harizen - ban appeal

[Igebotz]

What if they accessed the email, the private wallet keys

If OP deposits into his staked address, he'll find out if it's compromised....

It has to be something worth it since some hackers are smart enough to be able to tell when someone keeps tabs on them; they will not bail out for a small sum; instead, they will wait for the big drop before walking away.

This is not the first hijacked account this year; I believe the hackers are becoming smarter, and only 2FA can completely shut them down.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

How far with this case? There was never an update.

Was the member unbanned, or the mods just let it be and the person appealing the ban gave up?
Personally, I think OP was genuinely innocent and got hacked.

[Rikafip]

Was the member unbanned, or the mods just let it be and the person appealing the ban gave up?

Based on the lack of Harizen's activity, seems like the latter. I really thought that it was a pretty clean case of hacking and that he will regain the access easily but it looks like I was too optimistic abouyt this and I can't wait for theymos to approve that 2FA that @PowerGlove is working on.

Personally, I think OP was genuinely innocent and got hacked.

+1, it makes absolutely no sense to do that unless account was hacked.

[Lucius]

How far with this case? There was never an update.
~snip~

The OP has not been active practically since the beginning of this topic and has only written 3 posts, yet he is someone who should be most interested in getting his account back. However, maybe the case is not quite as simple as it seems to all of us, so regardless that the OP signed the message and did everything that was needed, I wonder if the IP addresses were checked and if they show real hacking or if the OP and the hacker maybe used a VPN/Tor, which then makes the check useless.

[Pmalek]

Everything points to OP being hacked and someone else using his login credentials to post that malware-infected software. The question is, how?
There are over 1000 results on Ninjastic Space if you enter R*****X (I don't want to enter the name and give importance to it) with the same or similar ANN that was posted by harizen' account. Most of them date back to March 2023. 

[DYING_S0UL]

This is not the first hijacked account this year; I believe the hackers are becoming smarter, and only 2FA can completely shut them down.

It's really the time for theymos to patch this new update. I wonder what's keeping him to implement 2FA on bitcointalk. It's almost 2024 now. Adding a extra layer of security won't do any harm, will it? Every other forum/community/platform supports 2FA nowadays, but we are still living in stone age. Lol 

[Lafu]

Everything points to OP being hacked and someone else using his login credentials to post that malware-infected software. The question is, how?

I and BABY SHOES was the one that reported the Fake Ann with malware post/thread that was made from the Account " harizen "
Mostly they installed / or downloaded that Malware Links or got on a phishing site.
For sure in the background maybe there is still something going on.
From https://bpip.org/Profile?p=harizen it shows that he is not banned.

If he is already unbanned i will remove my Feedback but he has to write here before i am doing that.

[Sandra_hakeem]

These things sometimes make me scared of losing everything... I'm freaking out rn!
It's advisable for everyone to please keep safe - these dudes ain't joking about it no more.. it's either they get you or the keep trying... For this reason, I don't click no links in here except it's a trusted one.
The 2FA patch could evade all this mishap. I can't tell how I'll feel if it were me.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

[JollyGood]

The OP created this harizenbanappeal account to appeal the ban and his last login was on 17th October 2023. It seems as though the OP might have given up because there is no effort on his part trying to claim/reclaim the harizen account. If that is the case it is a shame because members losing their accounts as a result of hacking should not be penalised is this manner.

Most probably their computer was hacked therefore wallets and many other things not even related to this forum could have been compromised. I hope the OP manages to get his forum account back and protect his computer from further attacks.

Hopefully, I can get back my beloved account.

[SamReomo]

If he is already unbanned i will remove my Feedback but he has to write here before i am doing that.

I have visited his profile and I found that DirewolfM14 has an active flag against harizen and he has also left a negative tag on the user's account. I hope that once OP comes back and makes us sure that his account is unbanned and is safely controlled by him not someone else then you people can remove those tags from his profile.

I know sometimes it would be hard for such users and they can face huge issues even if they get their account back because some members still might consider the account as hacked one, and they might not remove the negative tags that they have left.

So far the guy hasn't been active on forum for at least a month now and I hope that everything is going right on his side because sometimes people can have other issues then the forum's related issues and that can be a reason for their absence.

[Pmalek]

It's really the time for theymos to patch this new update. I wonder what's keeping him to implement 2FA on bitcointalk. It's almost 2024 now.

Perhaps it's not as easy as you think. He did add some other code that PowerGlove created relatively quickly. This time, though, that's not the case. Perhaps the code fixes one issue, but creates three new problems in a live environment.

From https://bpip.org/Profile?p=harizen it shows that he is not banned.

If he is already unbanned i will remove my Feedback but he has to write here before i am doing that.

No, OP was never banned. The notification banner on his account says that it got locked for security reasons.

I have visited his profile and I found that DirewolfM14 has an active flag against harizen and he has also left a negative tag on the user's account. I hope that once OP comes back and makes us sure that his account is unbanned and is safely controlled by him not someone else then you people can remove those tags from his profile.

Of course, they will. No one is punishing the user. The flags and negative tags only serve as a warning to other members not to trust or use anything the account posts until it's back in its rightful hands.

[JollyGood]

The best course of action as far as proving account ownership is concerned is for the member to at least stake a bitcoin address. That way, if the worst should happen and the forum account is compromised, it should be relatively easy to sign a message and have access to the account returned. If becomes a different scenario if the computer was attacked because there is a possibility the wallet information (as well as BTC balances) could have been compromised.

I also noted the OP has not been online for over a month using either of his two known accounts but that does not mean he has not created a new account. Maybe he is already back and would like to keep the new account private and not associate it with his past. I cannot recall interacting with the OP but if he does get access to his banned/stolen account granted, I hope the tags will be removed.
 

I have visited his profile and I found that DirewolfM14 has an active flag against harizen and he has also left a negative tag on the user's account. I hope that once OP comes back and makes us sure that his account is unbanned and is safely controlled by him not someone else then you people can remove those tags from his profile.

I know sometimes it would be hard for such users and they can face huge issues even if they get their account back because some members still might consider the account as hacked one, and they might not remove the negative tags that they have left.

So far the guy hasn't been active on forum for at least a month now and I hope that everything is going right on his side because sometimes people can have other issues then the forum's related issues and that can be a reason for their absence.

[SamReomo]

Of course, they will. No one is punishing the user. The flags and negative tags only serve as a warning to other members not to trust or use anything the account posts until it's back in its rightful hands.

That's what I also thought and I also believe that if harizen gets access to his account once again and comes makes a thread from his own account in reputation board or at least make a simple post here by confirming that he has got access to his account and he's the one handling the account then I believe that the ones who left those tags will have no hesitation in removing those from his profile.

The best course of action as far as proving account ownership is concerned is for the member to at least stake a bitcoin address. That way, if the worst should happen and the forum account is compromised, it should be relatively easy to sign a message and have access to the account returned. If becomes a different scenario if the computer was attacked because there is a possibility the wallet information (as well as BTC balances) could have been compromised.

Definitely if an hacker can get access to someone's system then they can do all sort of such things with that person, but the accounts of the forum can be logged in remotely if the hackers somehow gets knowledge about the e-mail and password of the account. But, yeah if the whole system of a user a compromised then surely the hacker can see the wallet information and in that case he will be able to steal the balances of the user easily. I thing a user who's well aware about wallet security will not save his/her wallet information on a internet connected device but surely most people don't care about hackers and that's one of the cause of them being hacked.

I also noted the OP has not been online for over a month using either of his two known accounts but that does not mean he has not created a new account. Maybe he is already back and would like to keep the new account private and not associate it with his past. I cannot recall interacting with the OP but if he does get access to his banned/stolen account granted, I hope the tags will be removed.

I doubt that he even needs to create a new account because a new account won't be helpful for him as ranking up a new account and making that many posts as the OP has made isn't an easy task. The @OP has more than 16k posts on his original account and it would take him at least 2-4 years to make that many posts or even get to a rank like that. However, I totally agree with you that one the user gets access to his account then those reputed members of the forum will surely remove their tags.

[BoXXoB]

Harizen was a part of a campaign I managed. Seems unlikely that he would have done this and so I believe his story about being hacked. Hopefully his issue doesn't get ignored and he regains access.

I assume if he was hacked there's atleast some indications of unauthorized access.

[Pmalek]

The best course of action as far as proving account ownership is concerned is for the member to at least stake a bitcoin address. That way, if the worst should happen and the forum account is compromised, it should be relatively easy to sign a message and have access to the account returned.

It's unfortunately too late to do that in this scenario because the breech already happened, and unless OP already has such a signed message, it's not going to help him to prove he is the original owner by signing a message now. He can prove it by signing a message from any address he posted in an unedited Bitcointalk post prior to the hack, though.

An additional problem is that the admins are probably trying to figure out if the account was hacked or if it was the user who posted those infected files. It's unlikely it was the real harizen, but it's still an offence that warrants a permanent ban for the person who did it. That's why this case isn't a simple incident of someone having his account stolen and losing access to it. Content that is against the forum rules was posted from that account.

[JollyGood]

In the scenario you gave, it seems as though the OP has suffered twice.

Firstly, the (alleged) hack and second being him not being able to restore his account in the forum. If the forum admins cannot be sure, they will not allow him access to the account. As he will probably not be granted get access to his forum account, it is advisable for him to at least re-register in order to start building up his new account. Though it will some take time, he will eventually make it on to a signature campaign and can start looking forward rather than back at what he lost.  

For now he is probably very busy dealing with the other issue related to the hack about whether his personal documents and programs were compromised. Going through events such as these is a nightmare I would not wish on anybody.

The best course of action as far as proving account ownership is concerned is for the member to at least stake a bitcoin address. That way, if the worst should happen and the forum account is compromised, it should be relatively easy to sign a message and have access to the account returned.

It's unfortunately too late to do that in this scenario because the breech already happened, and unless OP already has such a signed message, it's not going to help him to prove he is the original owner by signing a message now. He can prove it by signing a message from any address he posted in an unedited Bitcointalk post prior to the hack, though.

An additional problem is that the admins are probably trying to figure out if the account was hacked or if it was the user who posted those infected files. It's unlikely it was the real harizen, but it's still an offence that warrants a permanent ban for the person who did it. That's why this case isn't a simple incident of someone having his account stolen and losing access to it. Content that is against the forum rules was posted from that account.

[Pmalek]

As he will probably not be granted get access to his forum account, it is advisable for him to at least re-register in order to start building up his new account.

Although OP isn't technically permanently banned because his account is locked for security reasons, I wouldn't make a suggestion like creating a new forum account. I am not sure if it's against the rules. Owners of permanently banned accounts can't participate in forum discussions any longer. Not sure how admins look at locked accounts, and if the right recommendation shouldn't be to wait until you know where you stand.