Need help - got scammed in crypto

Sgt

Sgt

Robin
Catholic
Gold Member
I feel incredibly stupid because of something I did yesterday - I got scammed out of 6 Eth... :rolleyes:

It was a long day - I had to go to berlin on business, my train went at 7am, and I caught the train home at 8pm. At 10pm I was already travelling and working for 15 hours, and the train was still not going to be in my hometown of Nuremberg for another hour - so I wasn't in the sharpest mental state anymore and started mindlessly scrolling through the internet. YouTube offered a (fake) livestream with Vitalik Buterin that had 22.864 active viewers (bots i guess) and in that video there was a tweet that said they had a giveaway of 100.000 Eth going...


With my critical thinking reduced to way below the level that should be needed for financial transactions, instead of verifying the tweet on Twitter (it didn't exist on Vitalik's profile...) I followed the link posted in the tweet, to the website
[MOD: LINK REMOVED]

That website promised to double the amount of Eth you sent to it, allegedly due to a giveaway by Vitalik, it had a false time constraint and I fell for it... I logged into Binance, sent 6 Eth to Trust wallet and then on to the address on the website. Didn't the promised bonus back, and only then I started checking out Twitter and ethereum.org, found nothing and felt incredibly stupid. Couldn't sleep after that and went to the police this morning, but they already told me it's probably not going to result in anything...

Does anybody have any tipps for me, like for example does someone have experience with cybercrime companies that one could commission?
 
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KiwiInBudapest

KiwiInBudapest

Robin
Protestant
Perhaps a stupid question but is there not a chance OP could claim it as a capital loss in whatever tax agency he is bound to if he can prove he got scammed?

I think you could many years ago.

But condolences regardless, OP! Sad to read this.
 
Sgt

Sgt

Robin
Catholic
Gold Member
KiwiInBudapest said:
Perhaps a stupid question but is there not a chance OP could claim it as a capital loss in whatever tax agency he is bound to if he can prove he got scammed?

I think you could many years ago.

But condolences regardless, OP! Sad to read this.
Click to expand...
It's a good idea - I filed a police report, and yes, maybe I can use that documentation of the loss for a tax reduction at least :like:
 
Bird

Bird

Pelican
Catholic
This image is just weird, it looks like this guy is praying.

s2.png

That alone should give you a hard laughter.
 
lonewolf1968

lonewolf1968

Kingfisher
Other Christian
I feel your pain, in my first months in crypto i almost fell for the "traders who would double up your crypto and trade for you". Just never send 20k over the internet to strange offers again.
 
joost

joost

Kingfisher
I imagine you're young to be enticed to such stupid scheme. Looking at the bright side, you paid $20k to learn a lesson. It could've been your retirement. Can you imagine losing all your retirement money? I bet you can take the loss today and recover.

Just be careful and not repeat the stupidity when you get older. Don't be greedy.
 
GuitarVH

GuitarVH

Pelican
Orthodox Inquirer
I have a hard time believing someone experienced in crypto trading would send $19,000 of ETH to a 5 year running obvious scam that a 10 year old would not fall for. But you did manage to advertise the Youtube video (since removed and account terminated) and the scam website address that forum members can still click on and be scammed from.

As this is your first post in almost a year, color me EXTREMELY skeptical of your claims.
 
N

NFTGroyper

Chicken
Orthodox
As other people have said, maybe you aren't cut out for crypto and maybe this is a $20,000 lesson you'll never forget.

But I think the same thing can happen, albeit in a different context, if you don't fix the REAL reason this happened. Greed. Why did the time constraint work on you? Why weren't your critical faculties more suspicious? Why did your dopamine (my assumption here) rise so much when you saw this opportunity? You can get out of crypto or you can stay and try to only make good level-headed decisions, but either way I don't have hope for you if you don't address your greed.

This isn't to say you cannot engage in capitalism and seek to build your wealth, but you cannot place these activities above everything else. I say this as someone deep into crypto and NFTs. I have learned recently just how much your dopamine receptors can get fried from being engaged in this stuff constantly.

So take this as an opportunity to step back and prioritize what is truly important in your life. God, family, health, etc. If you take this event and dive right back into crypto seeking to recoup the $20,000 right away and more, you have lost sight of the true lesson in this.
 
BURNΞR

BURNΞR

Ostrich
Agnostic
All I can think is you can maybe sue YouTube for causing damages. And at the very least get a tax credit to offset future capital gains tax.

Yeah I was also thinking you are not cut out for crypto. You are better off with someone else managing all your crypto decisions especially security.
 
Feyoder

Feyoder

Pelican
Sgt said:
I feel incredibly stupid because of something I did yesterday - I got scammed out of 6 Eth... :rolleyes:

It was a long day - I had to go to berlin on business, my train went at 7am, and I caught the train home at 8pm. At 10pm I was already travelling and working for 15 hours, and the train was still not going to be in my hometown of Nuremberg for another hour - so I wasn't in the sharpest mental state anymore and started mindlessly scrolling through the internet. YouTube offered a (fake) livestream with Vitalik Buterin that had 22.864 active viewers (bots i guess) and in that video there was a tweet that said they had a giveaway of 100.000 Eth going...


With my critical thinking reduced to way below the level that should be needed for financial transactions, instead of verifying the tweet on Twitter (it didn't exist on Vitalik's profile...) I followed the link posted in the tweet, to the website
[MOD: LINK REMOVED]

That website promised to double the amount of Eth you sent to it, allegedly due to a giveaway by Vitalik, it had a false time constraint and I fell for it... I logged into Binance, sent 6 Eth to Trust wallet and then on to the address on the website. Didn't the promised bonus back, and only then I started checking out Twitter and ethereum.org, found nothing and felt incredibly stupid. Couldn't sleep after that and went to the police this morning, but they already told me it's probably not going to result in anything...

Does anybody have any tipps for me, like for example does someone have experience with cybercrime companies that one could commission?
Click to expand...


Sorry about that. Quite a costly lesson. Can you send me the transaction hash?

You can actually report this to the police. And you should asap. If the fraudster is ever arrested you might be in luck (this is the only way you're getting it back).
 
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