Share Your Bitcoin Hack Stories: Help Us Educate and Protect!

[Smack That Ace]

I don't know if this is an appropriate reply but when it comes to hacking, only a few people are victims of it but if you added scams on your list, I'm sure it will be flooded with replies about how they ended up losing their money on scams. As for me, I had a tough experience with bitcoin investment in my early years in the crypto industry, because I invested in a Ponzi scam cloud mining investment which was the trend back then. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn't believe in passive investment especially if you don't have any idea about the company and you also don't have any evidence about the components they are using on their mining facility.

I agree with what you said, also I don't see too many people having crypto assets hacked but if we talk about investment losses there are millions of stories to be told. I believe there is no one who has never invested in scam projects or has never lost money when participating in this market, especially early investors. Because in the period 2013 - 2017, most of the projects at that time were ponzi, very few serious projects. Luckily, I have never been hacked, but the investment and trading losses were a lot.

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[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Use small wallets for airdrops because you already knew how risky it is if you use your main wallet to interact with unknown smart contracts for claiming airdrops.

If it is retroactive airdrop which is based on your previous on-chain transactions, interactions, you can move your coins to a new wallet before claiming airdrop for your initial wallet which is already empty after the fund transfer. If you unlucky interact with a malicious smart contract, you will only lose small amount of token, not lose all.

Despite the fact that airdrops were just full of scams back then, at least there were a few I benefited from, like the first Doge coin I received in my wallet through an airdrop I earned it, but nowadays, airdrops are just fucked. I doubt if there are even any real and legit airdrops out there. It's been more than two years now since I looked at airdrops because I know they're now full of scams. I have also abandoned all my ERC wallets (although I have the private keys) because, for a long time now, I have not looked at altcoins. Bitcoin has always been my priority and will be until I have accumulated enough of it.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

My Bitcoin has never been hacked, maybe it's because I have a separate wallet where I store only Bitcoin and no shitcoins no matter how valuable..

But then, my shitcoins wallet have been hacked on several occasions, and those hacks are always through either I mistakenly type enter my private keys in a fake site and they phish it and use it to gain access into my wallet, or I connect to a fake dapp site trying to claim an airdrop and then the scammers empty my wallet , though I am particularly happy though for the several occasions this has happened, the highest they have ever stolen from me is $3.4 dollars worth of bnb coin, the rest are always very tiny amount of money, and still is because I don't use wallets where I keep big money for such experiments, if I am unsure, I will always test a service or an airdrop with a wallet containing a very small amount of funds to confirm they are legit, before I connect my wallet containing big fund if there need be ...

But like ive mentioned, I don't do such with wallets containing my Bitcoin since Bitcoin blockchain does not support dapps in the first place .

[Mpamaegbu]

The only hack that I ran into was back in 2015 or so when there were new alt coin added every day and I ended up downloading some new wallet which had malware.

That has often been the case and it's sad for those who become victims to these crooks. I'm not a fan of chasing freebies online because I believe they don't actually exist without a hook to fish gullible minds. As for links, I try as much as I can to view new and suspecting links on who.is site. At least, this guarantees me an overview of what site I'm trying to assess.

Another was basically keeping coins on exchanges and these exchanges got hacked or went bankrupt. Had a few of those throughout the years. Basically get a hardware wallet if you want to be safe.

In the past, I used to leave most of my coins on exchanges and that was for two basic reasons. The first was to facilitate my day trading in mellifluous engagements and the second was that there were tokens that didn't have wallet apps or can't be found in other crypto apps (may be I didn't know how to search them then, anyway) but we're already tradable on exchanges.

I don’t understand why you guys are calling it a bitcoin hack. Let’s get that clear, there has never been a bitcoin hack in history, crypto exchanges and bitcoin wallets are the ones that are 100% not secure from hacks.

You did well by clearing this part and setting the record straight. Newbies in this industry often mistake and interchange them.

[posi]

Use small wallets for airdrops because you already knew how risky it is if you use your main wallet to interact with unknown smart contracts for claiming airdrops.

If it is retroactive airdrop which is based on your previous on-chain transactions, interactions, you can move your coins to a new wallet before claiming airdrop for your initial wallet which is already empty after the fund transfer. If you unlucky interact with a malicious smart contract, you will only lose small amount of token, not lose all.

Despite the fact that airdrops were just full of scams back then, at least there were a few I benefited from, like the first Doge coin I received in my wallet through an airdrop I earned it, but nowadays, airdrops are just fucked. I doubt if there are even any real and legit airdrops out there. It's been more than two years now since I looked at airdrops because I know they're now full of scams. I have also abandoned all my ERC wallets (although I have the private keys) because, for a long time now, I have not looked at altcoins. Bitcoin has always been my priority and will be until I have accumulated enough of it.

Airdrops are still profitable but have switched to a newer form that people often call testnet or retroactive...but spam airdrops are just trash. Airdrop is just a form of earning free altcoins and I think it has nothing to do with investing in altcoins because not all altcoins launch airdrops for users.

Focusing only on bitcoin is not a bad idea because you will avoid the risks that the altcoin market brings. But you will also miss out on the opportunity to gain big profits from investing in altcoins.

[tbct_mt2]

Airdrops are still profitable but have switched to a newer form that people often call testnet or retroactive...but spam airdrops are just trash. Airdrop is just a form of earning free altcoins and I think it has nothing to do with investing in altcoins because not all altcoins launch airdrops for users.

Airdrops are profitable if you don't have to do anything like holding a coin to get a token airdrop or to buy a coin then use it for on chain transaction fee because you need to make on chain transactions as one of conditions to be eligible for airdrops.

If you have to spend something, it contains risk, even you are talking about airdrops.

Focusing only on bitcoin is not a bad idea because you will avoid the risks that the altcoin market brings. But you will also miss out on the opportunity to gain big profits from investing in altcoins.

People have years in cryptocurrency market actually experienced risk of altcoins. They know risk and they say advice to newbies who usually ignore their advice because in eyes of newbies, altcoins are more potential, more profitable. They don't see risk, only see opportunities in altcoins.

[bayu7adi]

I once fell victim to hacking, not with Bitcoin, but rather with an altcoin that had its own blockchain network. I realized this was a significant mistake on my part and provided me with a valuable lesson. The mistake I made was storing a substantial balance in a wallet on a Windows VPS.

It was a coin I mined using a VPS, and I stored it in a wallet for an extended period. What I did was change VPS every month and import my wallet from one VPS to another. It's worth noting that the VPS I created only lasted for a month, so it seems I exposed my private key too frequently. I was shocked to see my wallet balance suddenly depleted, and although it didn't make me anxious for long, I immediately took action and evaluated all the mistakes I had made.

I began implementing security measures for my cryptocurrency wallets, both Bitcoin and altcoins.
- Keeping a small balance of BTC on exchange wallets
- Backing up private keys on a secure physical device
- Activating biometric and two-factor authentication systems for smartphone wallets
- Reducing wallet activity when unnecessary
- Avoiding risky links with antivirus software
- And so on

[cafter]

I was lucky enough to never getting hacked when i was new to bitcoin, and reading this forum helped me a lot to stay safe from being hacked or scammed, here many users shared their experiences about getting hacked or getting scammed and i learned from their mistakes.
here's what i have learned so far:
1. Avoid clicking on links which are from non trusted sources.
2. do not store your crypto on exchanges for long time.
3. do not connect metamask with websites you don't trust.
4. do not store you passwords or seed phrases online and backup them on regular basis.
5. buy a cold wallet if you can afford.
6. do not share any private information online with anyone.

[Blitzboy]

My Bitcoin has never been hacked, maybe it's because I have a separate wallet where I store only Bitcoin and no shitcoins no matter how valuable..

But then, my shitcoins wallet have been hacked on several occasions, and those hacks are always through either I mistakenly type enter my private keys in a fake site and they phish it and use it to gain access into my wallet, or I connect to a fake dapp site trying to claim an airdrop and then the scammers empty my wallet , though I am particularly happy though for the several occasions this has happened, the highest they have ever stolen from me is $3.4 dollars worth of bnb coin, the rest are always very tiny amount of money, and still is because I don't use wallets where I keep big money for such experiments, if I am unsure, I will always test a service or an airdrop with a wallet containing a very small amount of funds to confirm they are legit, before I connect my wallet containing big fund if there need be ...

But like ive mentioned, I don't do such with wallets containing my Bitcoin since Bitcoin blockchain does not support dapps in the first place .

Even a little is rough. Do all losses hurt, even minor ones? Actually, it makes you wiser. Its a crypto rite of passage, strangely. Though, your method of "testing" wallets with smaller amounts is excellent. Similar to dipping your toes in the water before jumping in to make sure its not scorching hot. This works well in the crazy world of dapps and airdrops. Bitcoin is different from dapps, so you're right. It may give you peace of mind, but keep vigilant. Who knows whats next in crypto? There may be new Bitcoin vulnerabilities in the future

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Airdrops are still profitable but have switched to a newer form that people often call testnet or retroactive...but spam airdrops are just trash. Airdrop is just a form of earning free altcoins and I think it has nothing to do with investing in altcoins because not all altcoins launch airdrops for users.

Posi, you know, sometimes I used to think I started on the wrong path to cryptocurrency after some bad experiences, but yeah, I just have to realize that there is no smoke without a fire, despite those past experiences. Although some airdrops paid off well, like, luckily, $100, $50, $80, or more, I don't think there are any airdrops that can pay up to those amounts now, although I have given up on it for a long time now, so I am not certain, but like you said, it has switched to Testnest, which I don't know how Testnest works, but I remember doing something like Launchpad where I connected my wallet to claim some free airdrop coins too, which was even worthless and my wallet was hacked.

Focusing only on bitcoin is not a bad idea because you will avoid the risks that the altcoin market brings. But you will also miss out on the opportunity to gain big profits from investing in altcoins.

From your account registration date, I believe you are a well-experienced crypto user, and you have seen so many altcoins bloom and dump, and some people also became millionaires because of it, but sincerely, that's all luck, and I have also bought so many altcoins but was not lucky. I really don't like to hold altcoins like Bitcoin because I know it can pump and dump, and after it has dumped, it might likely pump again. I bought a lot of meme coins, but they are still in my wallet, looking worthless. So, I think Bitcoin will not just be a thing of luck while investing in it; I believe it's an investment that will surely bring profit in the future, not like altcoins that you are not just sure of. I don't totally hate altcoins, brother, but even while I have been investing in altcoins, I already miss a lot of opportunities, like Shiba Inu, Pepe,Gom, etc. What more could I miss before I decide to start buying altcoins again?