you can't cheat an honest man
German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
61–70 of 120 posts
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#62Reminds me of some phrase I read from a scammer: "At some point, it's their own fault". There's something interesting to it. As if we as a society allow (or condemn less) preying on the "weak" and uninformed
The guy only lost money he made in BTC speculation. He's not an innocent victim, just a little predator fish who got bit by a bigger fish.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#63> 10 Bitcoin were transferred and then cashed out anonymously a few days later. Genuinely interested how the coins were cashed out anonymously. Pretty much all exchanges require KYC these days, and Bitcoin addresses can be tracked and blacklisted if the right processes are put in place, in theory at least.
hi @mihaifm -- it could simply be a wallet address that one can forward the coins to I believe?
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#64How can someone be smart enough to earn that kind of money, but stupid enough to fall for this hilariously obvious scam?
His original investment was only 40k in 2017.
Admittedly still a chunk of change to have invested in a risky asset like bitcoin but it's not like he earned 400k by being "smart enough" and then emptied it into bitcoin.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#65you can't cheat an honest man
Thia is not true. GoFundMe is daily proof of that.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
This won't solve it because a lot of scams rely on victim's greed,as was the case for the German in this story. This is no different from a scam I saw a few years ago,where some German tourist kept pouring money on a three cup game despite his wife's attempts to stop it. It took him less than 5 minutes to leave nearly €500. It's always the same: you think you are about to get something for nothing. I very much doubt…
The article says that he checked for a check to verify that it was Elon running the account. Sure, greed motivates people, but in this case greed would not have motivated him to continue if he saw that the account was not verified and not Elon’s. If anything the check provided him with the confidence to continue more than anything else.
I understand he tried to verify it's really Elon, however it still falls under 'something for nothing' category,so it's just different shade of greed.In fact most scams can be put into only a handful categories,such as greed, wanting to help, seeking love,etc.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
This won't solve it because a lot of scams rely on victim's greed,as was the case for the German in this story. This is no different from a scam I saw a few years ago,where some German tourist kept pouring money on a three cup game despite his wife's attempts to stop it. It took him less than 5 minutes to leave nearly €500. It's always the same: you think you are about to get something for nothing. I very much doubt…
The article says that he checked for a check to verify that it was Elon running the account. Sure, greed motivates people, but in this case greed would not have motivated him to continue if he saw that the account was not verified and not Elon’s. If anything the check provided him with the confidence to continue more than anything else.
Even if the account literally was Elon Musk's real account (i.e. if he were hacked for example), nothing but greed could make someone fall for this
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#68Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#69> 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 agree with your policy recommendation, but I still think people who don't pay enough attention to the possibility "E l o n M u s k" a.k.a "JoshyMcB" might not be the real deal when it's their life savings rather than a retweet on the line have to take the lion's share of the blame. And tbh people shouldn't be trusting even the verified real account on something like this, given it's been hacked to push this exact s…
I fully agree. To be sure, I don’t think Twitter deserves the blame here for some pretty weak due diligence on the part of someone transferring six figures. But I think it’s a good policy to begin with that may have prevented this particular instance.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#70Everyone does stupid things sometimes. Maybe from tiredness, inattentiveness, excessive emotional influence, drugs, whatever. Maybe there's just a small chance at any point in time that a brain will malfunction slightly and direct a stupid action. Even intelligent people, who know intellectually that things that sound too god to be true usually aren't, and that greed can make you do dumb things, are not exempt from this.
By presenting themselves to zillions of people, these scammers ensure that they will catch at least some people who happen to not be thinking correctly at the moment. People who will fall for the scam, and then slap their foreheads 15 minutes later wondering what the hell they were thinking.