He’s known as one of the most brilliant people in the Bay Area and a tech titan. But even Steve Wozniak can fall victim to high-end fraud. This one involved Bitcoin, a computer and a credit card. Woz sat down exclusively with NBC Bay Area business and tech reporter Scott Budman.
We know Steve Wozniak as the co-founder of Apple, the guy who brought “Comic-Con” to Silicon Valley, the tech wizard.
Turns out he’s human, too...and vulnerable to Bitcoin fraud.
Wozniak, like many people, got interested in Bitcoin some years ago, when the virtual currency was cheap. He says he was curious.
“I’m a technologist,” says Woz. “I like to buy the latest technology.”
Which led him to Bitcoin, the currency that’s hard to trace, and rapidly rising in value.
In fact, when Woz noticed how quickly Bitcoin was climbing, he decided to sell. Some, on the Coinbase platform, was easy to move.
But Woz says he had seven coins in another (unnamed) platform – and those were ripped off.
Local
“I went to look at my Bitcoin, and the site was down,” he says.
Bad sign.
“It had been defrauded. All the Bitcoin was gone.”
A loss of about $70,000. And Woz isn’t the only one to lose money from Bitcoin fraud. San Jose State cyber security professor Ahmed Banafa says “the problem is, with any new technology, you have to think about the risk.”
So, invest with caution. After all, if it can happen to Woz, it can happen to any of us.
Scott can be found on Twitter: @scottbudman
