Bitcoin Forum

     A friend who asked for instructions on how to use certain features of his wallet, was apparently tricked into divulging his seed to a stranger, and now his 2.6 btc are missing from the wallet, and so is the stranger. Does he have any recourse?

Not likely, unless he can track down the stranger and prove that the stranger stole his bitcoin. Why the hell would anyone give their seed to a complete stranger unless they don't know what the heck they're doing anyway?

I'd say the chances of him getting anything back is about 0%. It is definitely an expensive learning mistake though...

He did not know what the seed was for. The stranger gave him instructions on how to get it from the wallet.

Should he file a Police report on this? He has not done so yet. Is there a chance the stranger could get nabbed when he goes to cash in at an exchange?

How did that person get in touch with your chap? a person who has 2.6 BTC in his wallet should have been more careful the stranger probably ran away with the BTC by now the chances of getting his Bitcoin is close to zero.

The bitcoin is gone, he can't get it back. Treat it as an expensive experience and move on. He shouldn't tell anyone about his seed. I don't think police can do anything about it even with the chat log(if there's any), it will just waste your friend's time and more money.

My friend apparently got in touch with the stranger at a bar that is known to have a lot of bitcoiners around.

It depends on which country. However, it is most likely that the Police will not able to do anything about it. I think I would personally give it a try though.

Considering how much money it is, I would also try and find out who this "stranger" is. It should be possible if they met in person as you described. Perhaps someone at the local bar knows the guy.

The value was over $15,000 my friend is out. He is majorly bummed right now. He is getting ready to call authorities as well as try to i.d. the stranger.

He just told me the bitcoins disappeared from his wallet within minutes of him giving out his wallet seed. He is in the states.

I cannot even begin to describe how accurately the title of this thread describes what happens when you give your wallet seed away to strangers! :D

Well, how dump is your friend. Anyone who has bitcoin should know that seeds are the key of bitcoins( just like the key of the house). Would you ever give your keys to your house to a stranger. Then how can you give bitcoin seed to a stranger. He must be enjoying the free money  :(

I totally understand his frustration... I wish him the best of luck with the police report and finding the guy who did this.

That would be so hard tracking him down since he is a Stranger! No name, nothing. Devastation is all I can see from the part of the person who gave his seed imaging Ive lost my bitcoin which I worked hard for

If Bitcoin is legalized in your country you should go to the nearest police station to report about this but if it's not I think your friend should forget his 2.6 BTC cause there are no change to get it back. You and your friend should remember that wallet Sheet and Privatekey are two thing you should keep safe cause if anyone know these two thing they can easily steal your Bitcoin in your wallet.

Would your friend also give a stranger his fiat wallet with $10000 in it and then wonder if he will get it back?

My friend is obviously an idiot, but I am waiting for the pain to subside a bit before I tell him.

The story sounds quite difficult to believe for me, and I learned a long time ago that you shouldn’t believe everything you read in a forum. However, that there are some possibilities that that could have happened, whether to your friend or someone else.

What I don’t get is: did your friend go to the bar with the seeds written on a piece of paper? Always keep your money away from strangers. The fewer people know that you have money, the better, even acquittances.


Yes, I was thinking something like that. Not the fiat wallet but the password and the coordinates card or other security feature.

The lesson is expensive but at least it is clear. However, it is repeated very regularly, and above all it makes sense... But you should NEVER give away your private key or even your seed. As far as his chances of recovering his bitcoins are concerned, they are zero. This is one of the interests of the blockchain...

It's similar like I gave my bank details to a stranger and money gone after few minutes. I know your friend is tricked and thousand people are tricked every day. Hope your friend able to Identify the guy who was talking to him and able to prove he was the guy talking to me and stole all my money.

Your friend should go for all the possible ways to Identify him as he personally met him and this is quite rare, maybe we are able to find much more lost funds with the help of that guy.
Please keep us updated with the details I want to see the end of that scammer.

@Don Pedro


apparently, you did not read the whole post. I clearly stated that my friend asked for help with his wallet (at a bar where bitcoiners frequent), and the stranger gave him instructions on how to get the seed out of the wallet, but you would have had to read to figure that out.

That really sucks, your friend was obviously pretty new to bitcoin if they handed this information over, as much as we can all say how silly that was this highlights a problem that many newbies could face.

If somebody just buys bitcoin without any knowledge of how it works and then an issue arises they are more likely to put trust into somebody with more knowledge than themselves to help fix the issue and this is where a problem like this can arise.

I know most wallets warn you whem setting up to never share your keys with anyone as they contain your bitcoins etc.so there is a lot of responsibility on the user to protect their coins.

I think it is fair to say that your friend will never get their coins back sadly.

Oh man that is terrible you should never give away your 12 word seed! You should memorize it and store it in a safe place but never do that as that is access to all your coins!

Yes, get in touch with the Police right away, the sooner the better. If he actually met the person in a bar, there very well might be surveillance video of the person in question, or at least of him walking in/out of the place that your friend can review with the police and help identify him. But, some establishments overwrite their tapes or hard drives as they fill up, so the sooner you act the better the chance that this type of evidence will still exist. Also, there may be other people who frequent the bar, or one of the bartenders or waitresses that might know who this stranger is, but again this would be more of a job for the Police. The amount involved makes it a significant enough crime you may actually get someone out there to investigate the place and snoop around, as if he ripped you off he very well may have ripped others off as well.

Someone probably tricked him... I got tricked before too and it sucks, but we live and we learn. Hopefully he did not lose too much. :o

I'm afraid that his coins are gone forever. Even if you can track the dude who did it, once the coins are moved from one address to another, there's nothing you can do to get them back.
Lesson learned, you never give out your seed/private keys or any kind of information related to you bitcoin wallet to anyone.

Never trust anyone seed or privatekey is so important no one can know it. I think his bitcoin gone but he need to ask that person that his bitcoin gone. But i think if that guy stole his btc he didnt admit it that his the one stole the bitcoin.

This just shows how important the seed is to keep safe. It is most important it is kept secure even more so now that bitcoin has such a high worth. Your friend must be feeling very bad about been scammed like this.

If by recourse you mean legally, then yes, it is illegal and he can call the police on the guy. If you mean actually finding the guy, most likely not. The coins are probably long gone unfortunately.

A Police report has been filed, and a description of the person, a stranger has been given to them. The bar is cooperating. There were surveillance cameras so they may be able to identify the guy, or not. regardless, it may be difficult to get the coins back.

your friend bitcoin is gone even if you find the guy he would just deny it unless you have witness or proof. 2.6 btc is a huge amount this should serve as experience to your friend. walled seed is always important so never talk or give it to stranger.

yeah, i also heard someone offered a kid some candy in his van but the kid never got the candy but he was molested instead.
the "resource" i have for this one is a video:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GTAchZtQV7Q/maxresdefault.jpg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPbS03qY4dg)

Why those person would trust his keys with a person he doesnt know at all, this forum has a lot people wich can help and support others with their issues. But well lesson learned, i do hope your friend will be able to find this person, but there is no way to force those to repay unless bitcoin is already legalized and you can proof he had stealed, besides the fact your friend gaved the seed.... and ended loosing the coins.

You can't do anything now to recover the lost btc. Transactions are irreversible and most likely that stranger is gone like bubbles in the sea. You'll just have to charge this to experience and hope to avoid making the same mistake. Do proper research about bitcoin since large sums of money are on the line. And with that, I hope you refer this forum to your friend as there are many helpful threads in here.

I'm sorry but bitcoin transaction is irreversible. There's no other way to refund it if that what's you mean. That's why we need to protect at the highest level our private keys because once we give it to a total stranger, your bitcoin is good as gone. Why does your friend trust a total stranger to begin with. I can't fathom that someone will totally divulge your private keys. And 2.6 BTC is damn high amount to be scammed. Its gonna be painful but let this be a lessons learn for you and your friend. That's why we always preached hear to protect your wallet and your private keys or seeds.

Bummer. I don't think the authorities will be able to assist in this matter. He'll just have to deal with it and move on. Lesson learned

My thinking even if your friend could track down the thief, the probability of the thief himself giving back the btc to your friend is kinda low.
even worse if your country have no regulation to cryptocurrencies, the government will just don't give a shit you know.

In most cases of thefts of money is to blame in the first place the users themselves. Was warned a million times not to give your password, not to visit suspicious websites and don't store all your coins in one place. Imagine how many people would suffer from a virus such as if You kept coins offline on their PC.

Going forward, my friend tells me he will buy more bitcoin, but be more careful next time. Right now, he will be on the sidelines because he has no more money to invest.

He is thinking that this was a great kick in the balls from the stranger. What if btc goes to 10k, 25k, 50k? I told him he needs to hope for the best, however, expect the worst, and move on.

Just be careful... 2.6 BTC is a really high amount of money in fiat. If he has just exchanged his life savings to bitcoin some weeks before, than it won't be a problem, but if he collected the bitcoins over the years (when it has much less value), it could generate a problem (taxes). Police will start to investigate where the bitcoins went, but after, they will hand over the whole thing to the tax authorities, to investigate where that amount of money came from... so be really careful
My opinion is that starting a police investigation was maybe a wrong way (but obviously the only legal way). If the surveillance cameras took photo about the stranger, it would be wiser to start a private investigation instead. But I hope I'll be wrong at the end. Fingers crossed, keep us updated please

I would say: never trust someone. Would you give or lend your wallet with money inside? I think no. So it is also valable with electronic wallet.
I hope the police can help him recover the fund. But i am afraid that it will be very difficult... But as they have some pictures or video of this person, there is a chance they can catch him one day.

In choosing a bitcoin wallet, you need to consider a lot of factors, such as security, convenience and accessibility. I choose my wallet base on my country because it is much accessible if the wallet is usable in my own country to buy stuff.

Really pain in his heart to lost BTC2.6
What kind of wallet did he used?
What kind of features did he asked?
How long your friend have been using/holding bitcoin? A newbie or layman could be tricked obviously.
But, the most funny part is: the stranger at a bar that is known to have a lot of bitcoiners around.
Hopefully police could manage to find this stranger which known to have a lot of bitcoins around.

He bought the bitcoins about 1 year ago.

He was using electrum wallet on his computer.

He wanted to know how to password protect the seed. The stranger apparently was next to him watching his computer.

He had been holding for one year, but never really paid much attention until recently. I would say he is considered a newbie.

I feel sorry for your friend. Wallet seed is most important thing for us in crypto market. We shouldn't give our seeds to anybody, be very cautious about it.

First of all one never share the private key or seed (passphrase) of their wallet with any stranger friend or foe. Because one who has control over the private keys has control over their bitcoins. Technically speaking the coins dont belong to anyone in particular but the owner of the private key. So if that is stolen then the coins are also lost. One can try contacting the owner of the addresses to where to bitcoins were sent but it is highly unlikely that they will return it even if they are found.

That is very upset story. It is very very very important that you should not share your private key / wallet seed with anybody.

For someone who was able to have 2.6 btc in his wallet and not understanding the basic security that even a newbie with even few satoshis know about. I therefore have nothing to say to your friend because losing your seed or private key is more or less losing the whole wallet itself. Its then serve as a lesson for everyone to be more careful in doing our transaction and the amount of information we want to divulge but for a stranger, its definitely out of it entirely.

What wallet did he use? Cause I know most wallets show an explicit message to never share the seed, this isn't like ticking off the terms & agreements on something without reading it...

Years ago I used to trade bitcoins face-to-face at cafes (not bars). I NEVER took my main wallet with me. I always created a new wallet on a burner phone/laptop and filled it with just enough to cover the transaction.

Likewise if I wanted to learn about wallet features from strangers at a bar I would take a wallet with 0.026 BTC and leave the real wallet with 2.6 BTC at home.

I believe electrum tells you to never show the seed to anyone. It comes up in a text box. It's unlucky and a very easy thing to do in public.

The hard thing when bitcoin we move to another wallet address, why should give seed to people he does not know, need to understand money will make everyone blind and forget even I also do not trust anyone even though he is my friend, learn from mistakes hope to be better keep money

No way is he getting those BTCs back. I think this matters should be addressed as it is very alarming that btc holders are losing their coins through hacking and stupidity (sorry for my word). This just shows that there are numerous btc holders out there who blindly jumped in on the train. They didn't realized how important btc security is until they've lost it. People should learn not to trust anybody and stupidly consult strangers who claimed to know how to solve their queries with their wallets. Asking for privkeys and seeds are automatically an alert sign and should raise very high suspicion.

I think the possibility is zero because if he only intends to help then that wouldn't do. Maybe the stranger gets intrigue when he saw that the wallet has an amount on it. The only possible recourse is to identify the thief and file a case against him/her.

Do not talk to strangers, especially today many exploitative people and most victims are new in crypto. The wallet seed never gives anyone the key to your treasure that you just need to open. Avoid accessing sites as well as asking for your private key.

#Datarius

why would he give a wallet seed to a stranger? whatever the reason, wallet should not be given to stranger because wallet is the most important component to store bitcoin and altcoin.

Sometimes we forgot and being careless without realizing we are giving the important key for our wallet. My advise is that, separate the wallet address from private keys / wallet hash / seed etc from the same file with our wallet. This way, we minimize the risk. Better yet, we have to encrypt the said file.

Carelessness is a human trait and no matter how hard we try to be perfect there may be some among us who will still fall short of this virtue and may still not be able to perfect thi and so i will recommend hardware wallets for such folks.

With that big amount of coins!!!! .I WOULD NOT  let it to be like what you said asking for help to someone you doesen't know. Or giving information about your coins.. Lol
Bitcoin transaction is irreversible and the only way to track it is to find that man who stole all of his coins. LOL
The coins will not gone forever bu it will circulate and will store on another wallet where the man placed it

 Would you ever give your keys to your house to a stranger. Then how can you give bitcoin seed to a stranger. He must be enjoying the free money  Sad

He is a victim of ignorance. When I got into bitcoin, I knew nothing about how it works and I spent days online searching for all relevant information. It is rather unfortunate he ended up loosing his wealth upon consultations from a stranger. I hope he takes lessons from this and becomes very vigilant when dealing with strangers.

One there is a notable mistake he made which i quote "a stranger"he actually played an expensive game with his wallet and thats the result for it
am amazed at this silly mistake because his chances of getting the strange is almost impossible hope he recovers from it and must have learnt his lesson by now

 ;) ;) Actually, it is not ok to show your personal instructions to anyone else. It will hurt itself. Since he has shown his instructions to others, it is advisable to not see anyone else later. It is best not to have relations with a stranger.  ;) ;)

Your friend isn't getting his money back, that's for sure. But I don't know how did he have 2.6 Bitcoins and didn't know the basic safety rules, he should have researched a bit, that isn't a small amount of money, and he surely shouldn't have trusted a stranger. And he can forget the police, they wont react when cryptocurrency is involved. They don't know about it and there is no way to find the thief.