Topic: Anonymity tips - page 2. (Read 4464 times)

The reddit post that you quote was actually (assuming the claim is true) a MITM attack that gave a fake blockchain.info webpage to the OP of the reddit thread. The OP of the reddit thread did not ever have his identity compromised from this attack. Although using TOR to use a blockchain.info wallet (and other financial transactions) may not be very secure, you are not risking your identity being exposed

You can also use a mix cascade method or a multi-hop VPN.

This is the ol' naive mentality.
For most of us, privacy is one of the greatest values in our lives, because privacy is the base of freedom.

Lol  ... But it's true...

CommerceID is the answer.  Look it up.

Hey, just wanted to say I appreciated your posts and I thought this paragraph in particular was worth repeating.

Using Tor though it’s not as secure as ssh tunneling especially logging using signed keys but compared to unencrypted especially through hostile infrastructures (ie work, university, or even nation wide firewalls) i could prove it’s self as a viable alternative to unencrypted browsing. On the other hand I also believe that having a an ssh server at home, or any other place you (and only you or people you trust) have access could prove very handy.

i suggest you do NOT use TOR, or anything like that unless you absolutely know what you are doing and how to protect yourself.
in my experience i saw a lot of people lose their bitcoins in this way. do a quick search on the web about losing bitcoins and using TOR.
here is an example i came across a couple of days before:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2k38ta/my_wallet_was_just_emptied_stolen_but_i_dont_know

also it is good to take a look at this article:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.6079

@Cryptowatch.com

Great points and a nice read.  I do feel that there is an issue with the anonymous or not  mindset though.  I think it is impossible for their not to be.  When people feel like they can't be touched, they will usually go too far.  It happens to everyone.  But you're correct when they end up being put in their place.

This happens in all aspects of life... drug use for example.  Person starts small and then feels they are invincible, then it is too late.  I had this happen to me in regards to sex at a young age. Had sex with a condom 3 or 4 times, took it off 5 or 6 times, didn't even consider it 10 or 20 times and BOOM, I was a Dad at 19. So, I think it is human nature and that's why I remind people to just be smart and safe.  I think the scammers are flocking because they see a community that is growing everyday and with everyday comes 1000's of "newbies" and it scares me to think that those 1000's still have a head of them the trials and tribulations I had to endure in my first year of crypto.

But point taken, anonymous or not... it is a character thing.  I couldn't steal $80k if it was 100% guaranteed I'd never get caught.  I just couldn't even sleep.  Although I could afford sleeping pills or some great pot.

Campycoin, I have sympathy for your views.

However, users need to be really careful as well. When a service is brand new, without a reputation, being careful is good. Also, while anonymity might give some characters a sense of security and superiority, if they scam enough, one day they might fall.

Trendon Shavers was a man that promised quick returns on your money, and due to greed and naivity, many users invested with him. He was fairly anonymous for a long time, and stunningly many believed he ran a legitimate business, and many was on the level beneath him, acting as pass throughs. This is subtly equal to the Madoff Affair.

He never hid, he was never anonymous, he operated in plain sight, and there were numerous warnings about what was going on. He basically printed his own charts, showing immense and consistent returns that were in no way possible through any known trading strategy. His conglomerate of associates and investors was immensely big, many invested with him and was delivered reports showing that their investment paid off very well.. on paper .. while in reality these values did not exist, he just made it up. Early participants were paid with the money of new participants. All while he led a very luxury life style. He always appeard as a solid guy outwards, and nobody really wanted to touch him or investigate him, because he was such a big deal. A few men decides to pursue him, and after 10 years hunting him, the scandal finally broke, and as a consequence several SEC employees were punished. The SEC was notified many years before the card house fell togheter, but did not take action. The total loss in the case was $64.8 billion.

Mark Karpeles, running the biggest bitcoin exchange MtGox caused 400 millions to disappear. He operated in plain sight, with his name, and appeared in numerous tv-channels and magazines.

My point being that using your real identity is by no way an assurance that you never will go rogue. I don't think this has anything to do with anonymity or no anonymity. It has to do with character. Some people can shake your hand, smile to your, and pretend to be your best friend, but they only want to rob you blind. Other people may never reveal their name and only deal with you over a distance through e-mail, im, irc and forum and be a mother Theresa in terms of honesty.

Sure, you can believe you can hide behind anonymity and that nothing will ever happen to you.

Ross William Ulbricht, alleged to be the “Dread Pirate Roberts”, behind Silk Road's drug black market was caught. He never intended to be discovered, but at one point, the FBI managed to find his identity and take him down. He was caught in a library in San Francisco, USA.

While small time scammers might hide behind anonymity and get away with it, it's also very important for users to educate themselves and be vigilant. If you exercise caution and is careful, the chance of being scammed is far less. Usually if something appears to be too good to be true, it usually is. There are many signs you could look after before you decide to put your money on the table. Sometimes there are red signs, and then you should really think hard if this is where you want to put your money.

Gift cards is something all bitcoin users should be very careful with. There are a lot of scams involved in this regard, and if you buy stolen cards, there might as well be trouble in store for you. A lot of the scams that we see, is due to users not being careful enough.

Personally I don't think lack of anonymity will cause less scamming. Also you must be aware that bitcoin is something new, and in some jurisdictions it could have very bad consequences for operators of a bitcoin business if they are caught conducting this business, so they chose to operate an anonymous business. And I don't see anything wrong in that really. I think it's a beautiful thing. Sure it could be a vehicle for scams, but there's also lots of scams in the real world. I've had handymen to our house charging with a fork on the zeroes on the bill, while telling us it's not going to be such a big charge when they initiate the work, so they complete the work, leave and send a bill thats outside any reasonable proportions.

Again it's down to character. Some people are scammers by nature, others are not.

So - it might appear like the scammer is having a great life, having a nice car, a nice house, perhaps even a nice woman. But everything can come crashing down really really hard, and then it's not fun anymore, and also, having all these nice things does not mean that this person that scammed you have a good life. He might have a life of constant turmoil, and he lives in knowledge of the fact that any day some person might expose his scam, and everything might come crashing down on him. Imo, people flaunting all their status symbols very often are not very happy humans.

The problem that everyone continues to miss is simple in my opinion...

There are generally two types of Bitcoin users, the user (like you or I) who hold their own private keys.  Those people should be able to be 100% anonymous.  If I want to send $1000 to my sister, that is nobodys business.  Not the IRS, not PayPal, not Visa or Mastercard or Western Union or Money Gram. It is a transfer from myself to my sister.  That should be an anonymous transaction and I don't think anyone disagrees with that. 

But then there is the second group of people who handle bitcoin. This group runs websites or operates a store or a service online.  These are the assholes (like Moriarty) who still go around claiming that bitcoin should be anonymous....  FUCK THAT

There is no way that you can remain anonymous and be in charge of other people's money or private keys. It will always... as it has with Ryan Kennedy, with Mt. Gox, with HYIP Scams and Ponzi Schemes, and with Michael Moriarty... turn out bad.  This is the current problem with Bitcoin. Is the fact that a new group of people has popped up... selling Starbucks cards, selling Microsoft and Porn accounts, buying and selling BTCTalk accounts because they can remain anonymous. Well, there is the issue.  90% of these people are scammers who will walk with your money first chance they get.  I mean, all it takes is one look at Michael Moriarty to see what Bitcoin has done and what it will continue to do until people stop supporting these guys. Michael STOLE $80k from RickyJames, just kept it, and yet still... 3 months later, continues to buy domains, buy Senior Accounts, and flaunt his scammy sites all around this forum.  Why?  Because he is anonymous. He used fake info to buy his domains, so if you go look him up, he is fake.  No man by that name... the address and phone are fakes and he gets to parade around in his Mercedes and talk shit because nobody can do anything about it. 

This will just continue to make life easier for these low lifes who now know that bitcoin is easy to scam with.  Set up a fake website or a fake gambling site.  Lie on your domain registration, use Tor and boom!  Steal when you want.  BUSINESS OWNERS, EXCHANGES or anywhere where someone else is able to get to your money must be transparent and real.  And if they don't like it, then don't use bitcoin in your business.  Or just steal like Moriarty and be a scammy cunt. 

I'm sure there are scammers who try to remain anonymous for that reason.

Honest people have plenty of reasons to remain anonymous too though. Look at the IRS scandal. Even if you do nothing wrong, they can make your life a living hell. Just because they don't like you or your political views.

Even if you're the type who trusts government officials (hard for me to understand), look up Brett Kimberlin. He's a private citizen who goes around harassing and suing bloggers who bring up his well-known, criminal past as the "Speedway Bomber." This costs people so much time, money and energy, that the prudent thing to do is not bring it up. There's also evidence that he's engaged in "swatting" -- making false police reports that end up with SWAT teams being sent to the house of someone he doesn't like.

Bitcoiners are very unpopular in some circles. Do you really feel secure that no one willing to "swat" you or sue you will ever read something you wrote and decide they really don't like it?

Even if you feel safe now, what if the BTC/USD goes through another spike or two? There's the obvious possibility of online strangers tracking you down in real life and trying to coerce you to give them money.

How do you determine if a host is bulletproof? From what I've learned, some companies are simply fronts for intelligence agencies. As long as you don't do anything illegal, you probably have nothing to fear anyway, even if there was an intelligence agency recording all that you did with your vpn. Besides you only have the word of the host that there's no logging. The host is also using servers in various datacentres, and we don't know if there's any additional logging apart from on the machine your vpn-instance resides on. For example, the routers in the datacenter might log traffic as well, so even if there's no logs on the server running the vpn-instance, law enforcement might be able to extract logs anyway. Also, some datacenters have dedicated boxes installed by intel agencies recording EVERYTHING that goes in and out of that datacenter. In addition, if there's a server of interest, that servers traffic might  as well be hijacked

If a box of interest was shared between several VPN-users, also the traffic of the innocent users would be captured. As we know, there's even been reports of BIOS-level backdoors in some servers, according to Snowden leaks. And some systems are even stopped in transit, so the NSA special division can inject backdoors in systems of interest before they're shipped to their end destination. For example, there's been tales of computer systems that have had radio transmitters injected inside the cabinet, and then the intel crew just drives up in a van within radio range and connects to that machine, altering files and extracting files.


Exactly, and there's been several report of this. People thinking they're safe when using tor, and then all their e-mails has been exposed... Use PGP for private e-mails if you want to keep them confidential.


The VPN provider can only expose you if they have your actual IP address. If they do not have that, they can only reveal whatever IP you did connect from.

I have not investigated VPN/TOR combinations much but for instance, if you use ssh over TOR the vps you're connecting to will only see the TOR exit IP, and the TOR exit node will only see encrypted traffic.

As with everything else - define what you need, and then make a plan sufficient to fullfill the requirements. For example, any VPN provider is sufficient to hide web surfing from your local ISP and it will also give all websites an ip which is not your home ip, and it's also good for switching location if you want to use certain services that's not available in your country.

Lastly, I'm a bit annoyed with people stating that people concerned about privacy and anonymity is up to something bad. I would love to have such people broadcast from their toilet or bedroom to the entire world 24/7, they don't have anything to hide, right?

That paragraph was not meant for anyone in this thread however particularly, just a general thought. Personally I think avoiding cookie tracking, targeted ads, and preserving a certain level of anonymity online is important. I find it uneasy to know that my real life identity is only a phone call away for the person with the right authority if I surf the web with my real IP.

For the same reason, most of the time when going for a walk, I don't bring with me a mobile phone. It's not because I'm up to something bad, but it's because I do not like the fact that I cannot move freely without some faceless organization follow my every move.

Imagine the looks on people's face if an official approached them, then proceeded to put a tracking device in their pocket, patting their backs and saying: "Hey, it's all good - just keep this on you, we need to track you wherever you go, if you have nothing to hide, don't worry,  nothing will happen, it's for your own protection, to prevent terrorism and to save the children".

I think very many people would feel extremely uneasy about that - yet they voluntarily carry around devices that track their every move, and also possibly is remotely accessible at a moments notice for those with the right knowledge, the baseband stuff in a mobile phone is not known to be very secure..

In addition, these days we have police running around with powerful Stingray devices. I better hope you did not purchase a phone from a former drug dealer or terrorist suspect without knowing it, once the police comes around with a stingray device, you might be having a really nasty experience..

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone willingly want to carry devices that the police can tap into easily, and in addition devices that track far too much about your habbits.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/02/27/the_astonishing_amount_of_personal_data_police_can_extract_from_your_smartphone.html

Even stuff on your phone that you delete is not really deleted according to the source above.

What's important to realize is that our rights and freedoms are step by step removed, leading to a totalitarian state system.

That's why knowledge, and protecting yourself is important. For example, there's been stories of bloggers being sued because they write negative reviews of a company. If these bloggers ran their blogs anonymously and it was not possible to find their identity, a legal challenge would simply not work.

Being anonymous is also being safer imo. True, some people will always do bad things protected by anonymity, but as we've seen, those targeting big enough goals have been brought down. It's easy to slip up somewhere.

Use a cheap bulletproof host if you are afraid of them exposing you. If you visit unsecured websites with Tor, your information transferred can be seen by exit nodes. If you use VPN together with Tor, your VPN provider can still expose you if they want to.

You could add vpn or several vpn's to the mix as well. Mixing TOR with a vpn is also possible.

If you want absolute anonymity get yourself a black van without windows in the back, and use public wifi's from public parking lots, throw TOR into the mix, and you should be pretty anonymous.

Rogue TOR exit nodes can pull MITM attacks on you as well, so look up for that and use end-to-end encryption to protect sensitive data.

But first consider what level of anonymity you need and which methods you should use to achieve that.

If you purchase a VPS, then set up OpenVPN and connect to that from your client, you will hide your internet traffic from your ISP and all websites you visit will only see the IP of your VPS. Still, if you do something nefarious, the traffic could be traced back to your VPS, and if there are logs, or you have registered with your name using a cc for example, it could easily be traced, and real life identity could be derived from isp by law enforcement.

It all depends on what you need and what you're doing. For legitimate purposes going insane paranoid shouldn't be necessary imo.

The problem is tor is not 100% anonymous and secure. Zero day exploits can still leak your identity and some websites block access to Tor exit node. Try getting a few private proxy and do proxy chaining, the anonymity can be improved.

You know, when they sell your personal information to data mining corporations, they make a little over $80k

Yeah, life does truly suck for sheeple like you

Yeah it sucks!  You can't even steal $80k anymore without people digging into your personal life and getting your fake Linkedin profile removed and your sites shut down.  Life sucks

Actually, if they ask me, I don't have to tell them unless they have a warrant against me, and since I'm the cleanest guy in the city, I doubt there will ever be such a thing.

Depending on where you live, that could be awful advice. Bridge relays exist for a reason.