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7.4 BTC lost to fake sparrow apple store app
575 sats \ 16 comments \ @gmd 31 Jul bitcoin_beginners
A cautionary tale... On the surface this story smells like a gofundme scam, but then you realize that many smart people are capable of doing very stupid things. And dumb people are even more capable of doing very stupid things and bitcoiners are not immune in this respect.
An allegedly established bitcoiner "Bitcoin Jimmy" (now "Nocoiner Jimmy") who has been in BTC since 2017 and previously lost funds on Celsius now claims to have lost 7.4 BTC because he had the braindead idea to enter his private keys into a scam hot wallet app posing as Sparrow.
This brings up an interesting discussion by @udiWertheimer suggesting that most people shouldn't be entirely custodying their own corn. IBIT and chill and betting against civilizational breakdown seems a lot less stressful when you consider how many people have stories about losing significant amounts of BTC due to self custody. You can be sure if someone robs Blackrock or Coinbase they will be monitoring the blockchain a lot more closely than if you lose your hard earned 1-2 bitcoin.
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216 sats \ 6 replies \ @grayruby 31 Jul
Honestly, I find it hard to believe someone who has been in Bitcoin for that long would fall for this or have that much Bitcoin in a hot wallet.
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72 sats \ 5 replies \ @kepford 31 Jul
Indeed. It is hard for me to believe anyone online these days really... there is so much baiting. I start with the assumption that something is fake these days.
This guy claims to be an long timer... I feel nothing for him. Especially since he's posting about it in this way. He gets the fruit of his efforts.
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24 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby 31 Jul
He had all of his Bitcoin in one wallet?
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76 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 31 Jul
It sounds like bullshit to me.
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61 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 31 Jul
story smells like a gofundme scam
On this note. There was recently a woman that claims she was lost in the high sierras and her story started falling apart pretty quickly. Gofundme scams are everywhere.
In my view it is just another part of the democratization of exploiting the dumb masses. It used to be that only governments and NGOs/Non-profits could pull this stuff off. Now you too can do it! Its so easy.
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26 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 31 Jul
It's unfortunate because people who actually need crowdfunding will be screwed when no one takes these campaigns seriously anymore.
My wife's friend from her high school days did a gofundme for cancer treatments and it really helped. Raised about 40k.
Old friends from high school and college were all pitching in.
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45 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 31 Jul
I mean... I just don't give money to people I don't have a connection with or a way to validate. Its not that hard really. People will learn over time and through pain.
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82 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 31 Jul
I really hate the framing of Udi. We should not be over-generalizing. How about we start there. I'm under no illusions that most people aren't savy. It is indeed irresponsible for us to just make broad statements without making it clear that you can and will lose your bitcoin if you don't know what you are doing. Its how it is. And, it is why there will always be someone that will make promises to you to keep it safe. And they will be able to screw you too.
Its not that hard to securely hodl. But people are lazy and dumb.
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42 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheBTCManual 31 Jul
Hmmm, sounds fishy to me
  • you in since 2018 but you don't know Sparrow has never had an app and you can download the file from their site and verify with PGP?
  • You yolo your stack one seed phrase?
  • I see his X account posts pics of multiple signing devices surely he could have gone multi-sig or at least split his funds across several single sigs
  • Has man posted the pubkeys so we can verify and follow UTXOs?
Anyhoo questions that will remain unanswered
Never the less a major gut punch, wouldn't wish this on anyone!
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 31 Jul
I saw he dropped the pubkey in the YouTube video linked
https://mempool.space/address/bc1qvrmt8ptqzhlvdufrlz5mup2vlexdth7jypqfhc
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @itsrealfake 31 Jul
7 BTC
a small donation to the lessons of personal responsibility
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 31 Jul
Donation indeed. Who puts 7btc on a hot wallet from the app store???
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @carter 31 Jul
caveat emptor?
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 31 Jul
Maximum pain
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 31 Jul
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nitter 31 Jul bot
https://xcancel.com/Bitcoin4Jimmy/status/1950617736373006823
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