AN AWARENESS POST: How I Almost Lost My Hive Account - Impersonation Scam

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Hello everyone! As you can already tell from the title, you probably know what this post is about. Please take a moment to read it and, if possible, reblog it to help spread awareness. I have been traumatized really badly. I don't know how to express it. But I am going to share the whole story with you all. So, what happened was I have been facing some reloading issues for a while on Hive keychain app. Usually, I use it for scrobble.life , hivegrove, hivesuite and splinterlands etc. So, the issue was that no matter where I tried to scroll upward from, the page would reload. It was getting really annoying, specially when I was trying to navigate through posts. Recently, the app asked me something like, “Are you enjoying using our app?” I selected that I wasn’t, and afterward, they provided me with a Discord link so I could report the issue and get some help. Before that, I didn't know they had a server. So, if you guys don't know as well, I will share the link below my post.

So, what happened next was when I joined the server it was all good. I had sent a text as you can see in the screen shot. The surprising thing was the moment I left that message, there was a thing looked like a bot gave me a link for the ticket. I have found it pretty normal because that's how it works on other servers, and I didn't check properly that even if it's a bot or a person. So, I clicked and there it took me to new server for tickets. I still did not find it suspicious. I was texting but no one replied, later I saw in the chat there was a girl who had sent me a link to join another ticket. What clicked in my mind that, maybe the previous one was inactive and that's why they give me a new one. But after a while the messages disappeared from the server.

I opened that as well, there I found a guy called Mick. He was talking professionally and I had no doubts on him. I will share the screenshots of our chat. I don't have the one of the previous conversation is because they deleted the channel before I could. Also, my internet saved me you can say that.

So, now I had two tickets, and the second one didn't bother me much but the first one which was the first ticket they were saying the person you're talking to is not from our team. I didn't take screenshot for this one because I thought they were real. They didn't share any links or anything maybe they saw my wallet 🤣 that I don't have anything that would be enough for their livelihood, lol. I am laughing here but that time I was very anxious.

On the other hand, there was a guy texting me in the general chat about I shouldn't trust anyone and I should be careful. So, I was feeling thankful for KaponenT because he had helped me. To be honest, I didn't trust the previous two because of him. Otherwise, I would have got scammed before (maybe). I was like, "You're my saviour!" But actually "no" ❌. He helped me so he could gain my trust. I don't know why but I clicked his profile and saw he had no roles but he was claiming to be an ambassador. That made me suspicious and I didn't trust him anymore. In the chat, I was tagging the people I know, such as @thekittygirl and @sagarkothari88. Later I contacted @bhattg about it. Luckily thekittygirl came online, she's part of the moderator team of Hive keychain. The funniest thing I have found in this journey was one scammer was saving me from the other scammer so they could scam me. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Then, I shared my story with thekittygirl what just happened and how three individuals tried to scam me. She was supportive and tried to help me. She even told me to check profile's and the roles. She said devs are on weekend but they may still check so I was on high hopes that my issue will get resolved in a day. It was not like I was desperate to fix it, I just wanted to know if it's from my end or theirs. As you can see curiosity kills the cat. And if something is in my fate it will eventually happen. I'm still feeling bad that I forgot what thekittygirl asked me to do which is to check. I would say she had given me clear instruction but I failed...

Hours later, I saw a ticket from the Hive keychain server. So, I was happy to see that they are going to help me out even if it's weekend as thekittygirl said. So, I had no doubts. Also, the imposter had a team tag and I didn't bother to check his profile because he was talking like a developer (according to me). I didn't know who he was before because I was not familiar with Hive keychain also I am not that old member of Hive. I thought it's the real stoodkev. I saw it in their channel so I didn't think much of it.

So, I followed his steps and he asked me to enter my private key there. And, I was told by many that never share your master keys anywhere. So, I used my active key, because I thought it's required to solve my issues.

I entered and it showed this error, I gave him the screen shot. Then he asked me to use my owner key, I was doubtful that why do I need to give keys as he is dev he should be able to do it from his end. But it was too late to realize it was still not clocking to my head. Then he asked me go transfer some Hive to a username similar to mine but with capital letter.

I was thinking of sending 0.01 Hive because it's for testing that's what I had in mind. But when he asked for 2k Hive, I realized okay he must not be real and I checked his profile and the real stoodkev's profile and they were completely different.

I already had an anxiety attack, as you all know I'm already sick. So, my hands were shivering as I already gave him my active key on that website. Then I pretended to the imposter that I have internet issues, meanwhile I asked @bhattg how to change my keys because I have not done it before, and trust me he just did it within a few seconds, without any delay! I am so so grateful to him, today I still have my account because of him. Because I didn't have any knowledge about changing keys.

So, I was saved later, I told the imposter that it got fixed to see what he says next. As you can see from the screen shot, he still wanted me to deposit, lol.

After changing my keys, I was tearful panicking even though it got resolved but my heart was beating so fast. I can't explain what I had felt. I'm sharing my story, and I know people will say it's my fault. Yes of course, I accept that. I have realized my mistake, and obviously I would never do this kind of mistake again. But there may be some people like me who have no idea about those things. I want to alert you all, so you don't lose your account. I almost lost it, but got saved in the last moment.

When thekittygirl came online again, she explained it was not a ticket from the server but a thread which that guy had created. And I kept thinking it's a ticket from the server. She also shared a screen shot, pointing out to identify a fake one. She shared last time a scammer was pretending to be her. These things are truly scary!

By the way, my keychain issue has been solved, thanks to the real @stoodkev! He personally helped me sort everything out. Once he understood what had happened, he made some changes to the server and removed the permissions to change names or create threads. Really appreciate his help in getting this resolved. He was sorry about the incident, actually I can't blame anyone for my careless behaviour. And I am glad they took steps for it. I am still traumatized. When I think about it, that I was on the verge of losing my account, it makes me feel really anxious. I didn't have courage to write about it earlier, but I don't want anyone else to face it ever again. Anyway intention was to create awareness by this post. So, yeah do not ever share your keys with anyone!