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German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

bbc.com

31–40 of 120 posts

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#31
Wow, It's sure is a nice feature that Bitcoin doesn't have any way to dispute charges and that it's mostly anonymous.

This article is yet another amazing illustration of why that's definitely two features you want from something that's intended to be used as a currency.

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#32

I never understand, why people who already have money, want to have more. Personally, I keep my money at the bank, for days when I will have to spend it (Buying things, going on holidays, etc)

So your wealth is constantly shrinking due to inflation?

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#34

Assuming you have a defective moral compass, is there any reason to not run this scam. Easiest $ ever. Twitter nor law enforcement can do anything. The same guys doing it over and over. You can run this scam and make an easy $50-200k with some twitter posts and then use the $ to pay off the mortgage or student loans, or take a cruise, buy a luxury car or whatever. no one would know if you mix the coins before cashing…

Published just today:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/03/i-was-a-teenage-...

Granted this case was much more high profile though.

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#35
post #7

I don’t understand how you can be tech savvy enough to send and (not?) receive Bitcoin but stupid enough to fall for this... EDIT: Thinking about it, it's technically difficult see the difference between Bitcoin (which will continue to be worth more) and other get rich quick schemes that may not have the same chance of success and directly being conned for money by people.

I wonder if the meteoric rise if Bitcoin, and similar recent things like what's going on with /r/wallstreetbets, is causing people's defences to lower with regards to what it a realistic return on investment, so these kind of things don't trigger the alarm bells so much.

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#36
post #17

> the website promised participants that they could double their money. I fell for that, once, when I was 8, with virtual money, playing an online game. How can an adult be this gullible...

Environments in which children can get scammed safely in have been increasingly becoming rarer because people are too soft.

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#38
post #5

> Sebastian double-checked the verification logo next to Elon Musk's name, and then tried to decide whether to send five or 10 Bitcoin. This is a vulnerability in Twitter's verification policy that Twitter refuses to fix. Originally, verification was supposed to mean "this person is who they say they are". But once an account is verified, you can change the name/profile picture to someone else. So hackers get access…

I think the verification badge should do something else on top of just being shown. Some sort of a PKI trust system like with SSL certs that would point to a specific (possibly masked) email or web site that belongs to the person.

In other words I want to know if this is Bill Evans the pianist, not Bill Evans the saxophonist or any other Bill Evans who is not even a musician or someone pretending to be one of them. Can social networks solve this? (I know, Bill Evans the pianist died a long time ago. Big fan of him)

Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam

#40
post #7

I don’t understand how you can be tech savvy enough to send and (not?) receive Bitcoin but stupid enough to fall for this... EDIT: Thinking about it, it's technically difficult see the difference between Bitcoin (which will continue to be worth more) and other get rich quick schemes that may not have the same chance of success and directly being conned for money by people.

Elon is the perfect person to hack, he's always doing bizarre stuff, so if I'd fall for anyone, it would be for this one.

And the type that got rich off BitCoin are way bigger risk-takers than average - I was offered to "get in" on BitCoin at 1000 dollars and I thought it too risky, my former coworker who did and got rich is very much an adrenaline junkie (but didn't fall for this scam fortunately).

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