Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: My hardware wallet was seized by US customs.
by
Killrbit
on 27/09/2020, 09:20:00 UTC
As some of you know, I won a hardware wallet in a recent competition here in Bitcoin Talk. That was 4 months ago. The wallet was dispatched promptly following the announcement of the results, but I have only just received it. The wallet was contained in a (probably) sealed box supplied by the manufacturer, and double bagged for dispatch. I received the package in a Royal Mail bag which declared that the packaging had been damaged before entering the UK.Both of the bags had been ripped open and not resealed, and the security tab on the box was missing.

My suspicion is that the package was picked up in a scan, and sent for analysis to check for possible money laundering. Sending a loaded wallet is obviously a way to transfer funds with them being recorded on the blockchain. I haven't used any hardware wallets, so I'm wondering how easy it is for government agencies to check for stored Bitcoin in the wallet.

Honestly i wouldn't suggest you use it.  Obviously awful and unacceptable but unfortunately this seems to be happening a lot especially whenever Bitcoin or crypto is in the news. I guess its largely based on luck based on who is at the customs checkpoint at the time. But yea its not worth the risk of putting your money into it in case someone has tapered with it or such and such.  If you do however decide to use it ensure that at the very least you reboot it and create an new seed word, dont use any seed word or keys that some may have pre-installed.