Order Confirmation of What I never Bought

This is what I think puts most people into panic mode. Apparently someone pretending to be you has bought bitcoin with your fiat but hasn't sent you the money yet. What is more, they bought the wrong chain (Bitcoin Core) instead of Bitcoin Cash.

Happy Birthday What GIF by Sesame Street

When I look at this email I immediately think first phishing attack. They can send you a receipt and trick you into visiting some site somewhere. The site will demand you prove your identity and then you will give them your documents.

Then there is a drive-by hack where a specially crafted image takes over your machine with a Stagefright like vulnerability and they read your private-keys out of your local wallet. Yikes.

The other possibility for most people is that your Paypal account was compromised somehow and someone bought 0.17 BTC with the funds in your Paypal account. For ethical reasons, I do not use Paypal and I keep a limited amount of funds in the debit cards I do have. Credit cards and services like Paypal have a defect: There is no required action on your part for the other party to receive funds. The merchant charges the credit card, and prays that it is really you that paid and sends you an email.

If you keep your money as cryptocurrency, you require action to authorize each payment (except for Hive which now as recurring payments) through access to your private-key. If you self-custody, then only you can authorize payments as only you have access/control of your own private-key.

Protect yourself from fraud, arbitrary expropriation, one-off invented taxes, and censorship of your funds.

@leprechaun ☘️☘️☘️🍀

Posted with proof of brain