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I don't know how to handle this case, I have two junior brothers in my small town who lives opposite to my house, one help the other to create a trust wallet and 100$ worth of Ethereum was deposited into the wallet, two days later the fund was moved out to am unknown address, after asking few questions from the wallet owner I found out that the other guy has access to the wallet too, I believe he did the dirty trick because he never warned the wallet owner to never share his recovery seed with anyone..if you are in my shoe what will you do..

The victim is just lazy. With Google, search, and a few minutes of reading, he can create a wallet. It is not too difficult.

Don't deposit money to a wallet that you don't create it offline, by yourself. If you share or leak the wallet seeds to anywhere, anyone, you should abandon it. Create a new wallet and deposit money to a new one.

Can't say. Naively and easily, you can say the friend is the scammer but no proof to support that. Because the victim can do other stupid things that leak private keys later. Anyway, $100 is a cheap learning fee fortunately.

If you can track the transaction history of the person who have access to the wallet of your brother then sue him or report it to the police so that that person can learn a lesson to not steal. But if you can't track it I think better move on because even if you know that guy has an access for sure he will deny that he stole the money. Keep distance with those guys because for sure he can't be trusted for any amount.

You are in the dilemma here, but if I'm in your case, then it is better to take to the one that you suspected and confront him if ever he is the one who move the money or not. And just think that the money is gone now for sure because I doubt that who ever moved it out has the intention to bring it back.

So this is another expensive lessons, and to be honest, I can't imagine the 'brother' trying to scam the other one. So it's better to start all over again I guess. Perhaps he can start small, not necessarily $100, but maybe just $10 or at least what he can afford to invest but this time, he is now equipped with the knowledge that private keys and mnemonic phrase are very important and should not be disclosed even to his 'brother'.

First you get proof first that the brother you suspect was actually the one who moved the crypto, so you don't falsely accuse him and ruin your relationship with him. Once you are sure that he is the one, I also think it is wise to confront him with the facts and express your dissapointment while still trying to push him to return it if he still has it. You don't need to let your other brother who has been affected know who has robbed him so it doesn't ruin their relationship as well, but give a serious advice to him to be more careful and try to trust people less regardless of status with things regarding finance.

Normally I'd go report to the authorities, but knowing that we're talking about crypto and it's highly likely that the authorities don't even know what a non-custodial wallet is, I'd say tell the victim to suck up the huge mistake and next time do a lot more research before making financial decisions.

Whoever delas with cryptocurrencies or any kind of new technology should Google about it before doing stuff.

It is very easy to find information about your seed, how to secure your wallet, etc.

Luckily he oy lost 100 usd. Lesson learned for a small cost. He probably googled  a lotabout it  by now.

Even after tracking and there's no way its linked to him you can actually not sue him unless he's guilty and besides most countries are yet to legalize crypto which simply means by reporting him to police or any legal authority, you're getting yourself into trouble which will definitely cost you more than $100.
I feel sorry for the victim thou but I don't think there's anything he can do now than to let go.

This is not really a difficult matter to solve. The real $100 owner couldn't possibly steal his own money.
If the owner does not feel that he has ever shared the privkey during those 2 days, then it is clear that the "helper" here is the one who moved. Let's just assume, that his brother understands better that privkeys should be kept secret even though he forgot to mention that while helping to create the wallet.

Then your friend is a bastard.  He didnt consider your other friends when it comes to money.  Most people are really changing when it comes to money.  Possibly he teaches him to create a wallet then that guy doesnt know that the thief got his recovery phrase by split second.  Thats now how you treat your friends.  For a $100 your other friend fret just like that.  How much more if the money is big. So its scary really to trust someone even though you knew him well.

I would just tell the guy about cybersecurity, how to behave on the Internet, why you need to trust only yourself, and so on.

So, one brother stole $100 worth of ether from his own brother. How well do you know the guys and does the alleged thief seem shady to you? Does it sound like something he would do? You never mentioned if the ETH that was sent to the wallet is yours or not. Is it?

Chasing those $100 isn't worth the trouble. Law enforcement isn't going to do anything about such a small amount either. If you were to follow the trail of the money and realize that the coins were deposited into a centralized exchange, chances are that whoever created the account on that site has undergone KYC. But no exchange will disclose such information to random people, and you will be asked to involve the police and/or present proof or a court order.

The best you can do if you are friends with the victim is to teach him how to create his own wallet, generate and backup a recovery phrase, and keep the information safe from other people, including his brother.

Most countries do not legalize crypto as a legal tender, but it is legal to move it from one wallet to another. It was a theft case ^{[if the OP finds vallid evidence],} but for the $100 sum then I don't think the authorities would bother tracking it down.

There are lots of threads explaining how to secure a wallet, but since the OP didn't mention that the person is on the forum then google can help. It's no wonder why someone can lose their crypto asset especially if they don't know how to keep it safe. Basically he is the main person in charge of the security of his own money and that is the consequence if he wants to be in the crypto world.

I think we should start to fix the problem where it started so that it won't happen again in the future and I think the problem started when you trusted your brother when they don't know what they were doing. Even if you tell you did teach them but when they don't finish the tutorial it's still useless and would end up just like what happened to them now.

I think they're trying to join a telegram group for investment or trading and got tricked by someone who tells them to invest and send their ETH to that unknown address. This is the problem when newbie hold crypto currency, it won't last longer unless if they don't know how to open their wallet. :-\

If I were on your shoe to that case, I will definitely tell the wallet owner that the guy (your mutual friend/junior brother) might have the answer on the mystery of how were the fund have been transferred from another wallet without the owner doing anything. Tell him to discuss it with the other guy who created his wallet. And also tell the owner that he's dumb enough to let ask other people to create his personal wallet. It should be a lesson learned for him not to give the seed phrase to other people unless he trust them very much.

With information provided here I don't think there is anything you can do again if you are in country that doesn't support cryptocurrency. Sorry your brother had to learn about cryoto security the hard. Just try motivating not him not to get discourage from cryptocurrency. All he has to do is to create another wallet this time by himself after he must have read about it.

Hm, do nothing about this, avoid making one of these brothers your enemy, just advice the victim to create another wallet and never shared the seed with anyone even if they are close relatives, also advice him to learn more about crypto first, google have all the answers.

I advise him not to rely on google search results, sometimes get redirected to phishing sites especially if it's a wallet issue. Get more information about wallets and security advice from the official site, you may be able to choose which wallet suits your needs.

Follow the steps: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Take the following safety steps: https://bitcoin.org/en/secure-your-wallet

What I advice to new be is learn and unlearn, yes I understand that hour first brother maybe new tk Crypto-currency and the first contact he made is the other person you talked about but he he understands what the learn an unlearn theory is all about he may have avoided this current situation. Yes we need people to kick start our Crypto-currency career but still we can find out what path is right or wrong along the line. Firstly Creation of wallet is such a private thing that doesn't deserve two people to know about it. this was the first mistake. He can use the first wallet created to learn how it is done and then the next would be the private wallet he/she owns on their own. Well there is really nothing you can do now as a person and except the thief returns it. It is probably gone.

I know if a newbie needs help, it's the most vulnerable time that he'll ask for help personally or even virtually without knowing that the private keys or recovery seeds might be compromised by the person who's trying to help.

I'd say that if you have no proof then you just have to move on. You can have that suspicion on him but you still don't have an outright proof. It's better to just let go of that money and do better this time learning from that experience.

Also, disconnect yourselves to that untrustworthy guy, never talk to him again until he admits that he did something wrong if he really did.

That’s a clear act of hacking or scamming. Your brother might have trusted the wrong guy and will only end up stealing all his money in his own account. If you can still track the previous wallet transactions, then it’s good as you can get back the money being stolen, but I don’t think this is still possible as hackers leave without traceable transactions. Just be careful the next time your brother creates a wallet.

You can ask the other guy for he is the main suspect in this transaction. We're not sure if it is a scam trick but interrogation seems going to help a lot. I hope he would tell the truth behind this allegation otherwise, it is a need for you to tell the authorities. Well, the question is if the authorities will help you with crypto having no proof of such a transaction.

This gives a lesson to your brother not to simply give trust anyone. He better keeps a distance from that person as probably he can't be trusted.

I did track the transaction and we have the Ethereum address that the fund was moved to, I told the suspected brother to show me his wallet address because I suspect him and he failed to, I have no proof to show the victim, for now he remains a suspect.

By "failed" do you mean that he refused to show you his wallet? If yes then this is another reason to doubt him more. If he didn't steal the money then why wouldn't he cooperate and let you see his wallet's address!
Unfortunately, without a conclusive evidence linking the recipient address to the suspect, I don't see how you can solve this!
For the moment, the best you can do is to show the victim how to create a wallet and how to keep it safe.

The solution is simple, ask the affected person to take heart and tell him the plain truth about having their keys with another party, just as they can't risk the password to their bank account with a third party then they must learn to do cryptocurrency all by themselves, am sure it's because the affected guy doesn't have knowledge about crypto cause the more reason the other guy took am advantage of him and if i were you, i will also went ahead in confrontation to the other person that cheated his brother so as to avoid future reoccurrence.

Install the add block extension, it will prevent you from seeing more ads while doing a search. But still you have to be careful with phishing sites because they can almost resemble the original site, pay attention to the url and do it carefully.

I can verify that this is a great way to get a wallet as needed and a cool tutorial for securing a wallet. But not many beginners know about this site, they tend to often do a google search with the keyword [best bitcoin wallet], so it's true that there is a risk about phishing, some newbies have complained about it happening all this time. Security is an important note in crypto, every user should know how to do it, no matter how many assets they owns.

 Issues that concern money, nobody is to be trusted no matter the relationship between you too. Disclosing your assets to someone close is no longer safe. This is the very reason I don't allow any of my friends to access my phone or laptop not to talk of telling them the amount I have in my portfolio. Anyone is a suspect when it's a matter of money.

The victim in question should let go and try as much to stay away from the suspect. Let him take it as a mistake and learn from it. He should learn how not to let anyone have access to his wallet again

That's one hell of a lesson for a beginner, I hope he lead from this mistake and never repeat such again, every new wallet will warn you about the recovery seed, how you should keep it to yourself only, trust wallet, atomic wallet, coinomi wallet and many others have this warnings, I hope the culprit pays for this evil act.. It's a shame that we are now in a world where brothers betray brothers.

You can look up the transaction history and find out where the coin was sent, but how do you find out who owns it?
Trust is always an issue here; do not trust anyone with your private keys, because this issue occurred as a result of full trust; he trusted the guy who created and bought the coin for him, so he never cared about how and where to keep the private key; and all of them may be ignorant or lack knowledge about the importance of the private key, so they may misplace it and someone will have access to the wallet.
Your job now is to make them aware of the importance of the Private key so that this does not happen again.

I would make sure I don't get involved. Family and money is a bad combination, and nothing good can come from this for you.

Or maybe teach them to use Bitcoin instead of centrally controlled Ethereum (which is mostly used to scam people by selling them worthless tokens).

Since you have made a proper finding and discovered the person that moved the fund to an unknown wallet, as the elder person among the two brothers you can plead with the person who moved the fund to return it I believe he will listen to you but if he fails to listen to you, you can advise the wallet owner to abandon that said wallet and create another one but make sure you educate him properly on how he should keep his seed phrase secured and away from some one else including other members of his family unless he wants to have the same experience like what he is facing now in future.

Then you have the criminal, am not going to beat about the bush or try to paint words with evidence nonsense, as long as the real owner of the wallet said he didn't share his seed or private keys with anyone else, then the friend or brother who created the wallet is the thief, he should be held responsible, he took advantage of his friend's naivety and lack of knowledge of how cryptocurrency transactions work, to scam him.

You are absolutely correct, there is no two ways about the matter, he should be held responsible.

This type of issue once happened to me when I have a problem with my gadget and I ask a friend to help open a wallet for receive which he did and sent me the deposit address. The coin was moved into the wallet and I ask him to provide the wallet private keys 4months later after the coin was listed on an exchange but he told me he didn't have the private keys and he has uninstalled the wallet.
I take the blame, bear the loss and see it has been an expensive mistake from my end.

First of all, teach your little brother how to create a new wallet because his old address has apparently been compromised. Do not create it for him, but teach him how to do it himself.

Second, I do not think you can confront the suspect because you do not have enough evidence against him. If he claims he did not steal it, how are you going to prove otherwise?

If someone knows bitcointalk, then they should know bitcoin.org. As _BlackStar said, the site is one of the most popular to get a lot of knowledge and guides to get to know bitcoin and wallets. I strongly advise beginners to read a lot on the site if they don't want to read the whitepaper, at least they will get some basic knowledge from it. +2, You remind me again of that site and I'll bookmark it again now.

For that, the OP can suggest his little brother to learn to make a wallet instead of making one for him. We should pave the way for them to learn, not make them jump without basic knowledge.

I will assume your brother who is the legitimate owner of the Eth should have learned his lessons by now that the no.1 rule of opening a wallet is that you should never trust anyone or any third party with your recovery seed/phrase/words, if he is actually literate and was watching when the other guy was helping him to create the wallet, he would have seen plenty of warnings display by Trust wallet on his screen that it should never share or shown to anyone, it should be written down and you have to validate by a checker that you have written down the recovery words before going forward.

You can't accuse the guy of being the one holding the Eth, it is a lesson learned for him in a sad way.

Just a quick google search and watching Youtube videos, you will already learn how to make a trust wallet. Why find another person to do it?

Now with regards to the transaction, you can easily say that the other person did it because only 2 people knows the seed phrase right? What if the wallet owner managed to share it to other people because of his carelessness and ignorance? What if there is a neighbor around you that also knows about trust wallet and stole the money? I mean it's very easy to blame people but to prove it is what's hard to do.

Anyway, it's either they will just forget about it, or they will just argue with it for a long time. 100$ is a huge money especially if you're in a 3rd world country but if it will cost the friendship of the 2 brothers then it isn't worth it. Just let them forget about it and let the owner make another trust wallet "now by himself" or maybe you can just give them the 100$. :D

oh too bad the wallet owner has to experience it, they might learn from the wrong person. Uhm probably you can trace the transaction first, and then ask the culprit what is their wallet address. I don't know if it seems stupid however probably it could work and who knows they have the same wallet. Are you close to the culprit? I mean you can have a convo with them about this, probably smoothly digging about them helping the wallet owner and so on and so forth, inform them about an issue that's been faced by the wallet owner, and asked whether they know about this or not and how it can happen. I think everything could end well if all parties can sit together and put in good words about the problems. We don't know, probably they have an urgent need if they are able to do that crime against their own friend. I hope everything gets clear soon.

I don't usually believe stories like this, but I have no reason to disbelieve it either. I just can't verify if what is said is true.

Assuming it is true, the crypto issue doesn't strike me as much, if the scammed brother could have taught himself how to make a wallet. What strikes me is that a brother scams another brother out of $100. I guess the swindling brother knew that the swindled brother was not going to break a bottle over his head when he realized the theft.

That's a good way to lose a relationship with a sibling. For $100. And if I were the OP I would also stop talking to the scamming brother.

I think you should close your mouth and don't tell your brother who got scammed if the other brother was stole his money because you guys might a problem and it will make your relationship bad. So it's better to maintain a distance and don't really close with the brother who have a bad motive.

You should teach or at least give him guide about Bitcoin and wallet stuffs to learn, so this will make him understand if he must not asking other people to create a new wallet for him since each address have a private key which no one shouldn't know except the holder.

Not good to shut their mouth because it also mean that he's tolerating the other half who do bad deeds, maybe its good to talk about the issue so that it will be solve on correct argument. If they hide this the anger will just burst if the affected person knows who is the person who did bad to him.

Teach him how to safe keep important information is big thing to newbies so teach them again without taking anything will be much ideal action to do.

Some of the people new into the crypto wallets does not make sure they have an additional layer of security such as the fingerprint feature in the phones, additional 2fa supported by their wallet and once the person hav access in the device they can easily now get the funds without any verification needed to pass with, and next is the chance they got easy access to the seed phrase of the account.

I also think the story is not real when a brother get to scam his brother knowing that the brother will find out. If it is a friend maybe we can believe such easily obvious stealing. Maybe this is fabricated story.



Of course a friend that opens a wallet for the friend won't do that when he knows all finger will point to him and surely it will cause a fight. The story didn't come out a good taste to my tongue.

The answer is very simple, provided that both of them collabrate to create the wallet, their is every tendency that the wallet seec phrase has been exposed to unknown person from both, or the place where the seed phrase being kept has been expose also. Or one of them is greedy and it wants to own the funds.

Never see that 'brother' ever again, never share pvk, seed phrase no matter how close. All relations are fragile.

If it was your normal fiat currency will you have asked your younger brother to go open an account for you. And even if you do the bank will decline. because the want to be sure of the security of your funds the same applies to your private key. It won't have taken you upto 2omins to setup your wallet yourself and save yourself this drama. I will advice you forget the ETH and move on after all its yout brother

OP, the solution to the question you seek speaks for itself. Of course, the dude who created the wallet should be held responsible for the missing fund. Most definitely, he moved it. His intention wasn't genuine in the first place. Otherwise, he would've asked the other brother he was helping to create the wallet by himself with little guide without as little as peeping into the passphrases. When I create wallets for people I usually distance myself once it gets to revealing the passphrase or password. I want them to be the only ones who know their PP or PW, as I also hammer it into them never to ever expose it to anyone. So, your Brother A helped the other Brother B set up a wallet and then went through the backdoor to rob him. It's that simple.

Haven't been into crypto for a while now, a hack on the wallet is very much impossible and it could only have been the other brother. Th only by pass to it is, if the wallet could be accessed by biometrics. I know some stupid people do allow other persons (by that I mean a partner as in a dating relationship) as a form of loyalty and not having anything to hide but, we are going to rule that out here.

For the brother to be aware of the login details nd not relating to the owner of the wallet the dangers involved in having another person know your password, it could only have been a scheme of his evil intent. Unfortunately, no harsh actions could be taken as, it will fall right back on the family. If possible, you guys could compensate him and hope he learns his lessons
1. Never to trust nobody
2. His enemies are those closest to him and
3. Privacy in cryptos is everything.

He should take that as a teaching moment and never forget that!

It is possible for things like this to always take place when two  persons are managing one account,  confusion can happen maybe due to the carelessness of one person by exposing the seed phrase. Since it has happened this way it may difficult to trace the person who tampered with the wallet.  That is why it is why wallet should be personal.

The lapsis has already been done, I don't think there is a way you can retrieve or track that transaction. The wallet's creator is to blame because he failed to explain in detail how important the wallet's private key or seed phrase are.
Now you must take your time and teach them some basic security tips about wallet, key, and address, putting an end to this type of error or mistake for them, giving them good knowledge and training them well to avoid making the same mistakes again.

Only $100...
So you are so lucky. My Friend has lost $1500 because he trusts to anyone who given the guidelines about to create a wallet.

I suggest that just forget it and move on.

And...

Never trust to anyone if there is the internet and you can easily access to anything and you can search any kind of guidance from Google or even you can watch a video tutorial from YouTube.

I also agree that in that case, we should keep our mouths shut. There's no need to make a big deal out of it because this will make the relationship worse for both of them and the real amount won't be that big. Just tell your brother (victim) to limit contact with the other and not to trust anyone when it comes to money.
Consider this as the first lesson about cryptocurrencies, the cryptocurrency market will have hundreds of times more pitfalls. Teach him everything he needs before continuing to use cryptocurrencies and don't forget to throw away the wallet whose private key has been exposed.

And I hope this will serve as a lesson to them and know the importance of keeping the keys in the right way out of site from other people. I even think that we sometimes commit mistakes in order to realize what we really did, a mistake that brought something to become mature enough about how to handle things and ensure the security of our money. Our ignorance will able to bring us to the deep and some people will take advantage of us that is we have to be more cautious especially when talking about money.

This is why I am not eager enough to work with our own brother or other siblings. Because, if there is a conflict related to business or his affairs, it will have an impact on personal relationships and this is really uncomfortable.
In this case, of course, you have the right to know why someone else has or knows access to the wallet, and what the reason is until he finds out. And how the continuation of the money has moved. However, it will be difficult, but business is still business. At least, at first, you can talk about this matter nicely with your brother.
Building trust is very difficult, sometimes the closest people also don't guarantee the trust itself.
It would be better if you immediately talk to him and discuss how his condition and what to do. If there is strong evidence, this can be your guide in making a deal

If I were in your situation mate, I have to confront that person and ask what he really did. It was best to verify the situation before making blame and to finger point who really does the sudden disappearance of funds as we can't deny the fact that hacking is possible and we are uncertain as well what your brother does after creating the wallet or let us say "he might click some links". So many instances happen to cause lose control of our account and losses our money.

If you live in a nation that does not support cryptocurrencies, I don't believe there is anything you can do with the information supplied here. I'm sorry your brother had to experience a difficult cryoto security lesson. Just attempt to inspire him to stay positive about cryptocurrencies. After reading about it, all he needs to do is make another wallet on his own this time.

Unfortunately, the other guy you mentioned is the culprit.  Sadly, proves once again, the not your keys, not your coin saying to be true.  Trust is a tough thing, can't even give family a pass.  Are you going to confront the culprit?

The business conflict between siblings is indeed very uncomfortable because it will have an impact on our personal lives as well. It's better to have a conflict with someone other than family.

The problem of misuse of wallets discussed by the OP will certainly be a complicated one because what he is dealing with is his own brother. the solution must be discussed properly and must find a way out so that no new conflicts occur and no one is harmed.

Building trust in others is very difficult. the closest person is not a guarantee of being a trusted person. even most of the closest people become the main source of conflict. When it comes to money, no more about family status or anything, all the same. money will change everything.

It would help in this case in order to have clarity of what really happens. It's up to the culprit, to tell the truth, or lie, and even those people around him will think of different views of that person and in their minds, he can never be trusted.
Sometimes, we need to keep some secret from our family. I'd found it right for some of our family members may think differently and even betray us. They might be good to us but have also an evil plan.

I did not see in the answers the assumption that the student who was taught to create a wallet, having mastered the lesson, later created a new wallet himself, realizing that the first wallet was already known to his brother. And accordingly transferred the entire amount to a new wallet.
And later, complaining about his inexperience, he simply shifts the blame to everyone else.
From this side, it can be assumed that the student has surpassed his teacher.
And to say that brother will not deceive brother sounds very utopian. Just the same, the most painful lessons we receive from loved ones are similar.

I think i totally agree with you, taking a side in this issue might bring a serious relationship dis- stability between you and the brother, so all you are advice to do is advice him to create a new wallet and ask him not to share the phrase to anyone not even you. This is a serious problem and you advice to act smartly so not to bring issues between you and them.

Which of the guy? Is it one of your brothers that moved the fund from the wallet? That is why when it comes to money there is no brother or sister again, even husband and wife are dishonest when comes to money. Well I don't have too much to say about the case. One thing was that there was trust from the other from the other brother that his brother would not betrayed him but it has happened and you won't kill him so if he still has the fund in his wallet, he should return the money to the brother and let the brother create another wallet and move the funds to the new wallet. And he should not trust anyone concerning money. For him to have happy mind with others, he should steer clear with people about Money.  But if they are not brothers, the one that moved the fund to his wallet is a thief. And a dishonest friend and he should not move with that friend again because he would do him something bigger.

 Irrespective of the much passion i have to make others also benefit from the knowledge of cryptocurrency as I do today, I also take exception in certain cases as to declining from engaging with some persons about it.

Based on what my mind tells me, I may just say please go do the research for yourself and learn the hard way so you don't come pointing blaming fingers on me especially when there's no clear cut to use in exonerating myself should the person get gullible and make a loss of asset in the process.
Just like in this case all fingers are pointing on one person but it might probably be that there's more to the story than meet the eyes.