Crypto currency account balances wiped out by avoidable mistakes

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been getting a crash course in crypto currency trading and still have a lot to learn, but this market is clearly still just getting started. It’s like an untamed frontier, the wild west, so traders must be careful and protect themselves, avoiding costly mistakes.

Some traders recently reported disturbing news, finding their account balances transferred to someone else, leaving them with nothing. However, further investigation revealed it was almost always due to their own dumb mistakes, not caused by the exchange, which is good news because we can easily avoid those mistakes.

In response to complaints posted in Cryptopia’s forum, a member of their staff investigated and replied with some great insights, identifying what we can do to keep our accounts secure.

Use a Unique Password:

Don’t use the same password used at other accounts with the same email address. That’s a potential security problem if hackers get the info from the other site, so always use a unique password for each exchange. Don’t use passwords that are easy to guess. Use a random string of meaningless characters. Software programs are available to generate secure passwords with long strings of unique combinations. The longer it is, the harder it is to break.

Use a Unique Email Address:

Email addresses can get compromised, especially if they’ve been used on lots of other sites. Millions of them have already been compromised. Find out if yours has by entering it at hacked-emails.com or haveibeenpwned.com. Even if it hasn’t been compromised yet, there’s always a chance it could be in the future, so it is recommended to use a dedicated email address, unique for each exchange, so hackers can’t find it.

After learning about this idea, I created a new email account, but when I logged into my Cryptopia account, I discovered the only way to change my account email address is by opening a support ticket, but due to the recent surge in trading, the expected wait time for receiving replies to support tickets is 12 days.

Avoid Phishing Sites:

Thieves create dummy sites that look identical to the exchange site, hoping to lure unsuspecting victims to enter their account email address and password. Once they have that, they log into your account and transfer your coins to their account. We can avoid this trap by paying close attention to the website address line, which appears at the top of our web browsers. This fraudulent scheme is called phishing. The phishing site looks like the real site, but their address is slightly different, using a different domain extension, as shown in the example below.

Always use two-factor authentication:

In addition to passwords, most exchanges require a second authentication for logging in and transferring coins. The extra steps are a hassle, but we should never disable them because they might be our last line of defense in the event our password is compromised.

Avoid Transferring Coins to the Wrong Address:

Some Cryptopia traders complained about losing their coins and some even filed complaints against the exchange, but Cryptopia investigated and discovered what really happened was the trader entered the wrong address when transferring their coins because they were transferring coins Cryptopia doesn’t even offer and therefore cannot receive.

Cryptopia Company Info:

In addition, in replying to these concerns, Cryptopia provided the following helpful information about their company and their security practices.

We are a NZ registered company, one of the few exchanges in the business that actually freely says who we are and where we are, we are not going to take off with user funds ever. Our founders set up the company specifically to be an exchange that is above board and does things the right way, after one of the ones they used disappeared. They have worked extremely hard to get where we are and looking after customer funds is an absolute priority.

There was a significant increase in suspicious login attempts on Cryptopia around the time this happened to you. As the vast majority of these attempts fail this indicates our account level security measures have not been breached. The systems we have in place to protect user accounts do not allow for passwords to be accessed, shown, retrieved or otherwise displayed in any form which includes internal sources. Nobody can ever retrieve your password from our system, even if we went and gave them the database, this includes Cryptopia staff members.

In almost every case of login attempts we are seeing the corresponding email address showing up on reported data leaks, and/or is being used for other internet services.

Note I have checked the users posting on this forum thread, and all of you appear to have had your details compromised on other sites. (see complete post)

Conclusion:

By avoiding these mistakes, we can make our trading much more secure, but we cannot completely avoid all risks, which are still higher than other types of investments, enough to convince many to stay far away. So why would anyone get in? For me, there’s only one reason, following the leading of the Holy Spirit.

After reading many great testimonies of profits made by other Z3ers trading crypto currencies, I held off on it until I received the go ahead from God about two weeks ago. Regardless of the risks and the increased persecution from other so-called Christians, there’s no safer place than right in the middle of His will, following His leading, doing what He instructs. I don’t expect to lose my coins, but if I do, I’ll take comfort in knowing I was on the path He chose for me. I don’t look at it as putting my life at risk, just putting it more completely in His hands, right where I want to be. Like the song says,

Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way.
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Thanks to Z3er Sonia for sharing the links to the Cryptopia forum comments.

Author: James Bailey

James Bailey is a blogger, business owner, husband and father of two grown children. In 1982, he surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2012, he founded Z3news.com to broadcast the message of salvation by reporting end time news before it happens.

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