For some, hardware wallets are the new gold mines

[Z390]

Newbies, avoid buying your Ledger and Trezor hardware wallet or other types of hardware wallet from online stores, they are not the manufacturers of the hardware wallets and these things are complicated, this are not your normal electronics that you can buy anywhere you can find them.
The rate that people are losing their Bitcoin and other coins via hardware wallets this days is increasing in an alarming rate, some scammers in china are ready to spend thousands of dollars on fake hardware wallet motherboards and package them as new for people like you to buy.
Some hardware wallets especially Trezor have now turned into a console hacking and jailbreaking thing where chips are been modified to run some code and get access to whatever needed just like gaming homebrewing like we've seen on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.





This last picture on this post is something I've witnessed before in a open market in my country, they are selling Ledger Nano wallets and the packages looked like something they have opened and resealed again, I knew something was wrong with those hardware wallet.





Find the manufacturers of the hardware wallet you choose to buy and order them, they will be shipped to you anywhere you are in the world, don't risk losing everything you've spent your time and money to gather to scammers, be wise.

Original Ledger platform is Ledger.com while Trezor own is Trezor.io always do your own research before taking a crucial step like this own, ask questions before doing anything crypto wallet related if you are a newbie and lack knowledge, this is one of those reasons why the forum exists.

[_act_]

It is better not to buy Ledger hardware wallet at all because of lack of privacy the hardware wallet company have for their customers and also because it is a close source hardware wallet. Close source because of its secure element.

You can also buy hardware wallet from official reseller, or buy from the company.

I prefer wallet on airgapped device instead which is more private.

[Helena Yu]

I think they're either want to save money or the official resellers are out of stock, so they can't wait and find alternatives. Because that's what happen in my country, the product in official resellers are often out of stock.

If they buy from the official headquarter, they will lost privacy because it's almost impossible to buy something from other countries while stay private.

People really have to raise their suspicion in order to not get scammed.

The best is DIY wallet, unfortunately not everyone can do that.

[Joeboy]

Well said OP.
Let me add something to what you have said: Even those hardware wallet that are sealed and well packaged isn't a guarantee for complete safety. This is because scammers are getting moré better day by day and they can make fake wallets look like the real ones.

One of the most dangerous scam this scammers make use is to preload the wallet with malware or even include fake recovery sheet with pre-filled seed phrase. And once the buyer who has no prior knowledge of how hardware wallet works, enters those words during setup, the scammer simply waits and drains the wallet once funds are deposited.

That is why it is advisable to purchase from the official manufacturer's website. .

[hd49728]

Newbies, avoid buying your Ledger and Trezor hardware wallet or other types of hardware wallet from online stores, they are not the manufacturers of the hardware wallets and these things are complicated, this are not your normal electronics that you can buy anywhere you can find them.

Hardware wallets are cold wallets and recommended as a best wallet type to use. However, people must understand about this wallet, and know how to buy hardware wallets.

[GUIDE] How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way.

Before buying, they must know which brands are open-source hardware wallets.
[LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets.

[aylabadia05]

Buying it directly from the official wallet website is not better than buying through an online store.

Find the manufacturers of the hardware wallet you choose to buy and order them, they will be shipped to you anywhere you are in the world, don't risk losing everything you've spent your time and money to gather to scammers, be wise.

This is what I mean. Instead of taking risks at the end that will be a story of regret, it's better to choose their official manufacturer directly.
If I'm not mistaken, many users do the purchase process with such steps.

[EL MOHA]

I think they're either want to save money or the official resellers are out of stock, so they can't wait and find alternatives. Because that's what happen in my country, the product in official resellers are often out of stock.

If they buy from the official headquarter, they will lost privacy because it's almost impossible to buy something from other countries while stay private.

People really have to raise their suspicion in order to not get scammed.

The best is DIY wallet, unfortunately not everyone can do that.

I am totally in for buying from the official manufacturers this shouldn’t be compromised because it is basically just like someone getting a software from an unofficial website because of some hassles, the reason why many people until now are seriously not buying from the official Manufacturers is because it is not most of these countries that usually get supplies from the this companies most especially the third world companies and as such they result into buying from secondary sources and just like cracked softwares this is usually refurbished and not entirely new.

Also there are countries which seriously have strict bans against the use of bitcoin or cryptocurrency at large so getting stuffs like this shipped there endangers one’s privacy. This is the major reason why I sincerely love airgapped wallet set up as this doesn’t have one to go through this hassles and also safeguards your privacy. The only problem people bring up is the set up procedure and it doesn’t needs some to be tech savvy for them to build it up

[albon]

Some people may resort to other stores, the reason may be that they offer lower prices than official stores. However, for those care about the safety of their assets and are seeking real security, they should only buy from official stores. . As OP mentioned, there are many fake hardware wallets that someone may mistakenly buy, thinking that they can securely hold their coins for the long term, only to later discover that their assets have been completely drained.

It’s important to look for a hardware wallet that is well-established in the market , widely trusted, and also open-source.. For those who cannot afford to buy one, they can create a secure environment similar to a hardware wallet using the Tails operating system and a USB flash drive at a very low cost.

[rdluffy]

I bought my Trezor through Amazon from the official Trezor store
Ledger also has an official store on Amazon
Besides, it's difficult to trust any reseller, even if they're honest; the risk is quite high

I remember that when I bought my Ledger, which was the first hardware wallet I owned, I checked it on the website and even opened the wallet to see if the chips were identical to the original
I didn't open the Trezor because it's quite difficult and can damage it more easily but I checked everything possible and even leave some satoshis as a bait before using for real 

[348Judah]

Newbies, avoid buying your Ledger and Trezor hardware wallet or other types of hardware wallet from online stores, they are not the manufacturers of the hardware wallets and these things are complicated, this are not your normal electronics that you can buy anywhere you can find them.

First advise, don't buy hardware wallet from a third part agent or platform, they may be selling to you a wrong product or could have incorporated something else to attack or spy you after securing one from them, there are official platforms of the producers for each brands where we can get it from.

Secondly, I will advise when choosing between which of the hardware wallet to use, then it's important that we consider trzor and many other ones, except for ledger, because of its privacy bridge, which shows that they can't be trusted with users information with them at the point of securing one or while using it.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Original Ledger platform is Ledger.com while Trezor own is Trezor.io always do your own research before taking a crucial step like this own, ask questions before doing anything crypto wallet related if you are a newbie and lack knowledge, this is one of those reasons why the forum exists.

It's obvious maybe this user wanted a cheap or fast delivery hardware wallet, and as such went further buying from a third party website, while boycotting the official site without considering the risk involved. And right now paying for such huge mistake. Because to be frankly speaking, it really pains me to hear people losing their hard earn money to scammers for just mere simple silly mistakes like this. Because literally if I was to be this individual who have over 4.3 BTC, which is approximately $461,000 to invest in Bitcoin, I wouldn't have mind going straight to Ledger hardware wallet directly from it's headquarter, rather than ordering it online. Because I also noticed platforms like  Amazon, ebay, TikTok shop all have Bitcoin hardware wallet, of which you stand a high risk of buying from there.

[m2017]

It's time for HW manufacturers to start producing the devices in transparent cases, so that the "insides" and build quality could be seen.

With the ledger (despite all their shortcomings), you could choose a transparent case when ordering.

This last picture on this post is something I've witnessed before in a open market in my country, they are selling Ledger Nano wallets and the packages looked like something they have opened and resealed again, I knew something was wrong with those hardware wallet.

Of course, any sensible buyer will feel doubt and suspicion when they see such packaging.

And the scammers haven't learned how to pack properly? They are ready to spend a lot of money on the hardware, but at the same time save on packaging film? It's funny.

Find the manufacturers of the hardware wallet you choose to buy and order them, they will be shipped to you anywhere you are in the world, don't risk losing everything you've spent your time and money to gather to scammers, be wise.

Not at all. Official device manufacturers don't deliver their products to every point in the world. If you look at the countries they deliver to, you will find that many countries are missing.

Therefore, buyers sometimes simply have no other choice (buying a fake HW device is a very bad choice).

[MagicDude4Eva]

I bought my Trezor through Amazon from the official Trezor store

Trezors are not available on Amazon.de. I would rather buy from the official company web-sites.

[nakamura12]

You explained that avoid buying hardware wallets online when you can buy it online on their official website. I would rather say that people should not buyp hardware wallet in an unofficial websites. The image you have showns in this thread explained that someone have their funds stolen from their hardware wallet that is bought from an unofficial store or website which it may have been tampered and resulted in the funds being stolen.

[sokani]

Trezors are not available on Amazon.de. I would rather buy from the official company web-sites.

I just checked Trezor's website, and amazon.de is among the list of resellers. I may be wrong, but I think the reason some persons prefer buying from resellers compared to the manufacturer is because of the shipping cost. As it may attract a lesser shipping fee or nothing when they buy from a reseller. Regardless, I still prefer buying directly from the manufacturer.

[justinlamode]

Things are beginning to go crazy in every area of Bitcoin as hardware wallets which we used to know to be safest is now a target by scammers. It may be convenient to blame people who buy from supposed unofficial sources but if the wallet can be exploited this way, even the official source will be difficult to trust. Imagine losing all funds, hard labor and even time because of simple thing as buying a hardware wallet, such pain will rarely go away.

My simple advice is for people to split their funds into different places and never save them in one medium.

[salad daging]

The safest way to buy directly from the website, such as Trezor or other hardware devices, is much safer than choosing a reseller, even if it is official. For me, this is still a bit questionable.
I know that buying directly from the website incurs high shipping costs to various countries depending on the distance, but there are people who buy from official resellers of these hardware wallets. However, if you want to be safer, then buy directly from the website.

[promise444c5]

It's time for HW manufacturers to start producing the devices in transparent cases, so that the "insides" and build quality could be seen.

Still doesn't  change anything that much although if it's  being tampered with, it should have some defects normally but what if it comes from an expert or what if the whole panel is beign replaced  with a different one along with  replica of the software itself ..Besides, not all people knows about hardware, they can even give them a different branding and still trust it so far it has the name on it, Ledger is not trusted either but for anyone trying to get a HW wallet then going through the official  store is the best option(another thing is not falling for a scam site as well)..
The whole of internet space is so f**ked up  

[dkbit98]

Trezor One is oldest and first ever original hardware wallet, so it's not surprise to see scams and clones coming out.
I would recommend anyone NOT to purchase Trezor One, even if it is coming directly from Trezor, it's probably going to deprecated in next few years.
It's even worse situation for ledger since they are making all their devices as closed source,
it's impossible to see if something was tempered from the inside and scammers are even making near identical packaging this days.

For anyone that is worried about this, you can always make your own DIY hardware wallet.
Something like SeedSigner or Satochip is great, and they can even work combined.

[BABY SHOES]

Wow, that's terrifying... there are counterfeit manufacturers making fake hardware, then selling it to the public as if it were genuine.

Still, if you want to be safer, it's better to read the guide first, as mentioned above, which at least provides some guidance on how to choose hardware and purchase it... when buying from resellers, be cautious because there's a risk it might be counterfeit, so it's better to buy directly from the original manufacturer.

Something like SeedSigner or Satochip is great, and they can even work combined.

Satochip is good hardware... I use it.