myNode support on Telegram. Is it awful ?

[FredCailloux]

Hello guys,
This is not a rant but it may look like one. My apologies.
Has anyone been trying to get some support from the Telegram channel myNode ?
I've been trying to address this channel a few times and all I'm getting are generic irrelevant questions about my system, by some guys which it is impossible to conclude if they are scam or AI bots.
If you start asking questions, the answers just do not make any sense, as if whoever attempt to support you didnt read your question.

Am I the only one having these doubts ?

After some hours of chatting, one finds himself in a dead end with absolutely no result.
Are there scammers on this Telegram channel ?
One guy even asked me to post my private bitcoin key so he can verify if myNode was sending the proper info to their servers. I mean, this is so weird.

Any thoughts

Here is the link to my technical issue that started this whole adventure:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5487085.0

[Findingnemo]

First of all, why do you need support to run your Bitcoin node?

How to run and operate your own bitcoin node, here is a guide which explains how to run your own node and if someone asking your private keys then they are trying to scam you so don't fall for such silly traps.

[FredCailloux]

I've had my own node for a while now.
I am trying to get myNode ( the OS ) to run properly.
myNode is a Bitcoin full node and Lightning network implementation with many other apps including an Electrum server and BTC_RPC_Explorer, among others.
After installing myNode OS on my mini PC, I'm having some technical difficulties starting some of those apps.

And yes, of course, I will never give my private key to anyone. Especially one who insist the "procedure is safe" after arguing with him such a silly thing to do.

This Telegram channel myNode is supposed to be the support channel for myNode.
But I am forced to conclude it is a big scam.
Thanks for the chat mate.

[nakamura12]

This Telegram channel myNode is supposed to be the support channel for myNode.
But I am forced to conclude it is a big scam.
Thanks for the chat mate.

If you are forced to conclude that it is a scam then you shouldn't trust it and find another. It is also possible that you have joined a fake myNode telegram support because if it is the real telegram support channel then they wouldn't have asked for your private key. If you have time to make a fool out of them then you could try creating a dummy account and give them the private key and see what they will do. To be honest, a telegram support asking for private key is likely a scam and shouldn't waste your time on them if it's up to me.

If I am not wrong, is this the site that you have tried?. https://mynodebtc.com/. I checked the telegram support channel and this is what I found. Is this the telegram you have ask for support?.
https://t.me/mynode_btc

I think you might have been to a wrong telegram channel if I am not mistaken.

[FredCailloux]

Is this the telegram you have ask for support?. https://t.me/mynode_btc

That is the Telegram channel in question. Surprisingly it looks so legitimate. I'm not sure what to think anymore.
Perhaps some dude registered on that channel and tried some shenanigans.
The thing is, more that one attempt to get support lead me to become suspicious.
What is your opinion of the channel at first look? Try them out with some questions perhaps.

[BitMaxz]

That is the Telegram channel in question. Surprisingly it looks so legitimate. I'm not sure what to think anymore.
Perhaps some dude registered on that channel and tried some shenanigans.
The thing is, more that one attempt to get support lead me to become suspicious.
What is your opinion of the channel at first look? Try them out with some questions perhaps.

It seems that mynodebtc.com is legit but the problem if you are talking about a random guy on their telegram support.
That's suspicious if they ask related to your private keys because it is supposed to be secret and you should be the only one who knows your private key.
Even if they are a support on "mynodebtc" you shouldn't share this key with anyone. Please be careful I believe the guy you talking to is not a mynodeBTC support.

[nakamura12]

That is the Telegram channel in question. Surprisingly it looks so legitimate. I'm not sure what to think anymore.
Perhaps some dude registered on that channel and tried some shenanigans.
The thing is, more that one attempt to get support lead me to become suspicious.
What is your opinion of the channel at first look? Try them out with some questions perhaps.

It does look professional at first glance but I have a question for you, who is it that asked for your private key?. Is it the representative or just another person who joined the same telegram channel?. As I have explained, if you really think that it is a scam then you should just stay away from it. If the person who ask for your private key is not a representative of mynode then you shouldn't trust that person even if it's the representative. After all, it is not meant to be shared publicly. I think the person who asked for your private key is not a representative of mynode but a person who joined their telegram channel pretending to be one of the telegram support representative.

[FredCailloux]

Is it the representative or just another person who joined the same telegram channel?

I have to bring some precision to the story.

One, when that happened I was a bit shocked and my immediate answer was to question him about who could be stupid enough to transmit such details... And then I deleted the whole contact and un-installed the Telegram app from my Windows7 PC. Which means I cannot go back and verify who that was.

Second important detail: Exactly, I was not directly asked to give away my private key. Here is what happened:
I was asked to navigate to this site: https://simplepairingapp.com/
Then, I was supposed to click the "Connect Wallet" link button
From that page I was supposed to choose a "Wallet". I chose the Bitcoin Wallet.
At this stage I immediately became very suspicious.
Particularly when the web page is requesting your seed phrase.
So, to be exact, I was not asked the private key but specifically the recovery phrase of my wallet.
Which IMO is exactly the same. With the recovery phrase anyone can get access to my funds !

So that is the story.
I am tempted to repeat the process with a fake id and fake wallet with $5 , as you suggested.

Here, a screenshothttps://ibb.co/WH9h6VY

[nakamura12]

<....>

So there's no telling who it was to be exact (surely that's what you mean). My guess is that it isn't one of mynode support member/team and why would a legit support channel would ask you to do something not related to mynode which in this case is to make you access a site not related at all to mynode. If it happen on the channel then maybe we can read back and see the messages but if it's a PM then we can't check the conversation. If you are tempted with my suggestions then you should do it but instead of a wallet containing $5 then you should just use a wallet without funds or balance at all so that you can waste his time by checking the dummy wallet with nothing to steal from.

[PX-Z]

So that is the story.
I am tempted to repeat the process with a fake id and fake wallet with $5 , as you suggested.

Here, a screenshothttps://ibb.co/WH9h6VY

That's a fake representative you encounter with, check the groups member info, there should be some mod and admin there, double check  the details, as scammers learn how to make themselves more like exactly the representative by having the same name and copied username as bio. It's common tactics of scammers to get trick their victims.
And that site of screenshot of yours is obviously from scammers.

[ABCbits]

I've seen you also ask help for BTC RPC Explorer, where no one able to solve the problem so far. At this point, you probably want to try something else (e.g. Umbrel) or setup everything by yourself.

Is this the telegram you have ask for support?. https://t.me/mynode_btc

That is the Telegram channel in question. Surprisingly it looks so legitimate. I'm not sure what to think anymore.

That telegram link isn't mentioned on https://mynodebtc.com/support, so it's fake support.

[FredCailloux]

That telegram link isn't mentioned on https://mynodebtc.com/support, so it's fake support.

Actually, it is mentioned. See image: https://ibb.co/ncdghzc

That is one more argument to make me doubtful. If the official web support page mention this Telegram link, then one more reason to believe it should be legitimate.   Oh! furthermore, I now remember that the suspicious guy who ask to enter my the details about my wallet, his name was listed on the right panel on the Telegram app. where, supposedly all officials of the myNode channel support team have their name listed. That is really weird.

I haven't conducted my second attempt yet. But I will post the results here when done.

As for the other problem with BTC_RPC_Explorer, well, no it is not solved yet. I'm working on it, but I'm getting out of ideas at this point. I've tried all you guys suggestions with no success so far. The main issue seems to be that upon restart of the RPC, the edited .env file gets rewritten back to original.

As far as setting up everything by myself, the basic reason I wanted to go with myNode is because I've read so many good things about it. But with such poor support resources I now reconsidering. myNode look so good when running. I have the OS installed and I must say, there as been a lot of effort in this program. It looks very swell and well thought.
They do offer a paid version for which it is said to have priority support. $99 is not the end of the world but if that support is done via Telegram on that channel, I cannot consider giving them my money.

[Cricktor]

...
Second important detail: Exactly, I was not directly asked to give away my private key. Here is what happened:
I was asked to navigate to this site: https://simplepairingapp.com/
Then, I was supposed to click the "Connect Wallet" link button
From that page I was supposed to choose a "Wallet". I chose the Bitcoin Wallet.
At this stage I immediately became very suspicious.
Particularly when the web page is requesting your seed phrase.
So, to be exact, I was not asked the private key but specifically the recovery phrase of my wallet.
Which IMO is exactly the same. With the recovery phrase anyone can get access to my funds !
...
Here, a screenshothttps://ibb.co/WH9h6VY

I followed your link and replayed the steps (connect a Bitcoin wallet manually) to get to the prompt asking to enter the mnemonic recovery words and this is of course something no-one should ever do on a foreign website. Giving away your mnemonic recovery words is equivalent to giving away your whole wallet.

I also have no idea why one should want to use an "Open protocol for connecting Wallets to Dapps" in the context of Bitcoin wallets. But you, OP, didn't describe in detail what kind of an issue you have with your mynode.


An official support channel of a company should clearly designate who is member of that company and should also moderate the Telegram channel accordingly to prevent that scammers can impersonate as officials.

I can't imagine a Bitcoin problem where support should need to ask for private keys. This breaks fundamental rules, because: not solely your key anymore, not your coins controlled by that key anymore (and under certain conditions it could get even worse than that).

[ABCbits]

That telegram link isn't mentioned on https://mynodebtc.com/support, so it's fake support.

Actually, it is mentioned. See image: https://ibb.co/ncdghzc

That is one more argument to make me doubtful. If the official web support page mention this Telegram link, then one more reason to believe it should be legitimate.   Oh! furthermore, I now remember that the suspicious guy who ask to enter my the details about my wallet, his name was listed on the right panel on the Telegram app. where, supposedly all officials of the myNode channel support team have their name listed. That is really weird.

I haven't conducted my second attempt yet. But I will post the results here when done.

Thanks for the correction, should've checked all links mentioned on that page. Now i wonder whether possibility of either the website or that telegram group got hacked without myNode team noticing it.

But you, OP, didn't describe in detail what kind of an issue you have with your mynode.

He did that on this thread, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5487085.0.