Coinbase Says It Prevented Over 1,000 Customers From Sending $280,000 Worth of Bitcoin To Twitter Hackers (theblockcrypto.com) 30
Crypto exchange Coinbase has said that it prevented little over 1,100 customers from sending bitcoin to Twitter hackers who hijacked high-profile accounts to advertise a bitcoin scam last week. From a report: If Coinbase didn't take the step, these customers would have collectively sent 30.4 bitcoin (currently worth about $278,000) to hackers, the exchange's chief information security officer, Philip Martin, told Forbes. Notably, this amount is more than twice the actual amount ($121,000) that hackers collected via victims. Despite Coinbase's action, its 14 customers still fell prey to the scam and sent around $3,000 worth of bitcoin to hackers before the exchange blacklisted their addresses, said Martin. Gemini, Kraken, and Binance users also tried sending bitcoins to the addresses, but not as much as Coinbase's customers, per the report. All these exchanges moved to block the addresses as soon as the scam came to light.
Good on ya, Coinbase! (Score:2)
You boys did good.
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But the Nigerian Prince is not amused.
Cut off their internet. (Score:3)
People who were gullible enough to fall for this bitchcoin scam are too stupid to use the internet. Cut them off until they can write a three-page essay on internet safety.
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Yep. No lessons were learned thanks to these "Good Samaritans" meddling with the system.
As the old saying goes (Score:2)
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Librecoin fail. (Score:1)
So Bitcoin the currency to free us from regulation and centralised control has had transfers prevented through somewhat centralised control.
Can we all just finally realise that this entire damn thing was nothing more than an exercise of human stupidity and a waste of power and that it won't free us from oppressors, enhance our privacy, or give us free under the table handjobs?
Honestly it's time we just pulled the plug on this insanity.
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...because anything that doesn't free us from oppressors is totally useless, right?
Nope, only the things advertised specifically to do so.
Bitcoin had one fucking job.
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Bitcoin is causing environmental harm, if it doesn't even do what it says on the tin then it's shit.
Re: Librecoin fail. (Score:2)
What?
This has nothing to do with how Bitcoin works. When you send an envelope of cash to a bank, you can't do anything with the cash without the bank's approval. Same principle applies here.
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What?
This has nothing to do with how Bitcoin works. When you send an envelope of cash to a bank, you can't do anything with the cash without the bank's approval. Same principle applies here.
Indeed, the same principle applies here, so bitcoin didn't free us from other authorities as promised.
Re: Librecoin fail. (Score:2)
Except that it actually did because you can't do an ACH transfer without a bank, but you can easily do one with Bitcoin with no authority intermediary.
So much for the unregulated currency (Score:5, Insightful)
A common argument for Bitcoin is that it is not controlled by states, banks, etc...
And what happened? An exchange just blocked a thousand transactions in order to protect their customers. It is a good thing, but it shows that Bitcoin is not a completely free market in practice.
Simply, Coinbase acted like a bank. Keeping their customers money safe and making transactions easier, in exchange for a fee. I don't know if they have a fractional reserve but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Banks are here for a reason, they bay be evil, but they offer real services that are essential for the economy. Bitcoin doesn't offer these services by itself, so naturally, a banking infrastructure is building around it. If it gains any traction, states will most likely regulate it, both for their own interest and to protect their users.
Again, I am not saying it is a bad thing. Quite the opposite in fact. It it just that believing that Bitcoin will change everything is foolish.
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Nothing prevented you from transferring the bitcoins to your personal wallet (where they should be in the first place anyways instead of in the exchange's vault) and then transferring to the scammer's address.
Re: So much for the unregulated currency (Score:2)
They do not have a fractional reserve and it would be illegal if they did. Coinbase act as custodians for your cash.
And this doesn't change the fact that Bitcoin is decentralized and nearly impossible to control. It's not news that when you send your money to an exchange, you lose control over it. The same thing happens when I send money to a stock broker.
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"but it shows that Bitcoin is not a completely free market in practice.
Simply, Coinbase acted like a bank. Keeping their customers money safe and making transactions easier, in exchange for a fee. "
They didn't execute the transactions the clients explicitly asked them to do.
What's next, donations to Churches refused, because they are a sham?
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Not too bright (Score:4, Informative)
I wasn't following this whole thing closely, because scams and Bitcoin tend to go together like hookers and blow.
Seems the gist of this, from the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] (which would've been helpful to include a link to) was:
The scam asked individuals to send bitcoin currency to a specific cryptocurrency wallet, with the promise that money sent would be doubled and returned.
I don't know who was dumber, the folks who fell for what was clearly a ponzi scheme (had it been legitimate and not tweets from hijacked accounts), or the hackers who ended up making international news and "wanted" lists, only to net roughly what a good I.T. professional makes in a year.
Also, it was funny TFA mentioned Donald Trump's Twitter account not being hacked. He already asks for money you're not going to get back [donaldjtrump.com] and makes grandiose undeliverable promises, so I doubt anyone would've noticed a difference.
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Hackers I think. Because they had access to something worth way more than what they earned in a stupid scam. Imagine what you could do with full access to Twitter - surely you could manipulate the stock market, manipulate elections, and lots of other things worth way more than the $100K-odd they earned with a bitcoin scam.
Just a case where they didn't know what they had. I
PT Barnum (Score:3)
P.T. Barnum
This is why financial services exist (Score:2)
What a great example of why financial services gatekeepers exist in the first place: to protect the money of idiots.
They also help combat fraud and other malfeasance, but day to day, keeping idiots from shooting themselves in the face is the bread and butter of their offerings.
Not suppose to use term "blacklisted" anymore (Score:1)
Meh (Score:2)
Why even bother blocking the addresses? If these people are dumb enough to fall for this, then it won't be long before they fall for another scam anyways. A fool and his money are soon parted... We can use this as a teaching opportunity... sure a expensive one but those are generally the best.
Jesus WHY? (Score:2)
Maybe this isn't worth a slashdot post but my god, how fucking stupid are people?
Can we just maybe make it a basic lesson, maybe for first graders: if anyone sends you a link to click and send money to, DON'T FUCKING DO IT.