Topic: Newbie DO'S and DONT'S? - page 4. (Read 4486 times)

This why i love open source software. For example, bitcoin-QT. The reason I can safely assume that it is virus free is because nothing is hidden. The source code is released along with the executable file. Any mal-ware in the code would be easily spotted.
Proprietary software keeps the source code hidden and you must rely on anti-virus software, which might not work.  

Do what you do best, or as a day job, and accept BTC as payment.

The operative word is "earn".

The Tradercoin wallet contained a keylogger/trojan:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/mrdreamanonym-tradercoin-cointains-viruskeylogger-317201

"Carefull this newly released coin seems to contain a virus or keylogger -
It creates the a fake crss file in the C:\Users\acer\AppData\Local\Temp\crss.exe
then creates the following registry directory too:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg\MXsound
The process is then found in msconfig under the name MXsound (crss.exe)"

What programs/software could i use, if there is any that could detect if the files i'm downloading is safe or not?

Is malwarebytes enough? 

Yes. This has happened many times.

I guess that depends on your definition of "subtle", but one thing is for certain: there's some new piece of malware posted on the forums every couple of weeks, and it's been getting a bit more clever each time. This is a trend that I'd guess is very likely to continue.

Take this one for example. The website it points to looked surprising professional even though it had some broken links (it's currently down, so you'll just have to take my word for it). It wasn't posted by a newbie which gave it a little credibility (I'm pretty sure the forum account it was posted under was hacked). The malware itself wasn't all that clever given that it tripped a bunch of antivirus (probably some existing RATware if I had to guess), but overall it wasn't immediately obvious.

Here's another one that's a little more clever. Not the nicest looking website, and it is posted by a newbie, but it claims to be open source and even has a link the the supposed source on GitHub. There's also someone who's not a newbie who is somewhat defending it. The malware itself isn't an off-the-shelf package-- it appears to have been custom written and doesn't trip antivirus unlike the first example.

I'd have to guess that these kinds of examples are already fooling at least some people, otherwise why would their respective authors keep bothering (both of those examples were not the first of their kind...)?

RodeoX, baitty, Acidyo, thanks for the kind words.


Yes, it comes from years of trial and error ( mostly the latter...  )

most of this advices are too vague
dont get scammed, if that would be so simple there would be no scams
people dont know they are scammed until they got scammed

Would you mind sharing a little bit details? I have tried to search with Google but got no results.

Probably already been said but be wary of installing wallets for new alt-currencies, I've heard of at least two wallets with keyloggers. Also make sure to download from official websites and not random links posted up on the forum.

Here is just one example of such malware.
http://www.coindesk.com/chrome-extension-could-vulnerable-malware/

to earn BTC you can sell you service here
and for some free rewards try faucets

Never listen to someone when they tell you that a certain altcoin is going to hit it big.  They're all gambles.

Oh and AwesomeSauceCoin is going to the moon!  Just kidding

Don't spend too much time on faucets and stay away from mining (especially cloud mining) unless you know what you're doing. It's highly likely to be unprofitable.


Blockchain.info isn't that bad.

I would only put my "expendable" coins there. And always use 2 factor authentication.

Have there actually been any cases of people downloading software and having their BTC coins hacked? I know there's a lot of 'automatic bitcoin' software out there that are obvious scams, but I'm saying more subtle things like Alt Coin wallets, someone downloads an Alt Coin wallet installation and all of a sudden their BTC coins are gone. Any cases of that yet?

I think he means for storage. The guiding principal is about control of the private key. Unless you are the only one who has the private key, you do not own any bitcoin. It's fine to use a place like coinbase if you move them to a cold wallet right away.

Aloso...
Great list bro! Thanks for this.

So your saying not to use coinbase? What exactly is wrong with using coinbase if you transfer the bitcoin to a cold storage wallet after receiving bitcoin?