Topic: Robbing bitcoins from a bitcoiner (Read 230 times)

Yeah, you know that these days where everyone would think of you as wealthy when you mentioned that you're just hodling Bitcoin without specifying how many. People gotta admit that they wanted to brag sometimes, but at least brag it to the right people. Strangers don't give a shit on how much you hold and that's either a bad thing or a good thing for you depending on the outcome.

Hell,  I don't even mention to some of my family members that I do hold Bitcoin. Good thing there ain't $5 wrench attack happening in our family lately, lol.

This kinda depends on how much you really trust your family members though. I do trust some family members, but not to the point that I am willing to give them away money. Even though here in Asia, there is a toxic (kinda) culture where breadwinners kinda gets broke due to being family-oriented even when it comes to money.

Do you think your wife, son and your most trusted family members aren't live in the same house where you live?

Yes you can share your private key on the family away from your house, but you should need to remember if it's will increase your coins will gone since you're trusting your wallet with many people. This mean, you have many way to choose to safeguard your Bitcoin and to pass it.

Either you get scammed by your family, the criminal rob your coins etc.

I'm sure if that person were a bitcoin investor, he would have hidden the wallet key in a place no one else would even suspect his family because the wallet key is everything in investing in bitcoin. So even if a thief kills a bitcoin thief, he may not be able to find the keys to his wallet easily.

And the owner of the bitcoin will also leave a will somewhere where his family members can find it and explain how to use it so he can continue what he was doing.

And I agree with the edit by @OP to never tell anyone we own bitcoins. We will never know who is the person who will intend evil against us. We can only ensure that our bitcoins are safe.

Those who remain anonymous and do not publicize their Bitcoin holdings are usually very concerned about their own safety, because it will involve disclosing personal identity.

But when an influencer has a lot of followers and has a lot of Bitcoin in his wallet, it will become a target for criminals to be able to take full control of his Bitcoin.

As in the case of the robbery of tourists in Bali Indonesia which also often occurs. The criminals target people who are already famous and have a lot of Bitcoin.
The criminals work in groups and target someone then hold them hostage and blackmail them into sending all the bitcoins to their wallets (criminals).

A few months ago Yuri Boytsov, an investment blogger, was robbed by several criminals of a total of $248k in bitcoins.
This was the umpteenth case, but the police managed to catch the perpetrators.

Security becomes very important when many people already know our Bitcoin holdings.

https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/tech/20230301120225-37-417919/miliarder-bitcoin-rusia-dirampok-di-bali-rp-43-miliar-raib

2. You shouldnt really be that boastful about your holdings
3. Always be lowkey
4. Dont make yourself that too obvious that you are dealing with cryptocurrency
5. Just be cautious around just like onto those typical normal days

I myself had been having that kind of paranoid mode when it comes to safety considering that people do able to see out that my life status had progressed much specially into my neighbors.
It cant really be that denied that there would really be envy or something like this on which it could possibly be ending up on some desperate measure which it might be leading up
to some abduction or something like this which we know that it would really be that just a normal approach on having this way. You cant really be able to
be that confident whether you are dealing with fiat or BTC because criminals are just lurking in the shadows.

It’s hard to imagine physical bitcoin, Fiat is physical that’s understandable. it is centralized an under the control of the government of the country that owns it.

Bitcoin on the other hand is decentralized not owned by anyone, the supply is limited to 21 million bitcoins, there can never be more production of bitcoin to the 21million.

So Fiat is giving out my banks, if Bitcoin becomes physical who would be in charge of disbursing it out to the public? It just doesn’t add up.

So in addition to the normal way of protecting your bitcoin wallet or portfolio. I would add that another great way is remaining anonymous, you don’t necessarily need to announce yourself(real identity) as a bitcoin holder.

A hardware wallet is more than enough if you lead an ordinary lifestyle and never flaunt your wealth or share on social media that you have a significant amount of BTC. Essentially, avoid arousing suspicions in others about your ownership of Bitcoin. The less attention you draw, the less likely others will interfere with your assets.

--

I once considered using a bank's services to pass on my digital assets as inheritance. When my digital assets become substantial enough to be considered as part of my estate, I will inform my family about them. Then, I will use the bank's services to secure my digital data.

I will make sure that the bank is not allowed to disclose my important data to my family while I am still alive. However, the bank will never know what kind of data I am storing. Only my family members who know the type of data I am keeping will receive it when I die.

There's the popular $5 wrench attack. --> https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/5/5-wrench-attack/

And people will do this to you physically if you've been too vocal that you own cryptocurrencies. It's better to say that you've got nothing in person and you're just too optimistic about this tech.

Being lowkey today pays off than being too vocal and boastful to random stranger and even to the people that you know personally. You will never know the intentions that they've got, if it's going to be clear or pure evil unto you.

This is another level of theft of the highest order, coming into one's house and asking for private keys is another degree of fraudulent act. I know some people have lost their coins through fake websites and transactions online that are not safe but the example you gave is one in a million. One just has to be careful about where and when you blab about Bitcoin.

Physical Bitcoin? It's important to consider how you would protect your fiat money if such a thing existed, so the same way you have to follow to protect your physical Bitcoin as well. However, since it doesn't exist, it's difficult to imagine. As you accumulate wealth, you'll learn how to protect it. When it comes to real Bitcoin, we all know that securing our seed phrase and private keys is crucial. Additionally, we must prioritize our privacy and consider using a hardware wallet that can be stored in a secure location.

Then are you going to clearly say and show your investments in other assets to anyone?
Bitcoin is money, as well as an investment asset, that's not the only thing, so you should also keep everything that has high selling value secret and not tell anyone you don't know.

The point is, every investment comes with risk, and no way is 100% safe without risk. We can minimize the risk, and some of the best methods are not telling anyone the amount of assets you own.

People have their own way of securing their phrase key.  For example, you can come up with a formula in which you can randomize your key phrase and only you can decrypt it.  Also, you can add random words in it and create another formula which will allow you to remove those unnecessary words from that decrypted key phrase.  That way no robbers can ever use your key even if they got the paper in which you have written the phrase key.

I have come up with a formula which includes Fibonacci sequence and some mathematical formulas to find the correct words for your wallet in that random word list.

This can not give you the safety from a robber, but for the next owner (as you describe wife son or close one) can get the access back to that wallet. And for more security purposes, you can hide those phrase key in a secure place where the robbers won't be able to find it..  
Also, a smart move is to you create another wallet and keep that in places where the robbers won't be able to find it easily and take it. In most of the cases, they are not going to check that wallet right away. Even if they do so, for extra safety measurement, you can always keep a little amount of Bitcoin in it.
This is just to make them confuse.  And yes, people can only know you own Bitcoin only if you tell them.  Or in some situations, find it by chance or by searching for it.  So yeah, never tell anyone that you own Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the only investment that is to be kept secrete because if you have 2000 nobody will know if you are not the loud type. Keeping your mouth shut will prevent you from robbers,since it is only you that know that you have an investment in bitcoin. Privacy is the motto of bitcoin and it should be kept so.

When you are the talking or bragging type,this is when you have expose yourself to robbers. If the robbers are desperate and you don't want to give them access to your bitcoin, you will be killed and your bitcoin gone forever. It is better when you find yourself in this kind of no going back situation,it is advisable that you give them whatever the robber wants to be safe. As long as you are alive you will purchase more bitcoin, it the same thing with you been robbed of your fiat money. Don't ever tell anyone you own bitcoin,also don't use centralized system for anything related to Bitcoin. Beware of malware and links sent to you on the internet.

This is why buying a loaded physical bitcoin is a bad idea because you never know if the creator saves private key or not and it all comes to trusting them that will not save the key. I knew casascius is the oldest physical bitcoin in the market right now with loaded Bitcoin on it. I think it’s the top contender for the safest physical bitcoin due to its age but still we never know if the key copy of the owner is deleted. It requires time to guarantee the safety.

So why we need to undergo with this trust issue for so long if we can be safe owning physical Bitcoin by doing a DIY.


You already got the best answer with this which is never tell anyone that you own bitcoins. Bitcoin has no physical form so no one will rob you Bitcoin if they didn’t know that you possess it since not everyone holds it in regular basis.

A smart idea is to avoid flaunting your wealth and means of making money online, since this can be harmful.
Thieves will go to any length to achieve their goals. I learned about a kidnapping that occurred to a close relative who was kidnapped and plundered of his wealth.  He was often bragging about his wealth online, so the kidnappers took advantage of that and took him to a hidden location where he was forced to sell his assets and transfer the money as fiat to them through another victim's bank account.



It is uncommon, but it does not rule out the possibility. People will go to any length to secure what they value the most. If you have a significant amount of bitcoin that can entice robbers to steal from you, you must have taken the greatest security measures to keep your bitcoins safe and out of reach of anyone.

Allowing your family members to know about your seed phrase is a good idea; after all, the riches belongs to all of you. And you may tell who to trust and who not to trust with your seed phrase when it comes to keeping it safe and accessible only after your death.

I like what you did advice there to share it to your family but only to your trusted family member. I mean it is very risky to share it to those only because they are family. use a paper wallets, paper wallets are a form of cold storage that allow you to store your private keys on a piece of paper. These wallets are not connected to the internet and can be kept in a safe place. I think you can also invest to the outside the world investment like stock, bonds, real estate and ETFs / mutual funds. Also avoid posting about your earnings and how much do you have in your wallet.

 

I have seen bitcoins stolen. Many scammers have stolen bitcoins. There are also many wallets that have very low security. Many times scammers hack unsecured wallets and steal bitcoins. However, Bitcoin users must be careful with their technology systems. Most bitcoin users don't know which wallets are good for bitcoins. And using any technology will keep Bitcoin safe. Our biggest problem is giving access to all our stuff when doing Bitcoin transactions. And add many fake tokens to our wallet.

Pretty common question. Robbing of bitcoins are sensationalized by the media, and well of course because it's a billion dollar industry.

Most of the time, robbing only happens when you provide the perpetrator with access to your stuff. Something along the lines of private keys, seed phrases. Once the hacker/thief gets this, it's over for your coins.
In the case of centralized exchanges, they are usually stored in a concentrated place, so once the hacker gets access to this, millions of bitcoins will be up for grabs to them. Just like what always happens to Binance, at least annually (lmao).

So how do you protect yourself from getting hacked and getting your bitcoin stolen from you?

• Not your keys, not your coins: If you depend the safekeeping of your bitcoin to someone else, say a centralized exchange, be ready to say goodbye to it anytime as  hackers could steal it from you, but the most detrimental thing that could happen is a bank run, which is what happened to FTX last year.
• Invest in your own security: Don't cheap out on securing your crypto, especially if it's a substantial amount. Buy a cold wallet, secure it, and only transact exact amounts whenever you're purchasing something using your bitcoin

You can take essential steps to protect yourself from undesired attention, like not sharing your financial routine and habits with people outside your most intimate circle. Don't tell strangers or people you don't know very well about your personal experience with Bitcoin, if you are concerned about the safety aspect. We never know what the intentions of strangers can be. If you aren't a visible target, 80% of the threat is already under control.

All the rest you can do is to protect your keys carefully and to avoid letting BTCs idle on online platforms where you can't have access to your money with assurance. So you completely nuke the threat of being robbed virtually (that is the main risk when dealing with Bitcoin).

The chances of being physically robbed are really low...

The safest thing to do is prevent anyone knows you have some BTC. Stop posting on facebook about how much BTC you have or even just reposting crypto news in your feed.

Any robber who sees it, will believe you have some BTC. Trying to get you private key by holding you or your wife or kid at gunpoint is frightening. You will give up your BTC saving to save life.