Don't wait till you get home

[Outhue]

I wouldn't hold anyone for keeping their coins safe in anyway they feel it's best, it's a good thing that this OPs friend react very fast like that, even if it was possible that those cops have their ways of extraing recovery seed he have just escaped the hack already, don't blame him for reacting that fast even though it's clear that they don't understand the hardware wallet. Since this person's bitcoin remains intact it's all well and good, people should focus on learning from what this person did, if that wallet isn't a hardware wallet maybe people will be praising that person, anyways, he reacted correctly and I like that.

[Peanutswar]

He had his hardware wallet on him and they forced him to unlock it.
That one thing that hardware wallet does right is the ability to not show balance straight up.

So this means in the first place they already monitored your cousin that he is using a cryptocurrency, but the question is why did he bring is hardware wallet on his side I mean basically you keep it if you are using for a long term hodling.

[..]It was when it all makes sense to me, it is possible that after they drove off they will try to drain the wallet, he doesn't wait to get to my place before he moved all the bitcoin out to a hot wallet.

A few minutes wasted could turned into a horrible event, I liked that he doesn't waste any time.

So, meaning he also brings the seed phrase by this side, even with the hardware wallet.. which is not really safe to do.

But good initiative because he already anticipated that he would get home is he managed to end up losing most of his funds, it's the best action been made here just few seconds or minutes get delayed and access already the hardware wallet most of your hard earned funds will get vanish in an instant. But I do not recommend storing your funds in just a single basket. This could be a lesson to scatter most of your assets so if the other get damage its just a portion not all of them.

[dezoel]

I do not think that any cop in my nation would be smart enough to do something like this lol. But aside from that, yeah you should of course be careful, and if something happens that makes you question it, do it asap and do no wait.

I once got an email at 5 am someone trying to hack into my wallet, while they did fail in the end, I moved in just case and this happened like nearly the morning.

So yeah, you do not go like "I will wait until I wake up in a few hours" by then it may have been gone.

[Oshio-man]

Now I know the reason why some bitcoin holders don't move with their phone or laptop that contains their wallets and seeds phase because anything can happen that will make what happen to your friend to happen to you. we all know that majority of citizens know what is bitcoin and they have ideas on bitcoin wallets because the moment they saw wallets in your phone or laptop your life is at risk, they will conclude that you are bitcoin investors or holders and they can trance you to know where you live and when you use to come back home.

[WatChe]

If I talk about my country then cops are not allowed to seize someone crypto like the incident OP has mentioned. There are agencies designated to investigate issues related to crypto and they perform necessary legal procedures before calling someone for crypto investigations. I guess situation is same in other countries also. Having said that we need to remain vigilant about security of our crypto assets even in front of cops because in case they are gone it's impossible to recover them again.

[JoyMarsha]

In a country, where there is a high level of insecurity, coupled with police being on the roadside to stop and search citizens of the country, you don't need to be told not to walk around with a hardware wallet or have your Bitcoin stored on your phone.

Your cousin should thank his God that the police men that stopped him don't know much about the hardware wallet on how they operate on it to see the amount of Bitcoin have in it. They would have forced him to send it to them, and he would have learned a hard lesson not to walk around with a hardware wallet like a phone.

However, I see your cousin making the same mistake of moving around with his Bitcoin on his phone, stored on trust wallet. He can preferably have his seed phrase stored in a safe place not on his phone. That kinda approach will save him a lot from police and armed robbers taking his save Bitcoin by force

[savetheFORUM]

Is the story real? 

I don't think so. The whole thing sounds like a fiction to me. Who takes their hardware and recovery seed on a stroll to a friend's house?

Last time, there is an influencer who lost his hardware wallet while having a vacation on another country, although I think it is more justifiable because he may be needing more money, or his hardware wallet may be in danger if he leave it on his house for more days of not being at home. As for the guy in our story, maybe he is going to do a transaction with the OP?

Or it can also be a brag but with proof to make things more believable. If so, then that is a true example of ''high risk but no reward' phrase that I kept seeing in the social media lately . In regards with the wallet, it is not the main issue though that he picked up Trust wallet for transferring his coins but I think a more experienced crypto user, can prefer another more safer wallet or an open source type (just in case).

[ImGenius]

-snip-

Are they real cop? If they somehow get recovery phase they may not get fund after your cousin transfer it to trust wallet but cop can find real wallet address through recovery phase. If they check that address on a Blockchain scanner they will immediately find transection record with this evidence they may arrest your cousin if crypto activity is illegal in your country. If they are fake cop they may attack again or maybe they won't. If crypto is illegal in your country don't showoffs your crypto, it can backfire you soon.

[Mahiyammahi]

Op your story is not adding up . Your story doesn't seem entirely credible.

Because it's usually not possible to view or extract the seed phrase from a hardware wallet unless the user provides the PIN, passphrase, or seed phrase themselves. The main purpose of a hardware wallet is to keep the seed phrase secure, so that even if someone gets their hands on the device, they can't easily see it.

Yes, law enforcement can pressure a person to unlock the device or force them to provide the PIN, and in many cases, it's possible to retrieve the seed phrase if it's stored on paper, on a phone, in the form of an image, or in the cloud. But the claim that you can extract the seed phrase just by getting your hands on a locked hardware wallet doesn't quite match reality.

So even if the story is true, it's possible that some important part of the story is missing, or that the story didn't happen the way it's told. At least, the information doesn't match up completely to me.

[ZAINmalik75]

If I talk about my country then cops are not allowed to seize someone crypto like the incident OP has mentioned. There are agencies designated to investigate issues related to crypto and they perform necessary legal procedures before calling someone for crypto investigations. I guess situation is same in other countries also. Having said that we need to remain vigilant about security of our crypto assets even in front of cops because in case they are gone it's impossible to recover them again.

I think based on laws, it is not allowed in any country and not just yours, because the police is supposed to keep the public safe and not to do the opposite, but it all depends on the people on duty and whether they are good and honest or not, because it's not the whole department that is bad, but only a few people or employees from the department who are corrupt and would do things that they are not legally or morally supposed to do, and no one can stop them because you can't open a case or anything against them or report them since you won't have any proof to submit if they take the drive away.

Even in our country, there are some police officers who are extremely good, and they wouldn't do anything like that with anyone, but there are also some who would never leave an opportunity if they find one, and opportunities like these are golden for them where they find you somewhere alone and see that you either have good money on you or something like the one they found on this guy, but they will only take the device away if they understand what it is, if they don't know anything about it, the person might be safe.

[Joy- maker]

A few minutes wasted could turned into a horrible event, I liked that he doesn't waste any time.

I am still trying to understand the whole thing, first why will your cousin be moving around with his hardware wallet? as far as i am concerned hardware wallets are supposed to store or kept in a safe place at home, and not to be move around with.

Although, i don't know your country and  i also took a look at your post history to see if i can find the local you usually post on but couldn't find any. Therefore, if you don't mind could you please tell us your country, because i don't understand why corps in your country would force your cousin to open his hardware wallet after knowing that hardware wallets are used to store cryptocurrencies if not criminal act.

[Bushdark]

If you are from a country with high level of insecurity you need to be very smart.
Something happened to my cousin yesterday, some cop stopped him on his way coming to my house.

He had his hardware wallet on him and they forced him to unlock it.
That one thing that hardware wallet does right is the ability to not show balance straight up.

But after he unlocked the hardware wallet the cop guy takes a few step away and keep pressing the hardware wallet, and they found nothing but my cousin noticed that they have camera on them.

After the cop left he instantly installed trust wallet on his phone and move all his fund from the hardware wallet to the trust wallet, I asked him why and he said what if the camera on them captured his recovery seed already? What if they step away from him to get the recovery seed captured?

It was when it all makes sense to me, it is possible that after they drove off they will try to drain the wallet, he doesn't wait to get to my place before he moved all the bitcoin out to a hot wallet.

A few minutes wasted could turned into a horrible event, I liked that he doesn't waste any time.

The best way for you to prevent this from happening again is to make sure to keep the hardware wallet at home, in a safe place that will be hard for anyone to know that something like that is present there. Hardware wallet should not be taken around especially when you know that it can be stolen or thief that knows about it can steal it from you at gun point.

There are some safety analysis we should be taking so that it can prevent us from becoming a victim of hack or hand pocketing from a strange location. Those who have these kind of hardware wallets doesn't take it around because you can not be smarter than people that are looking for ways to steal it.

[JiiBs]

While I wouldn’t say OP is actually lying, I would say the person who narrated the story to OP was definitely not telling a true story.

It is more interesting what drove the OP to convey this "it didn't happen" story to us here.

After going through the OP, the one question that keeps going through my mind is;

Why would the cops just run into any random individual and start going through their things without any reasonable suspicion? it just doesn’t make any sense and they even go the length of having you open your hardware wallet! What are they looking for there, drugs?
It just doesn’t add up and if it’s in Europe where we know cops to wear body cams, then you know they’ve got to stick to protocol especially when the body cams are on.

If it’s in the developing nations, we are very much aware that the cops there don’t wear body cams and at most, don’t even like being recorded on mobile device while conducting both lawful and unlawful duties.

That’s why the story is a little bit sketchy but, I understand the lesson behind which is, having to take precaution when you suspect your seed phrase to have being exposed.

[Chibit01]

If I talk about my country then cops are not allowed to seize someone crypto like the incident OP has mentioned. There are agencies designated to investigate issues related to crypto and they perform necessary legal procedures before calling someone for crypto investigations. I guess situation is same in other countries also. Having said that we need to remain vigilant about security of our crypto assets even in front of cops because in case they are gone it's impossible to recover them again.

Some of the officers are not doing what they are doing because its legal or allowed, they use the privilege and right to stop and search vehicles on the way to extort and loot victims each time they have the chance, like the case shared on the op it's obvious they might want to copy the phrase to the hardware wallet or other means of stealing it but not necessarily investigating the person, given the drive back to the person shows they either don't know what to do or they are afraid of the consequences since it will be an illegal obtaining another person personal property.

[macson]

The security of our assets is our full responsibility. I don't understand why he carries a hardware wallet around with him, but when you live in such a dangerous environment, it's pretty stupid to carry a hardware wallet around with you, given that more people know about Bitcoin these days, and that foolish behavior could make him an easy target for criminals. If I were him, I'd rather keep it somewhere safe; I just don't want to risk carrying something so valuable.

[BlackBoss_]

As for your comment on Trust Wallet being a closed source app, I've been using that crypto wallet for over five years now and I haven't had issues of hacks or scam from it. I don't know if I'm just plainly lucky with using it or it's not really as bad as it's publicized.

You did not have issues but the other people got problems.

And you can not rely on your own luck by continuation of using Trust wallet, that is close source. Security advice is always against close source cryptocurrency wallets.

Nothing bad has ever happened to you with Trust wallet so far, it does not guarantee that nothing terrible will never happen to you in the future with Trust wallet and your fund.

Trust Wallet Browser Extension v2.68 Incident: An Update to Our Community.
Trust Wallet confirms extension hack led to $7 million crypto theft.
Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Hack Drains $8.5M via Shai-Hulud Supply Chain Attack.

[Iranus]

If I talk about my country then cops are not allowed to seize someone crypto like the incident OP has mentioned. There are agencies designated to investigate issues related to crypto and they perform necessary legal procedures before calling someone for crypto investigations. I guess situation is same in other countries also. Having said that we need to remain vigilant about security of our crypto assets even in front of cops because in case they are gone it's impossible to recover them again.

I think based on laws, it is not allowed in any country and not just yours, because the police is supposed to keep the public safe and not to do the opposite, but it all depends on the people on duty and whether they are good and honest or not, because it's not the whole department that is bad, but only a few people or employees from the department who are corrupt and would do things that they are not legally or morally supposed to do, and no one can stop them because you can't open a case or anything against them or report them since you won't have any proof to submit if they take the drive away.

Even in our country, there are some police officers who are extremely good, and they wouldn't do anything like that with anyone, but there are also some who would never leave an opportunity if they find one, and opportunities like these are golden for them where they find you somewhere alone and see that you either have good money on you or something like the one they found on this guy, but they will only take the device away if they understand what it is, if they don't know anything about it, the person might be safe.

I do not know which country OP is from or what the security and political situation is like there. But it is hard to believe that there is any country with laws that allow police officers to inspect and confiscate citizens' property on the street in such a manner.

Or even if the police abuse their power to do so, we still have the right to refuse and demand that they provide legal grounds for their action. The inspection or seizure of citizens' property must follow specific legal procedures and cannot be carried out arbitrarily.

OP story sounds very suspicious.

[FinneysTrueVision]

One oddity in this story lies in your cousin's move of assets from a hardware wallet to a trust wallet. This is a wrong move. How could valuable assets, initially stored in a safe with proven security, be spontaneously moved to a wooden cabinet with a key?

If you only have a variety of assets, there should be better options than a trust wallet, and why choose a trust wallet? You need to explain something to him so he doesn't feel confused.

The most reasonable thing to do would be to wipe the hardware device and create a new seed, then move the funds back. None of this would even be necessary if they used a passphrase to protect their wallet’s seed, although I doubt that the mnemonic seed was actually shown in the first place. The cousin either doesn’t know how hardware wallets work or they were being really paranoid about getting drained.

Using a passphrase is a good idea because you can use a different one than your real passphrase when you are questioned by law enforcement and to them it will look like you are accessing a valid wallet. It technically is valid, but it won’t contain any funds.

[Out of mind]

This person must have made a mistake by carrying his hardware wallet with him, this could have been dangerous if he had not acted wisely. Since after the police took his hardware wallet, he immediately transferred his balances to a hot wallet, this is a wise thing to do. So we should learn from this that one should never travel anywhere with his important things, especially since cryptocurrencies are banned in these countries. To keep his balance safe, he must have left it in a safe place first, if the police could have unlocked the hardware wallet, then this person would have lost all his money. However, since he used his current intelligence to move everything, it has been safe for him and his money, which has taught him from this mistake.

[CryptoYar]

[...]

[...]

It is amazing how many people are starting the use of Hidden passphrase to create lie wallet that can be easily believed. Secondary pass phrase that unlocks second account might be a perfect choice to avoid unpleasant arguing or too much attention from people who demand password, and would look very real to the outside person.

Many people consider wallet to be a physical wallet and private key in it is not security matter. We cant imagine anything worse, besides launching Defi platform, suddenly raising attackers targets ten times over on cold storage to hot wallet due to own felt insecurity during the hardware setup. The only way to move that money into safe environment is to wipe hardware devices and to make new seed phrase.