Bitcoin Forum

I went to my wallet today for the first time in ages and it shows no coins.  I know I have money in there.  I updated to the latest version but that didn't fix the problem

Can someone advise how to to fix this?  Please talk to me like I'm in the 4th grade.  I know how to use things but have zero understanding of how it works.

Thanks.

Which version were you using and from where did you download the update?

Can you also check the right side corner to see if you're properly connected to a server? It should show a green icon.

1. In the history tab, is there a transaction that you don't recognize?
2. When you say "went to my wallet" did you just open an existing wallet file or restore your wallet from a seed phrase?
3. Did you check the wallet addresses you suspect have funds in on a block explorer to make sure they're still funded?

1. Check the bitcoin address you think has your Bitcoins using a bitcoin blockchain explorer (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5197909.0) to be sure if you still have some bitcoin balance.
2. Be sure you used the right seeds and derivation path to generate the same address as the one you used to keep your Bitcoins. You can confirm this by checking if the address appears in the list of addresses in your wallet as that one you stored your Bitcoins in.

It seems you just woke up for a long period of time would you mind telling us what version of Electrum you were currently using?

Maybe you are using an old version of Electrum with dead servers check the circle button on the bottom right if it's red then it's not connected to any server if it's green you are connected.

I suggest check the address from the blockchain just like others suggested above. Once you confirm that your wallet address still has the BTC funds then proceed to install the latest version of Electrum just make sure to make a backup copy of your wallet or if you already have a backup seed phrase import it to the latest version of Electrum you don't need to add the derivation path manually just use the auto detect derivation path.

Op either your wallet has been hacked and your coins spent or you simply are not connected to the internet or your device is having issues syncing up with some nodes. Anyways even with the syncing issues, last time I checked Electrum will just go ahead to display you last balance though if your toggle over to your settings you will get the message notifying you that you are not syncing with any node.

I think he should just make sure he is using the updated version. Also he should make sure the syncing icon is not on red but in green or blue. He may not know the funded address. Also many addresses could have been funded which will makes the wallet perfect to check the balance.

Here is what you do:

1. go to https://blockchair.com and search your wallet address.

2. Look if there has been any transactions since the time you left your wallet alone. If there have been transactions, then somebody moved the coins. (maybe you or someone you know, hopefully)

If, however, you do see coins in the wallet then they have not been moved to another wallet address, then that means that probably something is wrong with your Electrum. In which case, your coins are safe but you might need to reinstall the newest wallet software. But make sure you have your seed phrase so that you can access your wallet in the future (from any wallet software).

HI all,  I did not get any notifications of these so bear with me while I try to answer all.

Ok.  I opened my wallet, Put in the password and it came up with no balance.  I don't remember the version I was on but I updated to 4.4.5

There is a transaction I do not recognize.  It was done May 4th and wiped me out.  My last transaction was 12/23.

@logfiles.  Not sure how I know what you want me to do.   I did go to the address but nothing was there.



@BitMaxz   the light is green. 

I've read what you guys have said (I'm a girl).  I don't know how to do what you want me to.  I don't know where the wallet address is.    I can click on the transaction in the block chain but I really don't know what I'm looking at.

I am connected to the internet since the green light is on.

I'm really confused at what I should do since I really only know the basics.    I'd post a pic but I don't know how.

I have my seed, but for some reason I thought it was wrong, but I don't know why.   

Can you really dumb it down with what you want me to do.?  I know terms but not what I'm looking at or for.   

(not getting alerts when people reply even with it checked.).  Thanks all.   

This means that you fund was stolen and there's nothing you can do.
Either someone had access to your wallet or your device was infected with a malware and got hacked.


If you are on desktop, go to "Addresses" tab to see all your addresses.
If you don't see "Addresses" tab, click on "View" at top of the window and check "Addresses".

If you are on mobile, tap on your wallet name at top left corner of the screen and go to "Addresses/Coins".


Upload you image to talkimg (https://www.talkimg.com/) and share the link with us.

Here’s the transaction I don’t know

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/08/20/7r6zf.jpeg

What do you mean that you first time opened wallet in ages, when I can clearly see previous transactions (before last one) was send last year in 2023?
If you are sure that you didn't send this transaction from 2024 and if you don't know receiving address, than your keys are probably leaked somehow, or your computer could be compromised with some malware or keylogger.


 

Hi,  actually did just notice the December transaction but I have not opened my wallet since then.  And I usually leave a note about what the payment was for.

I'm sure I did not wipe out my account.   I don't know how to know if I know the receiving address.  I don't know how to do that.   

I'm check my computer for malware and no one else has access to the wallet.   If someone can tell me how to know who the receiving address is, although if just a wallet I would have no idea.

I just need some ideas on how to try to recover this.   

Double click on the outgoing transaction to see the receiving address.

To check the transaction, its hash (also known as ID) is required and you didn't share that with us, but according to the amount and the date, it should be the following transaction.
bfc94c51ec8fa34f3f308471f6e2d928068f0ffb2c2790963118f78a73d47ca4 (https://mempool.space/tx/bfc94c51ec8fa34f3f308471f6e2d928068f0ffb2c2790963118f78a73d47ca4)

If that transaction belongs to your wallet, the fund was sent to bc1qqzfqwvs4yupcdhmhmza9cx9pf6vlan9sh39hjc.

Hi,  yes that is the number.   So how do I find out where it went?  I checked all my emails for that time period and there is nothing I bought using bitcoin.

I cannot fathom how someone hacked me, if that is what happened.   Is there a way to track this or find out whats what or am I SOL because of the anonymity?  I had about $700-1000 in there.

Thank you.

It seems you are using MacBook?
How exactly did you create your wallet on Electrum?

If you don't recognize the last transaction your wallet is compromised. Where did you save your backup seed?

What I guess is your MacBook syncing is enabled and your email/iCloud you use on MacBook might be connected to someone else device since Apple devices by default once you login the email/iCloud to another device it would automatically sync all files from your old device.
Or you don't know someone used your Macbook and found your wallet?

I set up my wallet years ago from the electrum website.   I only use their site for updates etc.   

I have the seed written down on a piece of paper hidden.

I live alone,  my computer has never been out of my house.  No one ever comes here or has access got my computer or my wallet.  so I dont see how someone could have gotten into it.

Someone asked me to look at the addresses in View however nothing comes up.

I know most people that live around me don't even have computers are are not sophisticated enough to even know what Bitcoins are.    I know I did not wipe myself out. I wouldn't do that.

Someone told me to see if the coins are there but I can't figure out how to do that. 

  I just can't imagine I was hacked and I didn't know about iCloud.     I do not have it on my phone.  Only on my computer.

So what is the best easiest way to find out what's up and to try to find my coins.  Please dumb it down, assume I know nothing because I don't.   I'm baffled.

Thank s all.

As I already said, if you didn't make that outgoing transaction, your fund has been stolen and if you are sure that no one has access to your computer or your seed phrase, your wallet has been hacked.

Take note that any online device is always prone to hacking and most of the people that have their device compromised don't know how their device have been compromised.
Now, you should no longer use any wallet that has been created in that computer and I recommend you to format your hard drive and reinstall your operating system.

Well that's unfortunate.   why Do I have to reformat my hard drive?  I'm I'm guessing because you think my whole computer was hacked?   very sad.

There's a big probablity that your computer is now infected with a malware and the only thing you can do to make sure it becomes clean is to format your hard drive.
I would never deposit any fund to wallets that are created on such device. If you make a deposit to your electrum wallet or any other wallet created on the same device, the same thing can happen again.

How exactly did you set up your wallet from the Electrum website? Are you sure? Do you remember the website where you set up your wallet?

The official Electrum website doesn't offer to set up a wallet directly from their website you can only set up a wallet from Electrum wallet(software) that you can download directly from Electrum.org.
So if you set up your wallet from a website or Electrum website then you might be accessing a phishing site.

I don't think OP has installed a fake version of electrum.
If OP had installed a fake version of electrum, the thief wouldn't wait until May and would steal the fund much earlier (probably once received).

This is assuming every thing OP says is correct and he doesn't miss anything.

I'm sorry, there's really no way to recover your funds, BTC tx's are irreversible. You may meet people who would tell you that they can recover stolen BTC, don't fall for it, they are scammers, if you pay them any money to recover your stolen funds, consider the payment as stolen funds too.

It is hard, but the only thing to do right now is take this as a lesson, anything online is prone to hacking, and for your funds to be safe, it has to be in cold storage.

If we take into account that the OP uses a legitimate wallet and that the seed is saved on a piece of paper that no one has access to - the question arises how the wallet was hacked, especially if it is also protected with a password?

Something obviously happened between December 20th and May 4th, and that is the period in which the OP should check all her online activities because any installed program or downloaded file could have been malicious. It is also possible that the malware arrived via USB stick or DVD/CD or portable disk, in fact anything that was connected to the computer during that period.

That's true, op could have been hacked in any of these ways and more even, it is usually hard to figure out the exact way one was hacked online, it will be difficult for op to remember all of their online activity within that time. It is a sad one for them, but a lesson that anything online is prone to hacking, it is difficult to protect your coins when they are on the same device that one uses for online activities, a lot of us surely knows this, but there are so many people out there who use BTC, but they do not know.

Finding "what's up" is not easy, you'll have to deduce every possible scenario.
Start by providing more info aside from what's already written in your post history (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=944928;sa=showPosts;start=0):

• What happened to your old PC or its HDD/SSD where your wallet was?
• Was your original wallet that has the same seed in the old PC has a password?
• Is your current and old password strong enough (long and complex) to be immune to bruteforce attack?
• Etc., like your machine's overall security.

But even if you find out what's happened, the only way to get your coins back is to make the culprit send it back to you.

If the OP did not make this transaction, then you understand what the probability is of getting these coins back...

If everything is as the OP describes, that no one had access to his PC, and it is quite possible that the reason should be sought in the software that was installed during this period. I think this information can be found in the installation and removal section, the dates when they were installed should be saved there. But unfortunately, I am almost sure that this will not solve the OP's problem, since the fraudster has already gained access to the wallet, and I do not know of any cases where the thief decided to return the coins back.

There are instances hackers decided to give up the money after taking certain percentage but it's basically the exchanges and we are talking about millions there.

Here with OP's I don't think there is any possibility of retrieving the funds back, he could trace the address and find if it ended up with any of the exchange where the user KYCed so by contacting the exchange after providing the necessary contacts the exchanges may reveal the information if authorities were involved but that's too much for the amount we are talking.

I guess OP has to learn the lesson in a hard way, next time make sure you put in a cold storage.

It's funny how your reply sounds like a correction yet it agrees and just rephrased some of what I've just written.

FYI, most of "hacks" aren't all just simple installation of a malware.
There could also be undiscovered bug in the software or other software, a vulnerability in the OS, etc.
And if his password is strong enough, if you consider the time frame, the possibility of it being a malware at that specific time when he didn't even opened Electrum is low since the only source where the hacker can get the seed phrase is encrypted with it.