It has been difficult for me to watch the transformation of my account into something so contrary to the loving nature of Steemit over the last few days.
The above image is what my account looks like at this moment, when 5 days ago it looked like this...
What happened?
The hackers were initially using @accounttransfers to persuade people to hand over their master keys, leaving this message in the wallets of many.
When they gained control of my @samstonehill account they started playing a different game.
First they tried this...
But apparently, seeing this message come from an account named @samstonehill wasn't working for them.
So then they changed their tack, trying to use my decent number of followers & 70 rep to fit the image for their latest scam.
The above message arrived in the wallet of my new account two hours ago and I am a bit confused as to why they would be sending it to me in particular?
Regardless, I am not the only person they sent it to, so stay vigilant everyone!
If you want to learn how it was that I fell for their trap, how to safeguard yourself and how to support me now that I appear to have lost all my STEEM, check my last post HERE and read through the comments to find lots of good suggestions on security measures...
THE TOP SECURITY TIP & SUGGESTION
taken from the comments under my last article
(from @heimindanger - the creator of DTube)
We should get into the habit of logging in with our posting key instead of our master key.
This way if someone does manage to scam you into handing it over, the worst they can do is make posts and comments from your account. And with your master key you can change the posting key easily, locking them out for good.
@heimindanger's exact words were as follows "This is why you should always use the posting key! Logging with the master password should display huge warnings in the steemit.com interface!"
100% agreed. I personally think this is a great idea.
Steemit devs.... are you taking note?
Why are these particular words displayed on my banner now?
I am wondering now looking at the new words on my old banner if Steemit has somehow managed to shut them down in the last few hours?
This doesn't seem like the kind of thing scammers would write if they were trying to persuade people they are 'a group of 250 loyal steemians'.
Could this mean a glimmer of hope for me?
My next power down from the @samstonehill account is due in about 12 hours. It will be around 400 STEEM and I am very curious now to see if they are able to move it out of Steemit as they had intended.
I am hoping very much that Steemit have managed to prevent this from happening...
Time will tell.
If it turns out they are able to transfer out in two hours to an exchange like Bittrex, they will need to provide a memo which I intend to hand over to Bittrex at once, ensuring that their trading account is frozen.
I have written to Steemit to explain this full and somewhat exhausting story... and am awaiting now for their response whilst trying to stay as optimistic as possible :)
On that note...
The large number of beautiful comments under my last post was a huge boost for me. Thank you so much to all of you who commented, upvoted or resteemed 🙏🏻
I finished responding to you all moments ago and I feel as if I have made so many new friends today!
I would like to say an even bigger THANKS to those who donated STEEM & SBD directly to my new account. I did not ask for this and as such it was totally unexpected. I had tears in my eyes when I saw my wallet!
The generosity of the people on this platform blows my mind at times like this. Even to those who just gave a little, I am deeply grateful and I am reminded in this moment of what a special community this really is.
So, thank you again for giving me hope in this difficult time and never forget....
YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!
Well... everyone except that dastardly @samstonehill hacker/scammer chap ;)
Unfortunately, any money you have in that old account is probably gone for good. Other than the account recovery function, Steem Inc has no power to reverse transactions or freeze accounts.
This may sound strange but Steem is a decentralized crypto-currency. If a central authority could step and do these types of things, then it wouldn't be decentralized.
Exactly. Nothing is more important, than keeping this whole thing decentralized & iriversable. Even lost money... Sorry to say that.
Sam, you got one more friend in a tiny country you may not know much about - in Lithuania. I just explorer your timelapse films - so much AMAZING. More so, that I'm just starting to do some timelapsing myself, and also got a MAVIC only about 4-5 weeks ago.
Your works are so inspiring !!!
Keep up steemin', @samstonehilltube and be sure all together we will not leave even one chance to those scammers.
I also resteem, as I know well how hard it is to build a followers base, how much time it takes. Hopefully some of my follower crowd will discover your great works just by this resteem...
Keni told me what happened. Don't feel bad, a lapse in concentration can happen to anyone. Trust me, I found out the hard when a motorbike thief stole my passport in Cambodia. It's good to see that the community are whipping around and making sure you get your reputation back up quickly though. I am following this account now and am about to upvote all your posts. I know it's not much, but in time your account will be stronger than it was before and this will just be a a very raw reminder to be more alert on a platform that is new to all of us in turn prone to being exploited...
me 2
Dear Sam, you've payed the price! Now, it's time to grow, larger, than ever! Thank you for these very useful information! Now, I'm more careful. I use posting key instead of master key.
Keep STEEM N ON,
Frank
Resteem...
stay strong my friend, we are here for you :)
A lot of love and support coming your way because that is exactly what you project! doesn't the universe work in wonderful ways.! hope you get back to normal as quickly as possible......
stay strong @samstonehilltube
nice work
I sure hope that it really does mean that Steemit Inc has frozen the account.
They sent me a scam message.
And I can't believe that they actually sent you one too, from your own account!
resteemed
well that's reassuring ... you got no warning ? all your work into it just gone like that without a chance to withdraw ?
that's not very "open" and uncensored is it ?
after 24 hours i already have my doubts here ... a small band of elitist brats seem to make this look like a college campus where you have to play nice with club alpha alpha and roll over when they say boo ...or else ...!
Then ... living in the EU, there is "the right to be forgotten" which means ... legalist technically that this is an impossible social network here because if its allowed to be waivered then it sets a precedent and all the mastodonts can include it in the signup EULA which means the law would be in effect nullified.
So that could get some serious legal crap raining down if someone "insists
i dont know, i'll keep linking what i link on my own website for now just to stay active but if speaking up against the dubai squad mean rep halved in 30 minutes this is way too much of a twitter clone shaped after a standard model of society ... exactly what ruined twitter in the first place. The boom and bubble might follow by a surge in people quitting since essentially the time you have to put in to make it lucrative is way more than the initial dopamine promise would allow you to expect, which will lead to mucho disappointments and frustration i suppose ... i have no idea what steem and power and all that is, but it looks like basically you can "buy your way up" ? pay to play ? so in the end a few rich brats get the power to decide who gets to say what ?
pardon me if i got that part wrong i havent truly read the whole faq on the system
blocking your account while theres money in it without even warning or letting you withdraw is not very confidence inspiring either since the logical step would to keep most of the currency hoping it will reach at least even 10% BTC price or something. If they can lock you out at any time without any warning or chance its pretty fascist .. the whole free speech thing doesnt seem to be undertood all too well.... upvoted yours, anyway, not begging to vote anything me, good luck with it :D
Steemit must have way to prevent taking money from hacked account. This is MUST BE feature for Steemit. If not Steemit will collapse eventualy.
Was so sorry to see that happen to you. What a rotten thing.😠 I will keep on upvoting and resteeming too to help build your rep up again.
that is so terrible that this happened to your account,
when did it get hacked?
because i notice that links to a discord were on your old accounts posts that arent here and then it was breached you think they might have been involved with your account being hacked?
You will recover from this, as the people of Bali will recover from their evacuation. You are a good soul, and that is what makes you so likeable. You were trying and helping bring Light to those in Bali, and we, the people of steemit know that, so we try to give you a little so you may recover quickly. Life is learning to be wise, and one day we will die knowing we found a little bit of wisdom in our life.
This is increbile what is happening, also look at the same message in another user's account.
Steemit is already a victim of Hackers.
And they will continue trying because here important values move.
The fact that nothing can be done because this is decentralized, honestly does not give confidence.
Congratulations @samstonehilltube! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP<3
Hey @samstonehilltube - so sorry to hear of your attack . I also got my account hacked two weeks ago - it's a painful process I know. They stole my cash but not my steem as powering down is a slow business. Stay positive and you will get it back. I also made a similar mistake using my master password after being redirected away from steemit ( un-noticed by myself. who are you speaking to about getting the account back? I waited a whole day then got a quick fix it appeared from @andrarchy so speak to him at steemabuse in steemchat to get your account back fast
This is a must read for beginers like me , awesome post and thanks a bunch for sharing :) be well friend .