Paper gifts and making 7500 HIVE in an hour for FREE

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At least one Hive user got very lucky last night.
Actually, he got lucky twice.

Better than getting laid.
(Probably)

A long time ago, he lost his keys for Hive in a computer, only having his posting available and unfortunately, he hadn't done any of the security things - like backing them up offline and physically or, resetting his recovery account away from Steem. As a reminder THIS IS HIVE, if your recovery account is set to STEEM and you lose your keys, you are in for a real bad time.

But, after a little renewed vigor, he put out a post last night offering a 1000 dollar reward for anyone who could help him recover his account. Now, I haven't spoken with him for a very long time, but thought I would leave a message, some advice and offering some help.

A little desperate perhaps and willing to take a chance, he ended up sending me a picture of his Master Key that doesn't work, to see if I can do anything with it.

A word of warning:
DO NOT GIVE YOUR KEYS TO ANYONE!!!

Except me - because you can trust me.

That was a test.

NOT EVEN ME!!!

(However, I know Yahia back from early-2018 and he chose to take the risk)

So, after getting what looked like chicken scratchings and hieroglyphics mixed into a nonsensical story on a scrap of paper - at 3 in the morning, I set to work.

IMG_20200813_225117 (2).jpg

People don't take the "save your keys" advice seriously and trust that they won't need to ever use their master, until they do. Please, PLEASE - take it seriously! If you are going to write them down freehand, make sure that your writing is impeccable and very, very clear, as one little error out of those 52 characters and you might lose what you have worked for. In this case, it was around 7500 HIVE with a street value of about 5700 dollars US.

That is a lot to lose in my opinion and it is because of this that they were willing to offer a 1000 dollar reward - which I declined in my first message at the very start, just for those who believe I only do stuff for the dosh.

So, taking the scrap of paper (and assuming it was the right key for the account), I first had to work out what password it is. It was a Master Password, as it had 52 characters and started with P, which I think is the same for all of them (unsure). Then in notepad, I wrote down what I thought was written and tried to login, with no luck.

There were literally markings and cross-outs of several characters and it was unclear if some were upper or lowercase where for example, U and u looked the same. This meant systematically going through and trying single changes and then combinations of changes of characters, then trying each at the login page, in order to see if I was able to get access.

I think it took me about an hour before eventually, one gained access and I was able to login. I used the master to check the posting key and then used it just to double-check and leave a message as proof:

image.png

Now, Yahia had to blind trust that I wasn't going to commandeer his account if I gained access - but a repeated word of warning, while I have no need to do such things - DO NOT TRUST PEOPLE.

Once I was sure that I had control of his account - I changed all of his keys. So - the account is mine!

Muhahahhahha..hah...ha

Ahem.

This can be done in either:

https://wallet.hive.blog/@YOURNAME/password
or
https://peakd.com/@YOURNAME/permissions

But be careful and make sure you read well and be ready to save the keys safely once you get the new ones.

KEEP YOUR KEYS SAFE!

Yahia now has his keys and control of his account, all is well.

Recovery Account Caveats

But, more warnings. You can change your recovery account easily too and what this means is you can have a backup to fall on in order to recover a lost account. On Peakd, this is done through the permissions pane also. But even if you lose access to your account, YOU STILL NEED your master password. Recovery is for stolen accounts, not lost keys. KEEP YOUR MASTER KEY SAFE!

So, how'd he get lucky twice?
Well, he actually got lucky at least five times.
Which is the luck of an eighteen year old.

  1. I saw the post in my feed and commented.
  2. He found the scrap of paper.
  3. I was able to recover the account and save 7500 HIVE.
  4. I declined the 1000 dollars and the 500 dollars offered
  5. I didn't steal his account with 7500 HIVE in it.

So, for an hour of my dicking about with the password, Yahia now has his account and the HIVE to play with (he is transferring to his other account) and not only that, he didn't have to pay for the service. Sometimes, luck does fall our way and we get a break that can make our lives easier and a little better.

Last night, I got lucky and was able to help someone out and feel like I made the world a little better for one individual. For me, this is important.

Your keys, your account.
Your account, your keys.

Take security seriously please - it is your responsibility.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]



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138 comments
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Life saver Taraz reporting for duty! 👄👄💓💓 You deserve a Goddess special pic for your troubles! 💚

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Yes, take the "save your keys" part seriously. But I beg to disagree on the other advice. On he contrary, DO TRUST PEOPLE. This is what friendship grows off. This is what makes us human, trust is the basis of collaboration and collaboration is the bedrock of human civilisation. Yahia trusted you and together, you managed to unlock value which none of you would probably have if he had not trust you.

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I think that the only reason he trusted me, is that we already have a relationship dating back a few years and he knows my character from that, even though we haven't spoken in over two years I think. I am a stranger, but not unfamiliar :)

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Sure, knowing who you can trust is not easy. I'm sure he trusted you not only because HE was familiar to you but also because YOU have a certain reputation, and he judged that you were likely to act in a manner which would preserve and enhance that reputation

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Didn't think so much about reputation, actually, but trusted my gut about his goodness and altruism. Also, counted on his intelligence and familiarity with the platform.

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You're not a stranger to me. As someone who lives for the written word, and a reader-in-between-the-lines I've read you closer than you know, over the years.

Yes, your spirit is not unfamiliar to me--kindred even.

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I know - but I don't want a lot of people sending me their keys!

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I agree I don't trust anyone with my keys

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Indeed, perhaps not with the keys, but what scared me was that his advice seemed so broad "do not trust people" ...

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You can trust people but I dont trust people with my keys that's what I was crying of saying

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(Edited)

Well done Taraz. Thanks for another informative post. I saved my Master PSW, but now I think is not sufficient. I am going to save it in several methods.

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It is worth having a good understanding of what is needed in terms of security -before you have to use it :)

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Well, that's very nice. It's great to be able to trust someone and have someone prove that they deserve trust. This is a happy event and an example for many of us.
Thank you for what you did and thank you for telling!

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It was a bit of fun for me too. It was late, but I quite liked the process - not exactly hacking and cracking, but systematic nonetheless. :)

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Certainly, the satisfaction was great!

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It was inspiring and humbling (words I don't use lightly). Counting my blessings...

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!LUV the story. It reinforces my belief that there is good in the world; and that there are good people, even on the internet. But, of course, HIVE is a community. It doesn't mean that we should trust everyone here. Just be careful who we trust and give our confidence. I agree; @yahialababidi was lucky. He trusted the right person and was rewarded with control of his account back. :)

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Yeah - I am sparing with my trust in a pseudonymous world. Especially since I know a lot of the stories and outcomes of trusting the wrong people. Hive has history embedded in it :)

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The best part about this ordeal is that it serves as a warning to everyone to keep their keys and passwords in a safe place. I had the same problem with my illegible writing but have taken steps to be able to read and use the backups if ever I will need it -hopefully not. Well done man.

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I was lucky ... to know Taraz and, at the risk of alienating the hyper-rational here, to Trust (the Universe) and in the moral goodness of a fellow writer.

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You were a lucky man. Thankfully, you (or, the Universe) were able to connect to the right person. :)

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read what you did and I like your writing style it funny and interesting at the same time and that remains me I also have to store my keys offline

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Yeah, don't have them online at all if you can help it. At least not the master. print it out and keep it safe.

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ok I will but first, I will change it

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and can you tell me how to set a recovery account?

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Recovery account is if yours is stolen.

There are suggestions here under the recovery account section

https://peakd.com/@aiovo/permissions

Ideally, you will have someone you trust who can also recover, but I use another account that I keep offline. A cold account.

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(Edited)

ok, how many hives do I need to make a cold account myself? i have 84 hp right now

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Will be back later. But I think you can get free ones on ecency. Perhaps someone else knows.

If not and you are on discord, I can create one for you I think.

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ok I will get one from ecency thanks for the help

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Wow, thanks for saving a soul. If I lost that amount I would freakout.

Thanks for this post, I think everyone needs to see this.


Posted via proofofbrain.io

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I would freak out if I lost my account here for sure.

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I did freak out, for nearly a year, but I never lost hope... stubborn optimist that I am :)

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Thanks for the reminder "Do not trust people" :)

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trust some, but don't trust all. Learning who to trust is part of life.

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Wise words... And like all valuable life lessons, invariably, learned the Hard Way :o

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I just had to reblog this :) It's awesome that he found a friend who wanted to help :)

And yes, it seems pretty important to have those keys. I have mine and recently tested it out via the show keys option. Had to try something that only the master key could do!

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Yep - that is a good test. I have changed my keys a few times and it is always a stressful event :)

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There would be another way to protect your funds, but it would be harmful to your account at least temporarily. You can always power down, move it all to another account, change the keys, then restore the funds! How risky is changing keys?

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Well done Taraz.
!PIZZA

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@tarazkp! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @naythan.

Did you know Pizzabot speaks Spanish if you use the command ESPIZZA? (7/10)

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Thanks for the !PIZZA too.

I am testing if I can distribute :)

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(Edited)

Man! That's quite a story. I saw the post and was thinking what the odds would be that @yahialababidi gets his account back. Quite a few friends form Venezuela had been locked out of their accounts and have had to start all over.
He was indeed lucky. And you did a great thing. My respects!
Recovery accounts or the impossibility of it (under certain circumstances) is the one scary aspect of this platform that should be revised. There have to be some additional validation mechanisms that may allow the legitimate owner of an account to have access back.
You have a great day.

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Quite a few friends form Venezuela had been locked out of their accounts and have had to start all over.

It is really common - just glad that this one worked out.

There for to be some additional validation mechanisms that may allow the legitimate owner of an account to have access back.

Yes. I think there could be some alternatives introduced to help with this - but security still has to be maintained.

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It was a minor miracle, man, and I believe in them... the minor and the Major _/|_

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It was indeed, man. People like Taraz can make anyone believe in miracles. After all, most miracle are made by people who decide to do the right thing at the right time.
Hive on. Have a great week.

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Thanks, for the affirmation, man, and that's a good definition of Miracles :) Wonderful week ahead to you, too!

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Thank you for making the world a better place for your friend. He really got lucky he gat you.

Saving our master key somewhere offline safe should be taken very serious.


Posted via proofofbrain.io

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Yep. Make sure you have yours too :)

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I am always paranoid when it comes to keys since I was first introduced to how serious it is. Not only to manage to have them written in a way they are understandable, but also to have backups, and the backups to have backups.

I am glad he found help from you not some scammer :)

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I remember you stressing about your keys a couple times - just having left the USB in :D

The problem with trust here is, it rarely works out unfortunately.

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I trust only few people even though they have told me not to too many times :) Think, you are one of them

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I wouldn't have trusted a scammer (I say this, having been scammed before, and repeatedly). I've known Tarazkp, one and off, for around 3 years and know that he has a heart of gold.

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That is true :)

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A life saver that’s what you are, the man was real lucky.

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I always save the hive key to the 3 social networks that I trust the most, facebook, zalo and gapo. It helps me never to be afraid of losing my key.

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I always save the hive key to the 3 social networks that I trust the most, facebook, zalo and gapo.

Ummm - but they can read your information - so they have your keys...

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Thank you so much for encouraging Hivers about securing their keys! This is a good help to anyone.

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Yeah - people often forget, so it is good to have reminders from time to time that it is serious business.

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you really are so good @tarazkp where many people today when it comes to money they will forget their promise and even harm others, but different from you, stay healthy good people, because this world needs a lot of people like you.

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Promises are often made, never to be remembered.

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Ameen. It might be interesting for you to learn that before I reached out to Taraz, I read a meaningful message about miracles only happening to those who Believe. So, I said a prayer & took a leap of faith. Al7amdullah

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Wow, you did a great job helping him out on recovering his account. The same thing happened to my first account, I don't how I lost my keys but I was lucky because the account was very fresh and I don't have up to $10 worth of hive.

It taught me to take my keys seriously because it would hurt me badly if there was a lot of money in the account.

Good for the person, about trusting people. I have met people virtually and I believe that they wouldn't cheat me and even though we haven't met them in reality, I still do trust them.

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Many people think that it is like Facebook - just request another. The reason facebook can do that is because they own your account, not you.

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You have a point, Hive can't be compared to Facebook at any level. I stopped using it a very long time ago because I can't imagine using a platform that doesn't add value to me.

Instead, it puts me at risk of someone stealing my data, recently my Instagram was hacked and few friends were duped because they believed I was the one talking to them to invest in some kind of business.

I understand why the security level on Hive is high and it is for our good.

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(Edited)

You at least gave yourself upvotes right? (And permanent auto-votes forever.)

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DO NOT GIVE YOUR KEYS TO ANYONE!!!

So you want to know my master key? Ok, Sure thing no problem.

it is: 123 fake pasword.

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lol. Send them to me in Discord. I will keep them safe from scammers.

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I think in the future I will change it to: Friend. But it will spell: Dog.😜

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Wow!! That's awesome. Thanks for helping him and yea. Re-saving Al my keys now

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If master key start with P do other keys also have a fixed letter in the beginning?

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Your keys, your account.
Your account, your keys.

This is one thing I tell people. As a principle, once you create an account with me, you have to store it in 3 places before getting any orientation from me.

You really did a good job in helping the chap.

You are a great person

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It has to be the case - people need to take responsibility. The amount of people who have got a lot of support, only to have their account stolen or locked is crazy - just because of bad security habits from the start.

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your post about securing keys made me little emotional because i was suffer in the past where my account got stolen .it was @sandeep126 i don't know how to recover because before i recover ,scammer already changed the password .account recovery was sandeep126 by itself from steem . i learned the lesson that time and now i am very aware and sensitive while i handle my keys.

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Most of the time, there is little to do. But, if it is a stolen account, it is sometimes possible to recover if there is the master key available still. This is why the recovery account is important. It take 30 days to set a recovery account. Which means, even if the thief changes it, you still have 30 days to get it back using the recovery before it is gone forever. Make sure you have a recovery account set and there is no way anyone can get both sets of keys.

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I have that chicken scratch note taking problem also. I have learned to underling my small letters just so I know it is small, especially letters like "K/k", "W/w" and a few others,I am glad you were able to help him out.

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the note had some of this too - but it wasn't consistent. It ended up being a case problem.

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Yeah case issues are my down fall a lot so I always try to underline the small letters.

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I am distributing some !PIZZA now and I know you like HE tokens :)

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I need to get to a point I can do more than the one !PIZZA slice, but I have a tendency to use them to support my HE token addiction. So my one slice a day goes to the little zombie text game I play. So the pizza is appreciated. I need to look more into it and see how many I need, but I never got around to distributing all the beer opportunities, and often forget the !ENGAGE 15 tokens.

Pizza is worth more than POB:
0.392 - pizza
0.271 - POB

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@tarazkp! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @bashadow.

Did you know Pizzabot speaks Spanish if you use the command ESPIZZA? (2/10)

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Thanks for this post. Very important to secure own keys. Saved mine in several places to avoid anything that might result in me losing my account.

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You are a pure diamond geezer man!

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Just buttering the rest up - playing the long game ;)

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He is a noble soul and I'm still reeling...

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He is indeed!!!

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Thank you, for your ticklish presence on Hive.

Even when I don't read your posts, I find the images you use to be amusing :) Cheers!

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For me the entire thing that I like best is the images part, so thank you for noticing!!! :0D

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You are a good soul. I wish I could have done something to reward such good work. Reblogged the post a while ago, later thought I can least let you know, HOW AMAZING YOU ARE!

Keep up the good work! Love and Respect!

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Meh, many would have done it - it was fun :)

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Nah, not many... I know, because I approached many over the months of panic. But, I also understand that it jeopardizes your canonization (as a saint) to take too much credit :p

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You are funny, @Tarazkp, and I do have the luck of an 18 year old :P As an Egyptian, I will take it as a compliment that my indecipherable writing reminded you of hieroglyphs.

Thank you, for being a good member of this community and inspiring me to become better. As I mentioned to you, you've restored my faith in humanity (during a time when it took hard blows).

Thanks, too, for sharing this cautionary tale and I hope that others might learn from my mistake(s)!

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As an Egyptian, I will take it as a compliment that my indecipherable writing reminded you of hieroglyphs.

I added that for you and I thought you'd see the funny side :)

Funnily, I was going to write a post about this the other day, but ended up going with something else. Security here and everywhere is always worth a reminder!

:)

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It's a valuable and, characteristically, entertaining public service announcement :) I considered writing a post myself, but still overwhelmed, and am glad that you are sharing/framing this story the way you are.

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write one - but use your main for it - unless this is going to become your main again?

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Thanks, for the encouragement. If I come up with something, will let you know. (Think I'll stick with other Hive account as main one).

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(Edited)

I copied my keys in a safe place, I hope I don't have to go through something like that, it was very generous of you to help him without receiving anything in return, he saved those 1000 dollars, ha,ha,ha....

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Always keep them safe as even with a little bit, who knows in ten years what that may be. I know people who forget that once upon a time, people threw away wallets with hundreds and thousands of Bitcoin on them.

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Lol, next time, someone asks me what's better than getting laid, I would answer to get lucky twice😂

Also, this ->

I made the world a little better for one individual. For me, this is important.

Know that I changed my recovery account from steem to one of my alt account just a month back after reading one of your post or comment.
Forgot to thank you about that.
So, thanks a lot😀

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It is good to have a recovery account - you still need your master to recover it though, so keep it safe!

You are young too - you can get lucky all you want :)

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You are a legend now. Thank you for being such an amazing human being.

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II should retire a legend :)

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(Edited)

Your work has really touched a lot today, just reading through the article, make me realize that trust is very essential in life, Yahia trusted you that is why he was able to entrusted his account for you to work on, now, for instance if he had no trust, such help wouldn't have be made easy for me, and in your own path, you are such a nice and a caring person, for taking your time in helping Yahia without getting any thing in return, this so amazing, you have done so much than thankful.

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Haha, such a funny story.

But it is a timely reminder for all, keep your keys save :D

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Wow.. ever heard the phrase "you're God sent"? I think that's what you've been to Yahia. Your type isn't so many in this world.

I lost the password to my steem account.. a naive teenager like me 5 yrs ago, didn't think to back it up and when I needed the money and couldn't access it, I gave up.
Coming into Hive, I told myself NEVER AGAIN😂 Not taking chances with securing my passwords again. I'm too Igbo to lose money twice😊
Thank you for the reminder to safeguard the "gate to our wealth"🤗

PS: Igbo is a tribe in Eastern Nigeria and we're known for being business minded and always go for the 'mulla'😁

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great work - am glad you are able to help him.

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Amazing work. You are a benevolent soul. Thanks for the advice. I know many of us are careless when it comes to keys. Thanks for the heads up.

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Taraz - wow. A round of applause for your patience and effort and getting it sorted, this was such an uplifting story to read and I'm glad he has his account back now!

PS: I liked the Muwahahaha part too, that made me giggle, but in all seriousness, a really cool post!

@yahialababidi I hope that you get loads of enjoyment out of having your account back now.

Go well

Cheers

Andy

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That is some fantastic work Taraz.

Good on you for taking the time and being so kind to do so without reward.

Nice one 🙂👍

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