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"If you're a thief who doesn't have access to any computer skills or the above sums of money, have no fear, it is likely that the Bitcoin economy still has mult
by mrb 14y ago
"If you're a thief who doesn't have access to any computer skills or the above sums of money, have no fear, it is likely that the Bitcoin economy still has multiple options for you to get in on the ground floor of exciting new ways to steal things."
Exactly. Low-tech ways of stealing bitcoins is precisely what we are seeing the most in the community right now. Thieves who merely sweet-talk people on the forum and convince them to invest in their "businesses" (ponzi schemes, fake ASIC preorders, etc), then receiving the money, and running away.
Cost for the thief: at most $100 (setting up a website to advertise the fake business).
For example just 2 months ago, a fraudster advertised his company selling Bitcoin ASIC mining hardware (www.labsnovo.com, now taken down) by posting a comment to my blog... This is very sad to see because every freaking time, some people fall for it. You may have 4 out of 5 posts on the forums reporting one of these scheme as a "LIKELY FRAUD" in all caps, yet there are always a few people who ignore these warnings and just try to invest anyway. sigh
- rsync 14y agoIs it illegal to steal bitcoins ? If so, why ? And how is it different (at least in the eyes of the law) than stealing a wand from someone in Ultima Online ? In fact, let me go further - does not a "real" currency issuer have a vested interest in not judging bitcoin theft to be illegal ? If it's illegal, that bestows a certain legitimacy ...
- conover 14y agoWouldn't if be the difference between fraud and a violation of a game's terms of service?
- Egregore 14y agoRecently I've read an article that Belorusian police investigated stealing of a virtual tank from "World of Tanks", found it and returned it to the original owner.
- jebeng 14y agoIf you were to hack into someones account and take it, I would think that is illegal. Obviously if you were to steal it ingame that would not be illegal. It's almost certainly illegal to steal bitcoins. I guess I'm referring to US law here, but I would expect it to be illegal in any country that has computer crime laws. And sure it is in the currency issuer's interest to do do that, if think in strict terms of maximising the value of the issued currency. But that doesn't mean the currency issuer will take every action available to do so. The bigger picture is much more complicated than that.
- rmc 14y agoIf you tell someone "Give me X and I'll give you Y" and you never intend to give them Y, then I presume you'd be guilty of fraud. After all X bitcoins does have a monetary value, since people will trade you money for it.