A hardfork creates a copy of the blockchain, so any coins you are holding on one blockchain will magically appear on the new one. The only question is how to get your hands on them...

After the recent Bitcoin Cash hardfork I was keen to claim my Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and I watched some films on youtube which referred to the bitcoinsv.network where I could get this done. But now that I have done it, I can confirm it is a scam.

I feel a little shame when I tell you that I have lost 0.75 of BCH (which belonged to my mum!) and needless to say I won't be now be able to claim the 0.75 BSV which according to their 'wallet' is right there waiting for me.... very much out of reach.

As you can see when I try to remove the funds it tells me more confirmations are needed before withdrawal. Which simply isn't true. It has been there for a week.

What did I do wrong?

I made two big mistakes

Hardfork preparation

The first and most important thing was that I didn't prepare for the hardfork, despite knowing well in advance it was coming. My BCH was in my exodus wallet which didn't support the split. Had I moved it to one of the listed exchanges which did support the split I would have both tokens now.

It is usually possible to split coins after the snapshot date and it was this thought which made me lazy at the wrong moment.

The problem doing it this way is that we very often have to trust third party sites or unfamiliar exchanges. I have done it twice in the past like this with other coin splits and everything went as expected... but this was third time unlucky.

Research unfamiliar sites (before sending funds)

Upon seeing two films on youtube which referred to the bitcoinsv.network site as being trustworthy I felt good about it being safe. Thinking about it now, these films were not necessarily produced by those behind the scam. More likely they let a few customers withdraw their coins at the beginning, encouraging them to review the site, just so that these kind of films would be produced... lulling the rest of us into a false sense of security.

Only once I had transferred the funds did I become suspicious by the lengthy wait and then thought to check Scam Advisor which told me this:

The moment I saw the site was based in Romania I knew the game was over.

Clearly this was something I should have done BEFORE sending the funds!

They responded to my emails during the first few days of my growing concern, assuring me the confirmations would be done in the next few days, even going as far as to recommend that I transfer any other BCH I might have tucked away asap to ensure a successful split before relay protection was implemented.

How I didn't see in that moment it was a scam I don't know. I was clearly not 100% focused on what I was doing and only have myself to blame.

Their scam must be working quite well because I can see how much the website has improved over the last week, even now with a desktop wallet for download!

Two strikes is enough!

In my three years of crypto I have made this mistake twice now. The first time I almost lost my @samstonehill steem account after handing over my private key to a phishing site which looked a lot like steemit, the only difference being the word steemlt in the url. Not so easy to spot the difference! Thankfully Steemit Inc were able to return my account to me before the scammers were able to access any of my SP (due to the 7 days power down window).

Though this in itself brought up some interesting questions about how decentralised Steemit really is.

Regardless, I learned lessons that time and I have learned some more now.

And I am reminded of the words on my profile banner:

"There are no mistakes, only learning experiences"

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In Summary

A few years ago when steem was still a baby, I recall seeing some white hat hackers steal money out of a bunch of accounts and write a post about it, offereing to return what was stollen and further to that they included the patch to fix the code making sure others couldn't do what they had done. I don't need to tell you how much money they made by writing this post. More than they would have done if they had run off with the stolen steem.

It really opened my eyes to the beauty of steemit and its open source code.

In my situation I don't expect to make back the $150 I have lost but I do expect to at least re-gain some of my dignity by posting here with the intention of helping others not make the same mistake as me.

I am grateful at least that the market being down right now. Would have been a lot more painful if this had happened a year ago!

Hey... and no one mention this to my mum (@cryptogranny) because I will of course replace what has been lost!

Stay vigilant friends.

Who is @samstonehill?

He was a London based filmmaker until he sold everything and set out on a barefoot journey around the world, currently based in the south of France.

He is travelling with his partner & two children and with no bank account he has been living on STEEM & crypto for over a year.

All content created for this account is 100% original (unless otherwise stated), produced by @samstonehill who invites you to use & share freely as you wish.

Sam is the creator of:

The Aspiring Steemit Whales & Dolphins group on Facebook which seeks to help newcomers make the transition from Facebook to Steemit, providing them with detailed notes and personal assistance with their posts... resteeming them when he can.

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Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted for & recommend you do the same:
@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank @thecryptodrive @ura-soul @pharesim

Without them our beloved Steemship would not fly.

Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE

All non original photo sources can be found by clicking on the image