Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
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Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#2News flash: you were social engineered into buying ETH in the first place.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#3These scammers went to impressive lengths. They say that often the secret of a magic trick is to put in far more prep work than anyone thinks is reasonable. Con games work the same way. In this case, the effort is worth since the target has something like $175 million in a wallet. The payoff is massive.
Worth noting, though, that for all the fancy footwork the point of failure for the scam is him being willing to work with his main wallet rather than a one-off, and when he showed hesitation, they got too impatient. Good security practices were still the answer.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#4Generalizing, anytime someone is giving you a “gift” but is putting expectations on how you receive it (in this case the wallet destination) that should be a huge red flag.
Whether that’s cryptocurrency or a sandwich.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#5A good rule of thumb is if somebody you've just met introduces you to someone with an exciting new NFT project that they want your help testing, you're probably being scammed.
While NFTs probably have some useful purpose that will emerge eventually, for now you should consider any proposal or offer that involves the term 'NFT' as having about the same value as any offer involving the term 'Nigerian prince'.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#6Don't do it if you don't understand what you're doing.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#7These scammers went to impressive lengths. They say that often the secret of a magic trick is to put in far more prep work than anyone thinks is reasonable. Con games work the same way. In this case, the effort is worth since the target has something like $175 million in a wallet. The payoff is massive. Worth noting, though, that for all the fancy footwork the point of failure for the scam is him being willing to wor…
> when he showed hesitation, they got too impatient.
This seems to be the common factor among scams, cons, and social engineering strategies. Rushing people will have them bypass protocol, training, and security practices. It's a universal "hack" for our brains; we do things we otherwise wouldn't when rushed. Security practices are like a rituals, standards of behavior that we just don't have time for right now.
"The funds are only available for the next hour"; "You will be prosecuted if you don't do X"; "Per the CFO, we need to spend these funds before end of day."
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#8Don't do it if you don't understand what you're doing.
I'm not entirely convinced this isn't just the same as 'don't do it'.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#9Generalizing, anytime someone is giving you a “gift” but is putting expectations on how you receive it (in this case the wallet destination) that should be a huge red flag. Whether that’s cryptocurrency or a sandwich.
Most people who invite me
over for a sandwich would be insulted if I entered their house, took the sandwich they made me and left. In fact, I probably would never get invited over again.
Re: Social engineering scam that nearly cost me all of my ETH
#10I still fail to understand how the smart contract metaphor of "here is some obfuscated code from a third party, please give it access to all your money, kthx" has managed to survive at all. I mean, really, no one saw this coming?
It's just the Trust Problem all over again. Decentralized reliance on automatic software still requires trust that the authors of the software won't scam you. It all comes down to trust. And I trust banks, mostly. Who in their right mind trusts contracts someone sends you on Discord? And yet...