A little ignorance and you can lose all your holdings

[Troytech]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

Lesson learnt: always be smart about your holdings, cyrpto currency by nature is so easy to steal if someone has access to the right things, it's just like giving a brief case containing your documents to your properties or maybe a million dollar to someone to open it for you and when he does what happens, do you expect him to be honest about it, although for now we are unsure it was stolen by the specialist but all arrows lead to him.

I think people should get more educated about bitcoin even before teaching them to accumulate it cause if they are not careful they end up losing it and think about losing 8 years with of accumulated bitcoin just for a ignorant decision like this.

Here Is a link to the post on Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.

Am sure he is just one of the victim of those that advertise their services on recovering service for a lost wallet recovery seeds, keys, or even the coins if lost, if am to ask him, what i will do first is to ask about how he met the person that repair his hard drive, so far as am concern, i don't think there's any guarantee means of fixing a hard drive once its damage except on a minor case, how also did the maintenance guy know about the content on his hard drive, maybe he needs to sue him if he really wanted him to confess.

[Churchillvv]

This just another story of a victim of circumstances, the 50yrs old and above man was lucky to have accumulated such an amount of Bitcoin but the truth is "mistakes are inevitable" he was just unlucky to have lost his assets just with a little mistakes which he was ignorant of.

taking a closer look at the event there are some very few reasons to doubt the story if the coin being mined as at 2012 based on what someone unveiled in the comments[1] which is based on the tx time stamp and fees.

If he had been keeping up with the assets since cumulation he would have gotten alot of knowledge to change his wallet long ago. because maybe the wallet he used was one of the weak wallets but at that time it was strong, better wallets had evolve since then but because he lacks knowledge of them or had not been in touch with his accumulation had lead to lost of funds. even if one wants a long term investment he or she should at least be around information concerning his asset the age is never an excuse to me because there are some forum members who are even other but yet they manage and maintain their bitcoins.

One major lesson that must be learned from this story is "do not store your keys (private keys/seed phrase) online" [Not your keys, not your coin]. although there are some measures that is now in existence like encryption etc yet offline is still the very best. not just storing your keys online but even in the USB disks just like this event that it got corrupted so a USB disk can also be corrupted.

Additionally, this is a more reason for hardware wallet recommendation, a good cold storage wallet and wallet maintenance because it's not just only about buying it's also include holding so wallet security (storage) should also be paramount.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/comment/kqolk5i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[Upgrade00]

cyrpto currency by nature is so easy to steal if someone has access to the right things,

This is like saying your house by nature is easy to break into if you give someone the keys. That is not the nature of Bitcoin, it just means if you give up what signifies access to something, you've handed over that access to someone else.

[Cricktor]

By no means a complete list of faults and bad practice done here by the owner who lost ~276BTC.

• No redundant copies on other storage media of the wallet (relying on (cheap?) single flash thumbdrive media, seriously!?)
• No strong password protection of the wallet or it completely missing (maybe password was also stored on the thumbdrive which is stupid)
• Doing nothing to ensure a safer storage e.g. by end of 2017 when Bitcoin's value had a significant five-digit ATH. In March 2012 those ~276BTC were worth about 1240$. At time of stealing it were roughly 7 million $$. Today it's more than 14.3 millions. Moving coins to a decent hardware wallet with redundant storage of mnemonic recovery words could've prevented such a desaster (the data recovery guy clearly lied to the thumbdrive owner about the fate of the wallet's coins).

I'll stop here, that's already bad and reckless enough.

[darkangel11]

I don't believe this story because it raises too many questions.
-why did that person hold so much money on a single drive?
-why was there no password protection or a very weak one, so that the "specialist" was able to to gain access?
How do I know he gained access? He knew the money was transferred out of that wallet. Without a password he wouldn't be able to even see the addresses, so the wallet most likely wasn't protected or had a very weak password like 1234 or something like that.
-why was there no backup? I used a core wallet in 2014 and I had multiple wallet.dat files backed in other places and all wallets were password protected.
-why did he give that drive to someone? With that kind of money you can literally make them drive to your house, or you drive to their company and watch the process. If you offer 1 bitcoin to someone to recover the wallet, they'll fly to your home with all their gear.

[Saint-loup]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

Lesson learnt: always be smart about your holdings, cyrpto currency by nature is so easy to steal if someone has access to the right things, it's just like giving a brief case containing your documents to your properties or maybe a million dollar to someone to open it for you and when he does what happens, do you expect him to be honest about it, although for now we are unsure it was stolen by the specialist but all arrows lead to him.

I think people should get more educated about bitcoin even before teaching them to accumulate it cause if they are not careful they end up losing it and think about losing 8 years with of accumulated bitcoin just for a ignorant decision like this.

Here Is a link to the post on Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

I don't understand how you can lose such amount to be honest, you should always safeguard your HD seed in the safe place. And if your bag isn't stored into an HD wallet with a known seed, you should transmit your funds ASAP into this kind of wallet in order to protect them. With an HD seed you need to keep and to use any digital files, you can safely write it down on a paper.

[DaNNy001]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

Well am suprised even to hear the possibility of someone having such amount of Bitcoin and still being so naive and clumsy to fall for such stories although no one can be certain on the story about the Bitcoin actually being stolen but I think the guy should have done his own research and kept his holdings more flexible because I know for sure if am having such coins, I would rather prefer saving it in an offline cold wallet where nothing like hack stories would be told because that's the last thing I will hate to hear about Bitcoin that I have saved up for a long time.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Well am suprised even to hear the possibility of someone having such amount of Bitcoin and still being so naive and clumsy to fall for such stories although no one can be certain on the story about the Bitcoin actually being stolen...[...]

I'm just as surprised as you are.. but we've got some dull set of Internet freaks that would not pay attention to details, no matter how big the instructions must have been inscripted on them magazines and journals...
it doesn't harm much to believe this must have happened ( cus it's quite unbelievable), but the dude must be pretty witless to have accepted to hand over his coins to an operator...

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

If what is actually contained in that hardware wallet is up to 276 bitcoin, then I see it as a big risk to have it sent to be fixed. To get a new hardware wallet, it would have just cost him not more than $200, and then he could just move out of his crypto asset to the new one he bought. If the old hardware got so bad that it could not be used by him, he would have bought a new one, set it up and collected the address, then go along with the address to the technician shops and wait for him to fix it up. Then he just immediately moved out of his asset, but it seems he was less concerned because of the trust he had in the technician. If anyone should be responsible for that theft, then I suspect the technician or it could just be a crooked up story. In real life, I don't think anyone would be willing to take such kind of risk.

[hatshepsut93]

taking a closer look at the event there are some very few reasons to doubt the story if the coin being mined as at 2012 based on what someone unveiled in the comments[1] which is based on the tx time stamp and fees.

To me this story immediately sounded suspicious, because 276 coins is not a small amount, it was already quite a sum in 2017, surely the person who supposedly mined them in 2012 would check on their coins during a bull run? And then during the 2021 bull run?

Perhaps OP is trying to use community effort to doxx that transactions. There's a saying that if you want to get the right answer on the Internet, you should post a wrong one yourself and wait to be corrected, maybe it's something like that.

[BlackBoss_]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

He did bad at start.

Bad by having no back up for his wallets.

At the end, when his hard drive was broken technically, he has no other choices than bringing it to a third-party repairing, data recovery service, to retrieve data exclusively his wallet files.

He had no other choices than that if he can not recover data by himself.

However, another lesson is he should choose a trusted service, not a random, new one without long history of service operation. By the way, whatever service he chooses, he must afford to lose his bitcoin. No guarantee that any service will help him successfully recover data, wallet files or don't steal his bitcoins.

Back up. Back up. Test your back up. You will not fall into such nightmare.

[cryptoaddictchie]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.

So thats it? Maybe indeed its broken but isnt it a bit ironic to say its broken that eventually they only should fix the hard drive but they mentioned it was stolen how come they know that means they have been access to it? What a shit show if ever! Poor guy that they really probably stolen that.

[LogitechMouse]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

Lesson learnt: always be smart about your holdings, cyrpto currency by nature is so easy to steal if someone has access to the right things, it's just like giving a brief case containing your documents to your properties or maybe a million dollar to someone to open it for you and when he does what happens, do you expect him to be honest about it, although for now we are unsure it was stolen by the specialist but all arrows lead to him.
~

TBH, I can't even think if this story is true or not. I mean it's Reddit. I can also share there that I'm an early adopter of Bitcoin, invested heavily in it, bought 100 BTC in the early 2010s, lost it, made a made-up story for it, and let people sympathize for me but in reality, it wasn't true at all.

The owner bought 276 Bitcoins yes. Didn't he think of ways how to at least keep it as secure as possible? It's only 2 things. It's either the owner is a complete idiot that he didn't secure his 276 Bitcoins, or this is just a made-up bullsh*t story. If this is true though, I feel jealous of that data recovery specialist because he got that amount of Bitcoins for "FREE". I mean what are the odds that something like that might happen to you?

I don't believe in that story. Buying that much amount of Bitcoins, and you don't even know how to secure it?

[Troytech]

Well am suprised even to hear the possibility of someone having such amount of Bitcoin and still being so naive and clumsy to fall for such stories although no one can be certain on the story about the Bitcoin actually being stolen...[...]

I'm just as surprised as you are.. but we've got some dull set of Internet freaks that would not pay attention to details, no matter how big the instructions must have been inscripted on them magazines and journals...
it doesn't harm much to believe this must have happened ( cus it's quite unbelievable), but the dude must be pretty witless to have accepted to hand over his coins to an operator...

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

Yeah the story sounds so lame to me that someone would be so clumsy and worst of all super careless, just Like handing over  diamond vault to a cracker and not having any preventive measures to ensure he doesn't steal anything or maybe staying their to watch.

But here comes the funny part how did the specialist know that they was a bitcoin key phrase or something related in the hard drive, unless the funky guy must have blabbed all about it to him. Making the story even looking more made up. I don't know what to believe tho, but the purpose of the thread is to tell everyone that such stupid mistakes can still happen and we should all be extra careful about out holdings and make smart decisions.

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

Lesson learnt: always be smart about your holdings, cyrpto currency by nature is so easy to steal if someone has access to the right things, it's just like giving a brief case containing your documents to your properties or maybe a million dollar to someone to open it for you and when he does what happens, do you expect him to be honest about it, although for now we are unsure it was stolen by the specialist but all arrows lead to him.
~

TBH, I can't even think if this story is true or not. I mean it's Reddit. I can also share there that I'm an early adopter of Bitcoin, invested heavily in it, bought 100 BTC in the early 2010s, lost it, made a made-up story for it, and let people sympathize for me but in reality, it wasn't true at all.

The owner bought 276 Bitcoins yes. Didn't he think of ways how to at least keep it as secure as possible? It's only 2 things. It's either the owner is a complete idiot that he didn't secure his 276 Bitcoins, or this is just a made-up bullsh*t story. If this is true though, I feel jealous of that data recovery specialist because he got that amount of Bitcoins for "FREE". I mean what are the odds that something like that might happen to you?

I don't believe in that story. Buying that much amount of Bitcoins, and you don't even know how to secure it?

I thought so too at first, but then i came across a Comment that says the bitcoin was really in the address he shared.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/kqoo29n?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/kqolk5i?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/kqog26u?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/kqof8za?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

All these comments make the story seem true, but I could still be a gang up of liers who knows what they are up to

Edit. My mistake . I didn’t look at the amounts that came into his wallet

[lovesmayfamilis]

All these comments make the story seem true, but I could still be a gang up of liers who knows what they are up to

Everything is fine, but have you followed the movement of bitcoins? Funds were regularly received into the wallet, and it would no longer be possible to call this a one-time purchase. The withdrawal to another wallet was only in September 2023, and before that, annual injections may indicate that the so-called brother understood or knew what he was doing.

It's quite strange behavior, isn't it?

Edit. My mistake . I didn’t look at the amounts that came into his wallet. But then the question arises: was someone watching this wallet?

[Ever-young]

I came across the post on Reddit about a guy that took this hard drive that he stored his bitcoin to a data recovery specialist to fix it, who told him that his 276 bitcoin has been stolen, wait a minute how, his hard drive was bad and gave it to you to fix it and then you told him it was stolen.
It's a shame how people would still act so unwise with their holdings, I know its not his fault that his hard drive got bad but at least he should have taken some measures to secure his holdings, and now there is no proff that the so called data recovery specialist was the one who stole it or not.

Lesson learnt: always be smart about your holdings, cyrpto currency by nature is so easy to steal if someone has access to the right things, it's just like giving a brief case containing your documents to your properties or maybe a million dollar to someone to open it for you and when he does what happens, do you expect him to be honest about it, although for now we are unsure it was stolen by the specialist but all arrows lead to him.

I think people should get more educated about bitcoin even before teaching them to accumulate it cause if they are not careful they end up losing it and think about losing 8 years with of accumulated bitcoin just for a ignorant decision like this.

Here Is a link to the post on Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1as7agq/bitcoin_core/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

What?
Who even leaves such an amount of Bitcoin on a software wallet? That's just preposterous.
Indeed, ignorance and mediocrity can cost someone a great deal. I believe he didn't know that the safest way to store Bitcoin was through the Hardware wallets because if he had chosen to store his holdings via a hardware wallet, there's no fucking way he would have been this unfortunate.

[Coyster]

It is pertinent to have more than one backup of your wallet, if one of your flashdrives goes bad, you have another one to fall back to, you must also have your seed phrase on paper in addition to your flashdrive back up. Under no circumstance should your drive containing your Bitcoins ever get into the hands of a third party.

I believe he didn't know that the safest way to store Bitcoin was through the Hardware wallets because if he had chosen to store his holdings via a hardware wallet, there's no fucking way he would have been this unfortunate.

A person who can take their flashdrive containing a large amount of BTC to a data recovery person can obviously use a hardware wallet and still somehow lose their seed phrase stored on paper or mistakenly show it to someone else.

[Ever-young]

It is pertinent to have more than one backup of your wallet, if one of your flashdrives goes bad, you have another one to fall back to, you must also have your seed phrase on paper in addition to your flashdrive back up. Under no circumstance should your drive containing your Bitcoins ever get into the hands of a third party.

I believe he didn't know that the safest way to store Bitcoin was through the Hardware wallets because if he had chosen to store his holdings via a hardware wallet, there's no fucking way he would have been this unfortunate.

A person who can take their flashdrive containing a large amount of BTC to a data recovery person can obviously use a hardware wallet and still somehow lose their seed phrase stored on paper or mistakenly show it to someone else.

So the method used in storing someone’s holding doesn’t really matter much unless the person who is holding and making use of the wallet is careful enough.

One can still use the best wallet with the highest safety measure and still lose there money if they don’t take security seriously. Ignorant and what someone did not know is really a bad thing.

[Awaklara]

I think people should get more educated about bitcoin even before teaching them to accumulate it cause if they are not careful they end up losing it and think about losing 8 years with of accumulated bitcoin just for a ignorant decision like this.

this would be human error. It's not the device, the wallet security, or the thief at fault. Such user errors can occur, even regarding selecting seeds stored on a particular device. When a device is damaged and requires recovery, the risk of losing assets becomes greater.
We must be wiser in managing our wallet seeds. many events can be our experience. Hopefully, that won't be the experience we experience ourselves. we have been warned, then we must be more careful.