lost al i had in my Jaxx wallet and they're deny responsibility.

This article is to warn others

I am still quite sick to the stomach every time i think about this, but i feel i need to warn you and others about what happened to me so it does not happen to others. It's actually hard for me to do so, and i am literally in tears writing this. So if there's errors in this article, forgive me. I'm trying to get this over with as quickly as possible so i can try and forget it, and move on, before i loose my shit.

Good fortune

As you might know i had been rewarded by @MarcDeMesel for some of my articles. I used a little of that reward to have some fun with my son, and i was able to lay my hands on a cheap scooter so i have transportation now. But most of it i put in a wallet. I divided it over three coins, because i read it's wise to diversify, and then proceeded to do a lot of reading and learning. I wanted to put it to good use so my generous rewarder could see his gift was being put to good use.

Then the crash happened, but i HODL'd

Just like many of you i went through anxiety when the market crashed and i saw the value of my BCH, BTC and ETH evaporate. Nearly gave into the instinctive urge to cash out before it was too late, but i didn't. I was determined to HODL until i had read and learned enough about trading and the different opportunities in the crypto world to feel confident to start using the coins to make some extra income.

Learning before taking risks

That's why i haven't written anything here for a while. I was doing that research. I checked out a lot of different exchanges, checked out their services and read all their terms of agreement and so on. I learned a lot, but little did i know it was all for nothing. The safe and secure, offline, desktop wallet i had my coins stored on was anything but that.

GONE! Simply gone.

Yesterday i opened up my wallet to send some BCH to my Binance account to put on my credit card and to start doing some trading with a small amount of coins. See if i had learned enough to make some confident trades and make some profit. To my great shock, and sadness, there was only 0,26€ worth left in my portfolio. It was gone. Of the approximately 650€ that i had stored, at the low point of the crash (and the prices have bounced a bit since so it was probably more) there was only 0,26€ left.

No one to contact.

I tried to figure out what had happened. I looked through the transaction log and found three transactions that i didn't make. Immediately i disconnected my pc from the internet cable (why i bothered i don't know, everything was gone already...) and took my usb stick (my emergency stick) and ran three different malware scans on my pc. Only thing that was found were references to the possible danger of the addblocker addins i had installed in Opera. Nothing running in active memory, nothing in registry, nothing in the services, nothing in the startup/logon procedure. My pc was, and is, clean from any known malware. So it must have gone wrong inside the wallet. I went to look for support, and i found zilch.

All there was was a chat bot. No option to mail or whatever to speak to a person. The chatbot had the option to choose "unrecognized transaction" in the options, which i did ofcourse.

The bot's reply was cold, and definitive:

Unrecognised transaction

There are many attempts to deceive our users, from social media accounts pretending to be us or our staff to actual fake copycat applications on the mobile app stores. We're consistently trying to take down copycat apps and impersonator accounts but ultimately, you need to be vigilant and understand two important aspects: 1. Please make sure to only download your apps from https://jaxx.io/downloads 2. We will never ask for your wallet security information, be it your wallet Backup Phrase or your wallet Private Keys. We never need those to help you. Be sure to not share them with anyone.

Specifically, in regards to the issue you are mentioning: - Do you remember anyone having access to your unlocked devices, even for a few minutes? - Have you ever given out your backup phrase or private keys to anyone? - Have you visited and spoke to anyone on social media platforms such as telegram? It is important to know we do not provide direct support on any social media channels due to the number of imposters trying to steal your funds. - Perhaps you sent that transaction yourself from a secondary device and may have forgotten about it? - Have you paired your Jaxx Liberty Wallet on any device that you no longer use, maybe a laptop or a phone you gave to someone else? - Are your devices (computers especially) up-to-date with their antivirus / anti-malware programs and have you scanned them with no threat showing? - Did you download a fake scam Jaxx app, not from our official site? Please make sure to only download from https://jaxx.io/downloads - Are you sure you stored your backup phrase and private keys offline in a nondigital format. - Are you sure your device was secure and up to date? - Did you have a paid malware and antivirus software on your device? - Did you download a malicious app by accident? Please make sure to only download from https://jaxx.io/downloads - Did you visit questionable websites, download torrents and open suspicious emails? These are just some things to consider. Key loggers, Sybil, MiM are just some of the attack vectors that are possible.

All the above questions are meant to help you identify any way your device or wallet phrase was exposed. Though there isn't anything we can do to return that amount to you (blockchains are decentralized and transactions are final), the above may help you understand more about what happened and get protected in the future. It's important to know that we do not have the ability to move funds out of your wallet. We do not have access to your Private Keys, 12-Word Backup Phrase, or your digital assets. Everything is stored locally on your device, no wallet security information is saved on any of our servers, and we always advise our users to not share their security information with us or anyone else so that you are in full control of your assets.

The Jaxx Liberty wallet has never had any cases of breaching due to the application itself. All claims for missing funds have ultimately been tied to unauthorized access to the user wallet security information, one way or another. If you believe you were the victim of a scammer or a hacker, we advise that you report the incident to your local authorities for investigation.

Your conversation with Jazzy has ended. If you want to restart it, just type 'reset'' below.

It is simply gone, leaving me with a tough talk to have with my kid.

Of course i haven't forgotten making the transactions, and of course i haven't given my backup phrase to anyone. I also haven't left my pc alone with anyone, i haven't installed any fake wallets and downloaded the wallet app from the official website. The scans i did on my pc showed no malware was on it, but clearly that didn't matter. And clearly Jaxx has no intention of providing any sort of assistance, nor does it take any responsibility. It simply places the blame on its users and ends the virtual discussion. No options of any kind to contact them personally.

The reason i wanted to transfer some money to my credit card was that i had promised my son to take him to Safari Park Beekse Bergen this weekend. We really hadn't been able to really do something together due to the Covid lockdowns but the parks opened recently and this weekend would be nice weather. His birthday is coming up as well so it would be a good happy adventure for the both of us, but now that's not going to happen. I can't afford it. I'm back to the budget i get from the debt supervisor (bewindvoerder) and i can barely afford my food, drinks and other little things i need to simply live.

The worst thing is going to see the disappointment in his eyes, the tears he'll cry not because he didn't get to go to the park but because he knows i was so happy i could do something fun with him. THAT was what made him happy; seeing me happy and proud to be able to do something with my son, and not having to say "I'd love to honey but daddy hasn't got the money for that"

So be warned! Do not rely on JAXX wallet to keep your BCH safe!

Realistically the only safe way to keep your crypto currency is to use a paper wallet or a hardware wallet. Then there is no way anything can go wrong (besides loosing your keys or the access to the hardware wallet) without your express permission. I still have no idea what happened. I have used JAXX for years now and i have never had any issues with it before. But somehow the coins were transferred by something or someone, and there is nothing i can do about it nor does JAXX want anything to do with it.

Stay safe and use paper or offline wallets!

So anyway, i hope that someone heads this warning, and takes lesson from it. If my misery and this article can save one person from going through the devastating experience i went through then at least something good came out of it.

To mr Marc De Mezel:

To mr. Marc De Mezel i want to say i am sorry i did not get the opportunity to use the money to make profit, write articles about that and show people how BCH can benefit those who use it. How easily it is to use as currency, and how many different ways there are to make some more money with it. Nevertheless i remain truly grateful for the reward you gave me. That didn't change. Again, i apologize.

Regards,
AnonSunamun