Photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash

Confessions of a Teenage Crypto Hacker

The Minecraft boys have grown up (a bit) and they’re scamming people out of millions in Cryptocurrency, let’s hear from one…

I was listening to the WeStudyBillionnaires podcast and heard about a conversation that Junseth, a Bitcoin OG recorded with someone trying to scam him.

He gets hundreds of these scam calls a day, most of which he rejects, but he decided to take this one and record it.

Have a listen here, it’s a fascinating insight into clever middle class thieves who started out in Minecraft but now steal magic internet money from unsuspecting crypto holders. Don’t be one of them:

Episode 74 - Interview with a Social Engineering Hacker.mp3

Key takeaways / TLDL

1. Don’t share your seed phrase with anybody else. It’s like giving them your cash. You will never see that money again.
2. Don’t keep your crypto on exchanges.
3. If you use Google Authenticator 2FA , don’t sync to the Cloud. Better, use a Yubikey for example, to secure your account. Cloud based authentication can easily be hacked. The first thing hackers do is get your Google password, then they have access to your Google Authenticator and can access and empty all your crypto accounts.
4. If anyone calls you up pretending to be from an exchange, hardware wallet provider, the government basically anything crypto related, hang up the phone. They want to use emotions to get you to react. They will try to instill fear/greed emotions. If someone is trying to frighten you, they are probably a scammer.
5. Use long passwords. Services like LastPass and 1password can generate and store long passwords which secures your accounts. Use unique passwords for accounts and make them long. If you have secure passwords, and you know it, you’re far less likely to fall for a hacker who tells you your account has been compromised. You’ll be think, ‘that’s very unlikely’ rather than ‘OMG!’
6. These kids grew up playing Minecraft, and they don’t see crypto as real money. Hence no scruples about stealing it.
7. If you willingly give your seed phrase or password to another, and have your funds stolen, there is no recourse.
8. Never store a seed phrase in your photos. Again, once hackers get access to your account, they will empty it of funds.
9. If you don’t understand the basics of cryptocurrency, educate yourself so you don’t fall for these simple scams.
10. There are people out there losing hundreds of thousands to scammers, don’t be one of them.
11. If the email/call feels odd to you, hang up. Even if they’re presenting themselves as an authority figure or nice person. Scammers are very good at what they do. ‘How is your day going?’ Don’t trust anyone.