Attention, fake addresses in town. I have lost 11 dollars in a very short time. How? I only mistyped some titles, introduced something wrong. But, the system helped me to repeat the mistake. Don’t make the same one...

What is done is done

One of the great advantages of Steem is: you can send money, Steem or Steem Backed Dollars (SBD) quickly, in seconds. Without any fees and expenses. The system is asking you a security question before, and you have to introduce your key, so you can’t really complain if you make something wrong. Your fault.

The same way as by other cryptocurrencies, once a transaction is completed, it is completed. For forever. What you have done, is done. No way back. If you mistyped, misspelled something, wrote the wrong address, is your failure. Nobody will give you your money back.

Upme, Upmy, Smart or Smat

That is an advantage in some business actions, this “irreversibility”. Because it means reliability: you can trust in that that money you received, is on your account. For forever. (Credit card transfers or bank account transfers can be reverted in some cases.) But it can be also a disadvantage on some occasions, like mine.

Example: I made this mistake months ago with@upmyvote, which is a real bid bot, and @upmevote, which appears to be a fake one. But today I was terrible: I sent money to “Smarmarket” instead of “Smartmarket”. And twice.

24 SBD for free?

I think some accounts are only made for this: to catch transactions to misspelled addresses. Of course, they are copying addresses of often required persons or services. Not only “@smarmarket”, but also @smatmarket and @smartmarke exist. And @minnowbooter, copy of @minnowbooster seems to be a quite rich account, just sent 24 SBD to “smartmarke”. Who is behind these accounts? And who knows how many other accounts are awaiting your lost money?

The fake "Minnowbooter" also posted a stolen picture earlier.

Once I sent money to an address that seems simply to be a “deadfish”. The owner registered and left soon, 6-7 months ago and never returned. Maybe he/she will never return. The money stays burned. Bad luck. That “insecurity”, security issues are some of the reasons why many people are thinking mass adoption is still very far away. (Or, it can come if younger people – like Millennials – grow up who are managing computers better.)

Helping you to lose

On the page Steemitwallet.com, the system is trying to help you: It offers the addresses you used last time and the addresses of the persons you follow. (Not very consistently, however. Sometimes I don’t understand when and why it makes it – but this is another story.) That can make your life better – but also worse.

In my case, I made a wrong transfer, and the next time, Steemitwallet offered the same bad address again. I clicked the offered one again like always – and I lose again.

Ever heard of checksum?

In the case of conventional bank accounts, mostly, there is a checksum at the end of the account number. If you mistype a number or two, the number will be erroneous, and the transaction fails. But I think the laws also are providing some protection: If somebody receives the money of others without a reason, can’t keep it, has to refund it. If not, the court will oblige him.

I see no such protection by cryptocurrencies, and this is only one of the security issues. (Hacks, thefts, scams…)
I know, don’t drink and drive. Don’t make wrong transfers. My fault. But there are also more secure systems.

(I know “fake Steem addresses” don’t exist, all addresses are real and should be serious. I called fake addresses the ones somebody made to catch money from the errors of others.)

(Picture: Own work)