Bitcoin Forum

This is just a reminder to everyone in the forum from newbie to legendary, that we should be very careful and not be in a rush when we want to make bitcoin transaction, we should be patient enough to go through the bitcoin address that we are sending the money to, and to make sure that it is the right amount of bitcoin that we are sending, over and over again. The transaction fee should also be re-checked, so as to avoid any expensive mistake that can lead to the loss of your coins.

If you mistakenly send your bitcoin to a wrong address, it means that you have lost you bitcoin, because there is no way that you can get it back, if the bitcoin was sent a a noncustodial wallet. If it was sent to an exchange, you only have very slim chance of getting it back.

An example is recently we heard how Paxos over paid $500,000 transaction fee to move $2000BTC due to bug.https://cointelegraph.com/news/paxos-confirms-responsible-for-500k-mistaken-bitcoin-transaction.
Which F2pool has accepted that it was there pool, but I don't think that F2pool will refund back all the funds, because such transactions rely on the goodwill of the miner to refund or not.
Let us try not to be in a rush to make transactions as we might end up regretting for a long period of time instead of using few minutes to glance through the transaction again. Paxos was lucky that the money was refunded because it was the mining fee which can be traced to the minimg pool, but when it is the wrong address, it becomes more complicated.

you pointed out well OP and this is much necessary checking before processing transaction. As i remembered the first btc i sent was same case and I sent 20$ worth btc to wrong address and as there is no refund option I lost these btc forever. Our 2 minutes laziness could gives us big lost.

Actually These hasty mistakes are happened when we become overconfidence and we do all work with fast fingers without checking thinking that everything is normal. Many users sent tokens to contract address and lost forever and unfortunately I also sent two times to the contract address and after contacting team members I come to know that these tokens are gone forever and no way to recover.

As you mentioned, we should double check 3 things to prevent costly mistake.

1: Recipent address
2: Amount
3: Fee

People still continue to create topic about this same occurrence:

Ouch, today someone made a transaction with over $500k fee. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5466350.msg62825998#msg62825998)
Bitcoin User Just Paid Half a Million Dollars for a Single Transaction (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5466374.msg62827187#msg62827187)
A single Bitcoin transaction paid a fee of $500k (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5467062.msg62858045#msg62858045)

Even without this occurrence, another mistake can be from clipboard malware in which the address you copy would be changed by clipboard malware and paste hackers address instead. It is good to recheck and recheck the amount you want to send and the address that you are sending to, making sure that they are correct.

Well, it wasn't a bug in the network, but in whatever bot or automated system that Paxos used to make that transaction. If you use a good software to create your transactions, there is usually a warning if you are about to pay an excessive amount in fees.
F2pool refunded the money back to Paxos a long time ago, and the case is closed already.

they actually returned all the funds to the owner, here's an article (https://cointelegraph.com/news/miner-returns-over-500k-btc-transaction-fee-overpayment-paxos) talking about the miners returning the funds, there is also a screenshot there showing the transaction.

I am a little paranoid and double-checking and sometimes triple-checking the information on the transactions I make has become a hobby of mine, if you ask me, double-checking your transactions should be the bare minimum for everyone to do. the person who made the mistake of putting $500K as a fee is very lucky that the miners decided to return the funds.

Even though the transaction you referenced is controversial with many saying it was deliberate just to create headlines, I think the entire thing is positive for the Bitcoin community as it shows solidarity and unity among Bitcoiners. Nevertheless, we can never dispel the importance of being extremely careful when carrying out transactions because it is not everyone that can be as generous and considerate as F2pool to refund such huge amount of money. Some will just take it as "miracle money" and a prayer answered  :) :) :).

You should make it a habit the most important thing is to set up a habit y of taking your time before making a transaction, I made it a point to spend at least 3 to 5 minutes just looking at the address you're sending I look at the first three characters then the middle then the last three characters.
When it comes to making a transaction an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

Going through one’s address and checking it one after the other and not just the beginning and the ending of the address is very important as it will help at least reduce the risk of sending to a wrong address, especially when the device being used is corrupted by  clipboard virus  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5410980.msg60809859#msg60809859) as being discussed on this my thread, things are really happening online and we never can be too careful and we don’t know when we are safe again and when we have been infected by some of those viruses.

But the incident of the person who sent a payment with a higher transaction fee I don’t think it was something from his end, but I believe it was a mistake from the wallet developer side, as I don’t think anyone can make such mistake by imputing such large amount for fee and smaller one for transaction volume.

It's important to understand how bitcoin address work. It is designed in such a way that even if you make an omission in the address the possibility is very low that the transaction will go through. It won't be accepted by miners because it'll be wrong.


Except in a such a situation like clipboard attack. That's the relevance of crosschecking the address. As the attack is increasing with multiple methods by the attacker, they've gotten to the stage of manipulating qr codes as well. Aside that, it's almost impossible for a mistake in an address, make a bitcoin transaction go through successfully.

If you want to send bitcoin, you should remain calm and double-check the information, such as the wallet address, network, transaction fee, and other parameters, to prevent sending bitcoin to the wrong recipient. Once you send bitcoin, there is no way to get your money back. We should also exercise caution when using our keyboards because of unidentified virus threats. To ensure that you are sending to the correct address, carefully review the wallet address, paying attention to more than just the prefix and suffix.

The power of knowledge. All I know is that if you sent your bitcoin to the incorrect address, it will be lost; yet, you said that there is a slim chance of recovering it if it was sent to an exchange. Please elaborate.

This clipboard malware is a serious issue, we must exercise extreme caution when attempting to send bitcoin to others. A buddy of mine previously had malware where the copied address was different from the pasted address, causing him to repeatedly transfer bitcoins to the incorrect address. He discovered this after the recipients complained that they had not received the bitcoins.

Transferring cryptocurrency differs from sending fiat because the recipient's name is not supplied and when sent to the wrong address, there is nowhere to file a complaint or get your money back, so it is important to double check the recipient address before sending your bitcoins.

This aspect is more important because we can't afford to make a mistake on copy and paste error in such way, every misplaced receiving address or make an ommission in it, any wrong step leads to the loss of the coin completely and bitcoin transactions are irreversible.


This aspect is not as risky like the aforementioned one, any mistakeade in this category cannot lead to the loss of your coin, you can only have a little more higher transaction fee which is still not that bad because most cases, we have them less than one dollar.

in your topic you was talking about sending money to the wrong address and  this did not happen in the case of Paxos, but rather the error was in the transaction fees, which is something that will not happen in most good wallets because they will give you a warning that you are paying more fees than required, so the example here is misplaced.

Double check the entire address/es, or at least the first and last 8 char, in addition to choosing the appropriate fees according to ----> https://mempool.space/, while making sure to use a good, open-access and well-reviewed wallet, will protect you from most (if not all) ways of scam.

Yes you are right. Transactions details must not be rush, as potential wrong doings might push to errors. Luckily they didnt made a wrong address cause thats a big mistake if ever and the receiver doesnt return it then its a big thank you. I wonder if a mistake like that could csuse the receiver a crime or something to be jail off if he fails to return the funds?

Better check the characters in the middle of the address, as the first and last characters are the most easy to tamper and the ones we are most used to check. For relatively large amounts, it's worth the little effort to check every single character, just in case (a few seconds can save you hours/days/years of regret).

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I think this is the kind of OP we should read more often in this section. Although it is basic information, well-known for most of us, the insight is important for beginners and the post is short, easy to read, and goes straight to the point before giving an example. Thank you and congratulations Ruttoshi.

Recently, I was a victim of this malware. I don't know how I got infected. Normal copy paste function was running smoothly but whenever I used a crypto address my copied address would change to another address. I tried to fix it. Fix registry, reset clipboard but no fix. Later I had to install windows again. Luckily I didn't loss any assets. I tried to find that address and found it was tagged as a phishing address.

While you've made a good point about being careful with the transactions that we do. The chance that someone sents to the wrong address is pretty low and that's through copy paste malware wherein the infected device, desktop or laptop has a default bitcoin address which is owned by the hacker if ever you're trying to send funds to yourself or to anybody. And for the mistake that has happened with Paxos, they've said that it's an error but you're right that we should be careful and check many times before we make a transaction whether we're going to send bitcoins or any crypto to ourselves or to someone else.

Yes, you are right sir. I just used as reference to show that mistakes can happen along the line, when making our transactions that can lead loss of funds, since this story is the latest transaction that was done unwilling. Three days ago, I mistakenly sent $30 dollar worth of bitcoin to a wrong address due to rush and not rechecking the address again. This was why I created this thread base on my experience, so that forum members wouldn't make the same mistake I did.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/one_user_accidentally_sends_520_000_in_btc_to_wrong_wallet this happened nine years ago and it still happens to bitcoiners, but we wouldn't know if the sender don't scream out.

The possibility of the wrong address when sending is small. but it could happen to anyone. I've experienced it. I was planning to send Bitcoin to an exchange, but I copied the wrong address and luckily it was my friend's address. so I don't lose anything other than the fee. That's because previously I made a transaction with a friend by copying his address. and after that, I want to send Bitcoin to the exchange account address. I did it on my smartphone, I wanted to copy the address but maybe it didn't work. and when I paste the address, it is my friend's address that I sent Bitcoin to.

It is possible that this error could occur to someone who makes transactions quite often. maybe now it will be safer to scan barcodes.

Now let's replace bitcoin transaction with bitcointalk topic and it all makes a lot more sense. F2pool has already sent the funds a whole week ago, so, how does it feel, just out of curiosity to tell people to double-check what they do when you're not doing this at all yourself ?  ;D


Do you have the tx id?  Juts asking!


It doesn't matter what the wallet is, all that matters is if you can contact the person in charge of that wallet, I doubt you will send coins by mistake to a previously used address and not know who that guy is and in case of malware you can kiss those coins goodby from the start.

I mean this was already an issue for most of the investors even for the experienced members because sometimes we just want every to be convenient and fast as we do our transaction so sometimes we forget to check everything one by one just like when we are just getting started or when we are just a newbie on the cryptocurrency space, I've heard a lot of scams and hacks like this where they send it to the wrong address something like that, there are also times where your going to copy a wrong address I think there was a issue like that here in the four, similar where you're gonna though that you pasted your address because it has similar first 4 digit I think the first and last digit are the same but it wasn't the same then your going to end up sending your money to a wrong address.

There were obviously a lot of tricks that the hackers do in order to get your cryptocurrency investment so if you are not aware of them something you might get caught by it and end up getting hacked by one of their modus, luckily we have this forum where we get an idea of how they do things or we get aware that it is possible. I mean it is really easy to protect yourself if you really know how to do it, if you are aware of it most likely scammers and hackers cannot really do anything about your wallet.

I agree AWARENESS is the key, awareness of what hackers are trying to do and awareness of what you're part of awareness is taking your time and being mindful of what you're doing, you should not trade when you're mind is wondering, have a drink or two, having emotional issues or even sleepy or just wake up.

Hackers have found ways to scam you through copy and pasting using clipboard malware I hope we'll have a dedicated board for security and malware so we can explore ways to combat this.

 

What an experience, it's really possible but as you've said that the chance is slimmer. I think that's why there are some attacks like address poisoning to push people to make mistakes just like what has happened to you. It's harder to make transactions through a smart phone and that's why when we're going to transact especially with huge amounts, as much as we can, use desktop or a laptop where you can navigate easily and you can check the address easily as many as you can.

There's also a potential scam through scanning of bar codes when it's like a swap bar code happens but the chance is also is slim if ever you'll do this inside an establishment.

In any transaction of cryptocurrency you most be extremely careful and crosscheck your wallet especially the recipient address before sending your coins, some people doesn't care to crosscheck the if the wallet the are sending bitcoin address or any other coin like altcoins address if it correspond to the one that sort the transaction, sometime the problems we have during transaction is caused by us, that is while it's encouraging to make sure that you scrutinised and understand the basics things concerning bitcoin transaction before venturing into it, some persons especially the newbie make this mists of not cross checking the address of bitcoin before clicking continue or proceed in bitcoin transaction as well, what I wanted all the newbies to do is to take absolutely precautions of this particular point op brought to us for discussion, because this have a very big or positive impact in our bitcoin journey and mostly in the aspect of transaction not only in bitcoin  but in cryptocurrency generally.

Such mistakes can only be made on a pro wallet that requires you to put in your own transaction fees and the alike, otherwise most of our basic wallets will actually tell you the approximate fiat value of coins that will be leaving your wallet and users need to pay attention to this information to avoid such costly mistakes!

And when it comes to avoiding sending coins to a wrong Addy, I think the use of qr codes should help and  I haven't heard of a qr code being hijacked,  so we can say they are safe but still have that consciousness to always check on correctness of the info...

Totally agree, for irreversible assets such as crypto, I believe its mandatory for everyone of us to spend 3-10 seconds just crosschecking on the correctness of this data to avoid preventable mistakes.

The money was recovered already but this is good advice, imagine if that money can't be recovered, someone I know have made such a mistake before but he is considered lucky to me because the amount isn't that much, he got a compromised laptop because he used to download a lot of PC games on the laptop, somehow the hackers can swap any address he copied with his mouse to theirs, and this made him loss $237 the first time, and another happened later.

At first, he thought the mistake was his, maybe he copied the wrong address from the internet without knowing, but he was wrong, he called me about this on the phone and we scanned the laptop and I saw a few bad malware and virus on the laptop, I told him to format the whole hard disk.

People who are new to crypto have a lot to learn, or else they will make mistakes that many people have made in the past, crypto is no place for those who get tired of learning easily, the only thing waiting for such people is costly lessons.

Bitcoin is not like the banks were using that if the transaction makes a wrong details they will take it back, its the opposite of it, the transactions now will float and nothing will receive this reason why people now are adding the copy icon for the easy way of copy the address and not manually inputted because its prone to a human error, in making transaction consider the Address, Fees always check in the mempool, and the amount sometimes if you make a full payment the fees will deduct on it make sure you make an exact amount. Also check once you paste the address because sometimes theres some tool used by the hackers to change the address into their address.

We can agree that the Paxos fail isn't a good example because it likely was a software error or undetected edge case. At least there was no sanity check regarding excessively high transaction fee. Any decent wallet should warn you about excessive fees compared to the total transfer coin amount.

Copy/paste malware is another thing. If you're unsure that your computer isn't clean then use a decent hardware wallet (and no, don't buy the Ledger closed-source firmware crap). Always, never skip this, verify the transactions details on the independent display of your hardware wallet!

If you don't have a hardware wallet yet, always carefully check and verify the copy/pasted destination address(es) in your transaction details before you sign and submit the transaction to the network! Bitcoin addresses have a checksum (a partial cryptographic hash) which allows detection of typing errors and makes it highly unlikely that a forged destination address matches both the starting and ending characters. Check at least 6-8 at the beginning (not counting the first chars like 1..., 3..., bc1q... or bc1p... of an address) and about 8 characters at the end. If beginning and end match, the middle will very very likely match, too. (I'd very much like to see a counter example, yet.) Of course, it's not too hard to peek also at the middle of an address, only few chars are enough, but not really necessary in my opinion.

Think twice, don't rush it, transact only when you're sober. Understand how the UTXO transaction model of Bitcoin actually works! Any Bitcoin transaction inputs have to be spent fully, any excess amount of your transaction's input(s) has to go to a change address or similar back into your wallet. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't understand Bitcoin transactions (work yourself through https://www.learnmeabitcoin.com (https://www.learnmeabitcoin.com), you won't regret it).

It is a standard operating procedure that when doing transaction one must double check the receipent, the amount of payment and the processing fee.  In case for Bitcoin, it is the wallet address, the transaction fee and the amount of BTC to be sent.  There is nothing new to this advice but people are can easily forget the right procedure so reminding them from time to time is a good thing. 

In my part I always make sure that I check the recepient address carefully verifying if correctness of the address, amount.  I use electrum so I can easily see if i am overpaying with the transaction fee and adjust it accordingly.


True that, reason why we should always do the SOP of verifying the details of our transactions.

Before you make any transaction or whatsoever, it's always advised you check properly before commencing the BTC transaction,  because any slight mistake you make, you can be sending it to the wrong address, and you have a slim chance of recovering it back.
I've heard a lot of stories about people send bitcoin to the wrong address and they've not been able to recover it back, though I haven't experienced such, because I've been always careful when I'm about to start a transaction.

Sometimes the receiver might be the one to send a wrong address, and you on the other end sending the bitcoin to that wrong address that was sent to you, and then maybe after you've sent the BTC,  the receiver starts causing drama, that he/she hasn't received what you sent, meanwhile he has already made the mistake of sending the wrong address from the beginning.
So in avoiding some of this situation, everyone needs to be careful with whenever you want to have a bitcoin transaction, better still tell the receiver to check properly if the address he/she is sending is correct before the commencement.

I would like to add something to OP. If you did send BTC to a wrong address then it is true that you lost it and there's no way you can recover the BTC unless the wallet addres that you have sent the BTC by mistake will return it to you. If you haven't know, there's a forum member here in Bitcointalk forum where he received BTC by mistake but he did return the BTC. Anyway, it may happen in the future but all I can say is that the chance it will happen again is low because you can hardly find someone who will return something that isn't theirs.