Repost of a hard-learnt lesson with a happy ending from a fellow Quamrade. People, please be more careful in this wild crypto west - don't you ever enter you seed phrase anywhere else, except the Ledger itself:Ever since finding out about Quant Network (QNT), I have been a firm believer that this is the project that is going to let me make it.I put everything I had into buying more QNT, and eventually racked up a nice stack of 1266 tokens. This is literally my life savings, I hold no other cryptocurrency nor do I have any money left in my bank account.On the 22th October, 2020, I was trying to retrieve some 200 QNT tokens or so to my OG wallet (0x1b0A48eD4E485b7682E299454bc6e7D7adB059C9) from IDEX. Since IDEX updated to IDEX 2.0, I had to migrate my tokens from the IDEX 1.0 wallet first.When attempting this, I got a security key error message popping up, and it simply wouldn't let me get my tokens out. Stressed out thinking my tokens were at risk, I googled my way into a Medium article explaining a solution to the problem. It said I had to update my ledger firmware because something wasn't playing with Nano Ledger and Windows 10.The article contained a link to download the Ledger Live App, including the steps I needed to take to update my ledger firmware. I clicked the link and downloaded the version from the Medium Article. I completed all the steps and didn't think twice about the desktop app asking for my 24 word seed - everything looked legit. The update completed, I didn't get the security key error on IDEX anymore and I got my funds into my wallet again - yay!Two days later (today on October the 25th), I decided to check my wallet. All my funds (1266 QNT) had been moved. All my money. My life savings. Gone.Just as QNT is starting to pump hard, so I know that I won't be able to buy back my stack in a thousand years. The timing could not have been worse. "I'm sure they're just on IDEX or something still" I thought to myself. I went there to double check - nothing. My gut turned itself inside out. I started backtracking my movements and concluded it had to have something to do with the IDEX wallet thing. I slowly started to realize where I had gone wrong, and I found more information about a fake ledger live app asking you for your seed.I opened TG and started writing in Quamfy Lounge and to my other friends in QNT, explaining the situation and asking them to not make the same mistake as I did. Still in shock, I was met with many people saying how sorry they were for my sake and how they felt my pain. I couldn't handle it. I laid down in my bed, still shaking and struggling to breathe. "How could I have been so fucking stupid?" Crypto 101 is that you do not give away your 24 words to anyone.A combination of stress, a very believeable phishing malware and straight up dumbfuckery had left me with absolutely nothing left. I open up TG again, and see that the community is rallying together, they created a new wallet for me and asked people to donate (0x4a84e7b1f80ea5a8bd3b4a561a6398d242816320). It was beautiful to see so many people stand up to help me, and I really appreciated the effort.People were going absolutely mental and within a few minutes there was already 100 QNT back in the wallet. I was astounded over how many people actually cared and wanted to help me, but at the same time I knew I would never have my big fat /making it/ stack back. I felt happy, sad, grateful, ungrateful, depressed, angry, anxiety-stricken and hopeful at the same time. There aren't really words to describe it.Then the nuke dropped. Some absolute fucking mad lad sent 1000 QNT to the donation address.I was in awe. Some random person in the QNT community actually sent me about 15 000 USD worth of QNT, with no strings attached*. I started to cry like a small child. The rollercoaster of emotion I've been through today took its toll on me.*Now, some people reached out and asked for more details about the hack and found out that the hacker sent some funds to Bittrex. I've contacted Bittrex support about it to see what they can do - if I get any funds back I'll make sure to return the donations to the people who helped me out today.The Medium article containing the link to the Ledger Live malware is getting reported as I write this, so that no-one else will experience the pure terror that I did.This whole thing has left me exhausted, but also feeling hopeful and inspired. There are still kind people out in this world today who are willing to lend a helping hand to those in need without expecting anything in return. They deserve all the good things that are coming to them, and I will be ever grateful to my anonymous hero. My biggest thanks to everyone who donated, you are beautiful people.
Submitted October 26, 2020 at 03:52PM
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