaigns also in it
i now ask myself, he has always acted so grossly negligent and all his funds on a hot wallet on his pc always stored?
if so, then he has until last sunday still had luck and yesterday it was then unfortunately so far and he was allegedly 'hacked'...
and as icopress already wrote, i can't understand how you can run a campaign without having at least double secured the funds and built up reserves to compensate a sudden loss as good and as fast as possible again.
i don't want to judge if he was really hacked or if he planned it all somehow, but you can see what a lot of pressure is on a bounty manager when he runs a signature campaign... no matter if for 1-2 weeks or over several months
therefore great respect to all renowned bm's here from the forum and at the same time now also the hint to all best asap to send your funds for your participants on a hardwallet...

just my 2 sats

[Peanutswar]

Feels sad about your lose Julerz this mistake really makes a hard time to recover its includes the funds, trust and reputation because of this, its time to make a format with your PC I guess you just get a phishing, or malware attack before and the hacker just waiting for your funds to get in, ideal really use the hardware wallet and other security features of the electrum, there's no safe in the internet its not just only for julerz to other people still using the hot wallet this serves too as information to invest to your security.

[examplens]

For me, everything will depend on how events unfold from now on, if he collaborates and starts a repayment plan I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. If not, I'll support the flag and change the tag.

Most times in these cases we have seen people hide and yet we are seeing him all the time responding and showing his face.

I would agree with you, but unfortunately, YoMix doesn't think in that direction. I think he should get a chance to pay off the debt by working until he eventually collects the entire amount. they will allocate new funds for the manager, while at the same time, julerz's reputation will completely sink. I believe that everyone deserves a second chance.

Sometimes, bad days are there to remind us that we have good ones to look forward to. Sad it happened, we'll run new campaign soon managed by Royse777.

[mv1986]

For me, everything will depend on how events unfold from now on, if he collaborates and starts a repayment plan I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. If not, I'll support the flag and change the tag.

Most times in these cases we have seen people hide and yet we are seeing him all the time responding and showing his face.

Since I think you have reasonable on positions on many topics, I would be interested in your opinion on "bounty managers red tagging other bounty managers". Whether or not someone is rightfully in that position to do so (DT1 , DT2), most people probably won't deny the fact that there is an additional incentive for a red tag from members of a specific group who are in competition with each other. Taking into account that @julerz12 did apparently rake in some very well paying campaigns that drew a lot of attention from many members of this forum, I am not that surprised that the red tag comes from a bounty manager.

I did expect @Hhampuz to actually do what he did: not red tag and instead offer his service to keep damage to the forum's reputation at a minimum. @icopress went for it and pulled the trigger.

Again, @icopress is in the position to do so, but when I were running a car dealership and fucked up and would have to go to court, I'd probably feel more comfortable if the judge wasn't owning a competing car dealership around the corner of mine. In fact, the judge would probably be rejected because of bias right away. This does not mean that the judge would necessarily make a bad or unfair judgment, but to prevent bias and false incentive discussions from coming up, it is just correct to actually not let that judge have any influence about the outcome of such a court case.

All those who could have given a red tag but didn't and are also not bounty managers actually acted the way I personally thought is the right one for the moment. This is not to say that the tag could be turned into red by @Poker Player, it absolutely could and should. But even though I expected @icopress to go for such a move, I am not sure that was the appropriate action to take here.

[NotATether]

I am trying to wrap my head around how exactly did you manage to get hacked so quickly.

Certainly it was not from a vulnerability in the Electrum wallet. Did you use a weak password or even no password at all?

What else was running on your Windows PC?

[exactly the reason why I do not store any funds on Windows (and Mac) and will never ever do that.]

[jokers10]

IMO. Neutral tags in trust are absolutely correct as trust system is about to describe risks of financial interactions with an exact person. No one still knows how funds were lost so there is a risk of recurrence of the same situation and potential partners should be aware of that. It is not about blaming julerz12, it is about informing others. julerz12 probably should use a respected third party for escrow while managing future campaigns to decrease possible risks.

As about red tags. I can't say that they are incorrect. We have a situation with a known damage. But the situation is going on and julerz12 expressed his intention to solve the problem and return what lost. IMO while there are negotiations between the sides and while julerz12 keeps repaying his debts it is too eary to draw a final conclusion. We can leave a negative reviw any time, so why to hurry? Do we expect any new problems at the moment or in the nearest future? I don't think so. Any julerz12's activity will be carefully watched for long long time so there is not too much risk that a potential partner of julerz12 woun't read neutral tags about this situation and nobody will warn about it. So IMO there's no need in red tags while maintaining the current state of affairs.

[ltcrstrbrt]

I am trying to wrap my head around how exactly did you manage to get hacked so quickly.

Certainly it was not from a vulnerability in the Electrum wallet. Did you use a weak password or even no password at all?

What else was running on your Windows PC?

[exactly the reason why I do not store any funds on Windows (and Mac) and will never ever do that.]

Right now is not about of a Electrum code vulnerability like in the past ( see CVE-2018-1000022
CVE-2018-6353) it's about off Electrum "ecosystem" itself .. users can be tricked quite easily when they make an update. That's why  it must be acted with maximum vigilance!

Weak or strong password - it doesn't matter when the hackers are in full control of wallet. The question is how they got that access,  fake update, keylogger, etc. Knowing this, it will prevent other users to get tricked.

[julerz12]

Red tag by icopress is fine everyone, he has all the right to make that judgment, kindly stop bickering about it.

I am trying to wrap my head around how exactly did you manage to get hacked so quickly.

Certainly it was not from a vulnerability in the Electrum wallet. Did you use a weak password or even no password at all?

What else was running on your Windows PC?

[exactly the reason why I do not store any funds on Windows (and Mac) and will never ever do that.]

Yes. It is pretty quick, the funds from Yo!Mix came in on 2023-01-09 18:51 and the whole Electrum wallet got drained on Date: 2023-01-09 21:35

My best guess is the hacker was somehow able to get my password to the wallet and transfer the funds. Probably from a keylogger which I haven't found yet (currently scanning my system).
The only apps that were running at the time were Adobe Photoshop, Telegram, Discord, and Google Chrome. Electrum wasn't even online until around 23:00 (midnight) where I immediately opened it after got notified by Coinomize team that the funds were transferred.

Also, just for everyone's info.
I am currently managing this bounty campaign wherein $4,000 USDT is (again) in my care, sitting on my Ledger wallet (Address)
I have already contacted several escrows including Hhampuz in hopes of being able to transfer these funds to them to act as a new official escrow.

I have also already contacted Coinomize and Yo!Mix so I can partially pay out my debts to them caused by the stolen funds. It isn't much but I hope they'll appreciate it. It's the start of many, I promise.

Note: I was not aware the project team had already transferred the funds, all the negotiations between me and this project team were done weeks ago before the events of today.

[lovesmayfamilis]

@icopress went for it and pulled the trigger.
 I am not sure that was the appropriate action to take here.

If you check julerz12's trust lists, the only user that doesn't trust him is icopress. Probably there were other incidents that led icopress to such conclusions. But as for the negative tag, it will not affect the decision of the managers in any way, in case julerz12 decides to participate in the subscription company. It's just that all managers are already aware of what happened, and one way or another, only they decide whether to accept this user or not. It has already been said many times that a negative mark can easily change in the event of a positive outcome. In the end, this is only a minimum compared to what those who actually lost money experienced. After all, everyone will agree that other people's money can never be compared with their own. And julerz12 lost other people's money, which one hurts more?

[Pandu Geddon]

I have also already contacted Coinomize and Yo!Mix so I can partially pay out my debts to them caused by the stolen funds. It isn't much but I hope they'll appreciate it. It's the start of many, I promise.

that's what is expected, I'm sure you and several projects that are in a relationship have done good communication.
whether or not the collaboration continues, when you have completed your responsibilities. then everything will be done.
This incident will certainly disrupt your business. but I hope you and your family will always get support. I hope you have more luck.

[UmerIdrees]

Whatever happened, should not have happened. It is sad from the Campaign manager's point of view as he is in a difficult position to tell that he is speaking the truth and also from the campaigns as both companies will find themselves in such an awkward situation that they allocated funds for marketing but they are all gone before any marketing could be done.

[exactly the reason why I do not store any funds on Windows (and Mac) and will never ever do that.]

To be very true, i am feeling anxious as most people use Electrum on the computer and trust it that our funds are safe. What else can we use if we do not have a hardware wallet?

[tranthidung]

The only apps that were running at the time were Adobe Photoshop, Telegram, Discord, and Google Chrome

Stop using Google Chrome and use Firefox instead. There is suspicion that Google Chrome likely is compromised these days. Stop using it, uninstall it from your device at the moment. Firefox and Tor browsers are better. If you don't use Google Chrome, you shouldn't use Brave browser too.

Also, just for everyone's info.
I am currently managing this bounty campaign wherein $4,000 USDT is (again) in my care, sitting on my Ledger wallet (Address)
I have already contacted several escrows including Hhampuz in hopes of being able to transfer these funds to them to act as a new official escrow.

It is your good move until the dust settles.
I notice that you did not change your forum account password. Why not?

And if you use a captcha bypass code, please change it to a new code too.

Changing them all now and after you make sure your device is clean, changing them all one more time.
I got your invitation to work with you in some projects and I appreciated it a lot so it is very bad for me to see this accident. Good luck and get well soon julerz12.