Topic: My hardware wallet was seized by US customs. - page 3. (Read 1132 times)

Thanks for all the replies, and maybe it is time for a summary to bring back the thread focus.

I'm a Bitcoin maximalist, and I only use the wallet in a full node. I'm aware that this is a bit of a limited perspective, and that is why I was pleased to be awarded a hardware wallet. There are many wallets available now, and I don't know much about them, so this is a great chance for me to get some hands on experience of the concept. I'm particularly pleased with this one, as it is integrated with ShapeShift, and it would appear that I can use the wallet to accept a variety of cryptos and convert them into a long term Bitcoin holding. This is great for my domain name sales business. It is also important to state thart there are no coin transfers associated with this prize. I am also grateful to ChiBitCTy for his help in this matter.

The interesting topics ( to me ) that have come out of this thread are
- The use of a hardware wallet to create an effective physical coin for cryptos.
- The government interest in cross border transfers of cryptos
- The use of a hardware wallet for coin transfers without using the internet.

When I have sorted out the system I want to use, I'll start a few threads about this. They will be a bit different from the normal as they will have a nomadic perspective.

Damn JC is out of his long hybernation.


Yea, I'm personally betting that this is the case too. Smuggling drugs by hiding them on various items is something that's pretty much always on the news lol, so this is them probably just taking things more seriously(though I'm definitely not a fan of the rummaging). Not to mention that a KeepKey is significantly larger than a Ledger and a Trezor too, and it looks somewhat like a container.


image source

And that's a bunch of bullshit, as is the experience Jet Cash went through.  Taking a hardware wallet on a plane or having it sent somewhere?  So what?  If you wanted to move huge amounts of money, you could just send bitcoin to someone in another country instead of flying it over.  There's no need for any government agency to know how much you've got on that wallet (and it's a damn good thing they'd have a hard time figuring it out themselves with just the wallet to work with).

Good to see you active here again, Jet Cash.  I'd wondered where you've been lately.

As the sender of this wallet, I'm obviously a bit annoyed by the fucking w/of the package.  I haven't read through all the comments 100% yet, so I'm curious to see what everyone has had to say about this, but I have never heard of anything like this before.  Very weird.

That is very strange but you are being paranoid. Sending something physically is counterproductive. Why would you launder money with a wallet? It takes longer to get there and it might get lost or something. If you laundering money you are laundering lots of money. Do you really think someone would risk that much money sending a physical copy of a wallet? That is just silly. Much better to use an exchange or mixer or guess what? Not even bother at all. Drugs are bought every day and sent all over the world. They can't track everything. If they did then no parcel would ever get anywhere. People seem to think law enforcement have some sort of magic powers. They don't. They just like you and me.

If you want to launder money you do not do it through currency. Not even crypto. Your source of income doesn't need to be traced. If the government see's you are spending more money then you could possibly earn they will ask questions. When people launder money they have fronts. They "invest" in bogus companies that don't exist or even some that do exist but are a front for something else. This is why KYC annoys me so much.
People don't use methods that require the kind of KYC they demand from us innocent folk. They buy property and do all sorts of things to spread the money.

I promise you that law enforcement agencies have better things to do. They looking to catch people laundering millions of $$ worth of stolen assets. It doesn't matter the form.

This might be the case, may be the agencies suspected it moght be a means of sending laundered fund and decided to do some digging but it is nearly impossible to really break into a wallet they don't have a key to if at all the wallet was pre-loaded with funds. Or looking at it from another angle, it might be a delivery agent try to play smart and not really the government 

I didn't think of that. You wouldn't mistake it for a usb stick, but it could be a small ssd. I looked at the customs declaration, and it describes the content as electronic documents, and that could have got them interested.

I'm not too bothered about it being stolen, or somebody trying to crack it, as I think I keep my systems fairly secure. I'm probably going to use Kali as the OS with it for various reasons not related to the wallet. I like the association with Shape Shift, and I hope that I can use it to help me sell domain names for a variety of cryptos, and to convert those to Bitcoin for long term savings.

Part of the initialisation process is to upgrade the software, and hopefully that would clear any tampering. I think it unlikely that the device has been modified though, and I can't see the customs being very excited by anything that I do.

Be it legally checked through customs or not, I would personally not trust that HW anymore. My advise is.. just keep it aside. IMO it's not worth it to risk. Although the hardware wallet might've been unboxed at customs, is there really any assurance the HW hasn't been tampered with along its way or even beforehand?

I'm especially paranoid when it comes to blockchain stuff; I was a little in doubt even when I received my Nano S directly from their factory. I'd be extra paranoid if the package I had received was open. Chances of receiving a hardware wallet that has been physically tampered with are very very low, but I would not take any chance tbh.

Indeed. I see bigger chance it was mistaken for an USB stick or similar and they were looking if it doesn't contain anything illegal or maybe they've tried to see if it's not something else than it looks (just a shell containing drugs or I don't know what).

OP, keep in mind that there aren't that many who know what Bitcoin is and even less who know what a hardware wallet it.
Also, OP, you may want to read this about KeepKey before you try too hard to work with it.

This is stupid. You only need to know 24 backup words or 12 or 1 with brain wallet. Nobody needs to bring hardware wallet who want to move bitcoin to another country.

I actually did a quick scroll down, I didn't see that. Sorry for missing it.

Plus what I want to know/see is the actual topic where the competition was held.

@Jet Cash there’s an article from December 2019 which says that Kraken easily cracked Keep Key wallet, though I’m assuming that this bug should have been fixed by now. Also I’ll agree with what @Lucius has said, and I too would recommend you to try another hardware wallet, as keep key wallet is not worth the hassle.

Source:

https://www.coinspeaker.com/kraken-cracked-keepkey-hardware-wallet-extracted-seed-mnemonic-phrase/

Interesting, that's the most probable scenario that happened in the customs. But, it would be nice for them to repack things up since they haven't found anything critically suspicious on the package. Though it raises a red flag, but It's sure have undergone meticulous process before you recieved the package right?



I haven't tried using hardware wallet as well, but base on this story, I have just learned that such scenario is very possible to happen not only for you, but for anyone else in the future including me. So, I agree with this initiative.

Have you thought about writing your story to manufacturer and ask what to do next? Imagine that your hardware was not checked by government, but was modded by a unfair post worker, that just scanned the parcel, saw a hardware and installed something into it?

This is a question of hardware reputation. The best way for manufacturer is to send you new, unopened device, or make a step-by-step how to check yours and restore it to default settings or something.

You say "when you got a chance to..." means you havent done anything with it? Write an email to manufacturer. It will take you not more than 5min, but might save your funds

You should have just read my post, there is one interesting link that says that it is quite legal for customs officers to check every electronic device that may contain information or in this case cryptocurrencies that are illegally taken out of the country, or vice versa.

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If it was a newbie I wouldn't say anything, but Hero and Legendary members who write blindly without being able to read a few posts

What competition? By Trezor/Ledger? I would be suspicious if it wasn't by the manufacturer.

Assume that wallet is compromised. Throw it away.


Hard if you have a strong passphrase, https://wiki.trezor.io/Passphrase

That's the fact why they investigate it deeply. Usually when customs find something suspicious then they have right to open when its p2p. I have ordered Ledger package (Ledger-s+Ledger-X) from Amazon and I received it sealed. I am currently working on Middle East (KSA). But I have sent a Ledger-s to a friend in my native country but there wasn't any problems on the customs. Obviously it was sent p2p, when one of my colleague went vacation I have sent with him. Hope when I will go then there will not be problem on the customs. Just for info, Bitcoin is fully illegal in my country.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, and this is what I believe happened.

The wallet was sent P2p, and not from a recognised supplier. I suspect this raised a red flag, and customs decided to investigate. The local depot didn't have the resources for this, so they sent it away for analysis. The bankers virus probably slowed down this process, which is why it ended up taking 4 months to deliver. I understand that it is easy to send Bitcoin via the blockchain, but this leaves a permanent record. Using a loaded wallet for a money transfer is closer to a cash payment, and doesn't leave any record of the transaction. Maybe wallets with viewable balances, but secure withdrawals will become the cash of the future.

I think the wallet is interesting, especially as it has a possible integration with shape shift, and this could be useful for me when selling domain names. I'm really pleased to have received this for experimentation, and I'll let you guys know how I get on with it. I set it up on a different computer, and see if somebody here will sell a small amount of crypto to load on it. For various reasons, this may take me a week or so to set up though.

I think there're missed up in some place and the person that actually tampered with the package really knows little about how crypto wallets operate because with my experience in this space, i don't think anyone will load fund on hardware wallet and shipped it to another location. It might be one of the shipment agent trying to be smart by trying his luck if he'll be able to access the wallet and cater away with the fund

Our customs also have been reported doing the same thing, there were package that is broken when it was receive telling the receiver that it was broken when they got and never do anything on it.

But this? I just think they opened it hoping for something else but wasn't expecting what's inside, coz if they do they will surely withdraw all the funds you got on that hardware wallet.

If they suspected it for something, or was seize that time, they should be contacting the receiver and tell that they are going to check it. Am I right? or they have the right to check on it without anyone knowing?