Before i start, let me be very clear in saying that i am a grown man who both makes his own decisions and then takes responsibility for them. that is not to say i won't get emotional or ranty...or take a break to go puke between paragraphs...but at the end of the day there is nobody to blame but myself. That isn't to say there's no shared responsibility either, but that will come too.
Let me start off by telling you all a bit about myself. I guess there are really only a few relevant facts to share...I'm a 52 year old male who works 3 jobs to take care of his disabled sister and his TCG addiction. oh...i'm in LOVE with the ellipses"..." and use it whenever i'm uncertain of what punctuation i should be using...and finally, i'm BAD AT CRYPTO.
This is where Splinterlands comes in...YAY! I got into crypto shortly after getting into stocks when that whole WSB and Gamestop thing was happening. I was late. I got burned. but i got excited instead of discouraged and then proceeded to lose about 6k dabbling in Defi lol. It didn't take long before i had about 50 bucks left and had discovered P2E...kinda...I'm not saying Cryptoblades was a bad project, it just wasn't for me. That finally led me to the Light Side of P2E and my purchase of a spellbook in August 2021!
I'm sure everyone who was new back then remembers the card prices...Untamed long sold out and CL whispered about in awe that soon there might be summoners that non-whales can afford. So i was a renter...my first owned power was Sandworm, Nightmare, Charlock Minitaur...and then the Pelecors after the new batch of rewards rotated in. i was earning about 3 SPS a day in the airdrop and was feeling pretty good about myself in this safe little crypto haven. As you can clearly see, I don't really "Make Moves". That's not to say I don't get it done occasionally...it's just not my default.
Accumulation...I Joined a guild (Secret Stachers) and started brawling...began making consistent contributions to my Primary Investment Portfolio (CL) and over the last year have seen my account grow from complete obscurity to a respectable 550k Owned Power with a bit more than 8k staked SPS. i have a decently competitive Diamond level deck with 6/8 CL summoners at MAX lvl. I have worked very hard over the last year to succeed in this environment and am happy. every gain however, was always hard earned. i have budgeted and scrimped and borrowed from friends when i couldn't leverage anything...smart investing? nope. healthy living? nope. I'm okay with both. i missed the last bull run...i have no intention of missing the next one.
I sold my land plot for my Runi...and borrowed a bit of ETH from a friend. This was a perfect investment opportunity for me as far as Splinterlands went...at worst i will get a $250 MAX lvl Legendary monster...not ideal, but with lots of room for future growth. Best case schenerio...GF super rare worth thousands...this scenario will do miracles for my collection/portfolio.
And then i got my Runi...and it was a GOOD one...not the best but damn good! it was listed in the top 50 in rarity. I had plans. i could see them. I got a bull market to catch in a couple years and could use the proceeds of it's sale to boost my accumulation...see if i can bank a bit more SPS so i can get into more of those higher earning tournaments. how much is my Runi worth though? had an offer for .85 ETH early on and declined it even though it would have been a solid 1k profit...maybe i was greedy after all...i was sure it would be worth more so i put it up for sale at 2 ETH planning on staking it if it didn't sell. I was positive that with 3 rare traits i was banking a nice profit here. I could sell my Runi for at least 2 ETH if i'm patient. buy a Runi at the Floor Price and then send the profits back to SPL and ACCUMULATE!!! i was going to focus on CL packs and levelling the RW cards i'm in love with...Not a greedy plan i don't think.
Now i am a serious minded man who DID NOT visit OpenSea at least 20 times a day to admire my new favorite shiny...er...promise? OKAY, FINE! maybe i did and maybe it wasn't smart...but i think it's become clear in this little blog post that i'm not overly encumbered with sense. I even bought a couple of Everybodys NFTs...just to see...i had more ETH than i needed for gas so began looking at collections on the OpenSea Homepage. i was close to broke and was sticking close to the homepage assuming that this was a safe place.
There were some obvious assumptions being made by me here that might seem stupid. Well i certainly feel stupid so can't blame you really...I had purchased from collections on this homepage before with no negative outcome so ASSUMED it safe. I ASSUMED that this was a curated Homepage and that those featured here would be safe...maybe not good...but safe.
those assumptions were wrong of course. My pride demands that i delcare that the Scam Site "SIS Chan" was not the first i clicked on...and i certainly did NOT click on it because of the scantily clad Anime girls...er...promise? lol
So anyway...i selected the collection and on the left there is the company info with links? well it said "still minting"...so i clicked on their link...it took me here.
I feel your judgment...stop!
I selected "connect wallet" and then my blood ran cold. i locked my wallet immediately but of course it was too late.
Internally i want to puke, cry and rip someone's face off all at the same time. I've never been the victim of a crime and tbh, hardly considered this type a thing as much of a "crime" hmmm...then why do i feel so violated and vulnurable and stupid right now?
So...what now? Well i keep going i guess. I don't think i will get my Runi back. OpenSea responded and said they suspended the account that took my Runi...and marked it with a "suspicious activity" tag. they then went on to tell me that that was really all they could do for me. and that temporarily unless i sent them a copy of my police report...
So do i file that police report with my real name and my address and all my other personal information on it and then give all that personal information to OpenSea? and the result of that is that they will continue to disallow it being sold on their platform but not any other? not sure what kind of solution that is...
I guess this is a good time for me to rant a bit on shared responsibility...Like i said at the beginning, i am grown and am ultimately responsible for my choices. but really? Malware literally one link off the homepage? i get that it's the Wild west but really? why are there not more prominent warnings on the homepage if you are clicking a link that has not been verified...there is implied safety on the homepage. OpenSea did not do enough in my mind to protect less experienced users.
I also believe the SPL has a bit of learning to do from this as well. the implication from the start is that this is a safe, curated experience. there should have been a parking spot for the NFTs ready for mint. there are some Crypto Kings in Splinterlands...but i'd offer that the majority of us are more game nerds than crypto nerds. if the mechanism for locking the NFTs was in place, then my Runi would have been safe and still mine. that was the only thing of value in my wallet...the only reason i was on Etherium and away from the safety of my game...
So...what now?
I take the "L" and move on. it will take me a couple months to save enough to buy a Runi at floor price. I'm guessing my overall recovery will take much longer.
if you have a Runi, love him and guard him well...