Is this a dusting attack? Could it be the FBI watching me?

[edward500]

I noticed I have 2 .00001 BTC deposits in one of my wallets. One was from 2022 and one was a month ago.

I have no idea where they came from.

This got me thinking when someone told me here that the FBI may watch my bitcoin transfers from coinbase and I should use a blender.

The reason is because I tried sending a small donation to a Russian owned website from Coinbase and Coinbase stopped the transfer and they forced me to answer why I was trying to send money to a USA sanctioned bitcoin address.

Is it at all possible that those odd .00001 BTC is the FBI trying to watch me or would they have better means to do that?

[Hatchy]

It's possible, and also might just be some scammers trying to monitor your wallet as well.. it a dust attack as you said and you may be under watch by the authorities... Wonder why you wanted o donate to a sanctioned address  Just be careful out there pal..

[Nwada001]

Wonder why you wanted o donate to a sanctioned address  Just be careful out there pal..

Donation isn't a bad thing irrespective of who it's been sent to; the Op might not be aware that the address is a sanctioned one in the first place, which made him use Coinbase to send out that donation directly before the bounced it back and queried him or her.
 
It's not even a good idea to conduct such kind of spending directly from an exchange account, knowing fully well that they have a lot of sick policies that are never in the favour of the customer.

[BitMaxz]

It happened to me before even my wallet addresses were not posted to the public. I don't know if someone monitors my wallet addresses, but I never posted them to any sites.

I suggest if you want to avoid these dust attacks, create a new wallet and convert it to USDT. There are some instant exchanges out there that prioritize your privacy. You can also use decentralized P2P exchange and buy BTC later to a new wallet.

[batang_bitcoin]

That's the main purpose of dust attack and so wherever they are the FBI or not, they're monitoring your transfer and that's why you either do something or don't do anything at all. If you want to get rid of that and it's exhausting your mind, do what bitmax said to convert it through instant exchanges like orangefren or exch.

[promise444c5]

Yeah it could be but there're many possibilities but dust attack is mainly  to trace identity if coming from an attacker.. you can just place the address on freeze  if you have no balance on such address before or make use of the coin control if your wallet supports  it, Electrum is a good example..With coin control, you can select UTXOs to use as output, or you can just place the particular UTXO  on freeze (if you  have other UTXOs within same address, you just have a lot of options to select...)
Ae you still using coinbase or you've switched to a noncustodial  wallet... because they might do that to keep you on their radar I think.

[uchegod-21]

I noticed I have 2 .00001 BTC deposits in one of my wallets. One was from 2022 and one was a month ago.

Op, this is looking like you have 2.00001 BTC deposit in your wallet. That is huge to imagine for a random transfer. You can edit it and say this; I have two .00001 BTC. Just for express clarity.

I have no idea where they came from.

The Blockchain is transparent. Trace it and see if it sends a fix amount like .00001 to multiple addresses, you could have a clue.

The reason is because I tried sending a small donation to a Russian owned website from Coinbase and Coinbase stopped the transfer and they forced me to answer why I was trying to send money to a USA sanctioned bitcoin address.

Is it at all possible that those odd .00001 BTC is the FBI trying to watch me or would they have better means to do that?

It's likely FBI watching you. Trust your intent. Coinbase must have marked and forwarded your address to them. You don't make donations to restricted regions from an exchange.
Don't use any mixer for now in order not to complicate issues, unless you have a cockroach in your cupboard.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

It can be dust attacks and if you are worrying about these dusts, you can freeze these UTXOs and don't use them in your wallet.

[Guide] Dust Attack, what it is, why it is dangerous and how to prevent falling to it

[hugeblack]

Dusting attack is more related to your privacy than it is a security threat, so you should use a well-programmed wallet that allows you to freeze transactions that you do not want to be included or the coincontrol feature, and then broadcast the transaction via Tor or run a full node via Tor.


I don't think the FBI would do this but they do cooperate with services like Chainalysis^[1] that do such attacks (in addition to running some electrum nodes^[2]), don't forget scammers or a friend trying to find out your balance.


[1] https://www.chainalysis.com/
[2] Chainalysis runs Electrum nodes

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Is it at all possible that those odd .00001 BTC is the FBI trying to watch me or would they have better means to do that?

If I may ask, why will a Federal Government Agency send ordinary 0.00001 BTC into your wallet address, which is less than a dollar just to watch you? Or how much have you got in your Coinbase Bitcoin wallet address or account in total, are they up to 7 figures? (I.e million dollars), Because that's the only reason that might make FBI try to monitor you in other to investigate and know If the money you have were a product of fraud or either money laundering. Hence, inasmuch as the amount sent is less than a dollar, it likely to be a dusting attack. So please be careful, Christmas is around the corner, and as such scammers will try every means to scam people of their hard earn money.

[MusaMohamed]

If I may ask, why will a Federal Government Agency send ordinary 0.00001 BTC into your wallet address, which is less than a dollar just to watch you? Or how much have you got in your Coinbase Bitcoin wallet address or account in total, are they up to 7 figures? (I.e million dollars), Because that's the only reason that might make FBI try to monitor you in other to investigate and know If the money you have were a product of fraud or either money laundering. Hence, inasmuch as the amount sent is less than a dollar, it likely to be a dusting attack.

Dust attacks can be from any people, not only from government like FBI.

Dust attacks can be done manually or with tools, and if you have fund, want to do dust attack, you can do it, no one can stop you. It's only up to you whether you see dust attack means something for you.

[INFO - DISCUSSION] Bitcoin Dust Limit.

[AVE5]

I noticed I have 2 .00001 BTC deposits in one of my wallets. One was from 2022 and one was a month ago.

I have no idea where they came from.

This got me thinking when someone told me here that the FBI may watch my bitcoin transfers from coinbase and I should use a blender.

The reason is because I tried sending a small donation to a Russian owned website from Coinbase and Coinbase stopped the transfer and they forced me to answer why I was trying to send money to a USA sanctioned bitcoin address.

Is it at all possible that those odd .00001 BTC is the FBI trying to watch me or would they have better means to do that?

With all being said, I haven't been able to figure where you've engaged on illegal transactions so either FB or what, just be more concious so that you don't fall into fraudsters

[ABCbits]

The reason is because I tried sending a small donation to a Russian owned website from Coinbase and Coinbase stopped the transfer and they forced me to answer why I was trying to send money to a USA sanctioned bitcoin address.

Is it at all possible that those odd .00001 BTC is the FBI trying to watch me or would they have better means to do that?

I doubt FBI would do that, when they could just ask for your data from Coinbase, other financial service you use or blockchain analysis company. And AFAIK there are ways to obtain such data without warrant.