Bitcoin Forum

Hi All-

I have a question, what can I do if someone steal my wallet and transfer my money? Is there a way to get it back or track who was the person or how the money was used?

Thanks.

Its nearly impossible unless they leave clues behind, sorry :(

Sadly no

You have to take precautions, no recourse available post facto

I think some of what you ask would be possible.

First, you might be able to determine how the .wallet got stolen from you e.g. virus or a friend with access to your computer. And determine based on that information, "who was the person".
Secondly, you can always follow the transactions and perhaps see how it was used. Even the mixing-services are not perfect.
Thirdly, it is most likely you would not get it back despite the above.

Best regards. 

change the wallet or put password on it

the anonymity of coins can a PRO or a CON, but yeah, i reckon bitcoins are pretty safe investment. of course theyre not 100% hacker-proof but a far more so than, let's say credit cards.. so take precautions if you think you might be in danger... for example burn your .dat file on a cd and camouflage it as a Britney Spears album....

lahje: The camouflage method is a good idea. Also keep it in a TC container.

Best regards.

Hi All-

Thanks for answers, very appreciated.

How to follow a transaction and keep following it until get it converted to money? What site can be used to follow a transaction chain?

What is a mixing-services?

What is a TC container? Examples?

Thanks a lot.

Best regards.

I don't know if this is possible in the near future(probably) but what about doing transactions with biometric security techniques? Like using voice recognition and/or finger recognition as second option with voice problems? So we can only do a transaction with voice/finger recognition. On a computer this is harder for finger recognition, but an app for smartphones is a possibility i think with newer hardware to start.

No and no.
Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. Unless the thief is really very dumb, you can hardly get your BTC back, and you will never know who he is.

You may use blockchain.info for example and see to what address your coins are transfered, to what address from this address and so on. But you probably never know when BTC is converted to money unless exchanges reveal deposit BTC addresses (they dont)

mixing-services make this following even more messy.

Since BTC transactions are public you can see where stolen coins are moved. You could use blockchain.info.

With TC container I mean a TrueCrypt container. TrueCrypt is an encryption software, you would then keep your wallet in an encrypted file, that is the TC container. BEWARE you must know exactly what you are doing before playing with Truecrypt.

Mixing Services are used to mix one's funds with others', with the intention of confusing the trail back to the funds' original source. A thief could use one to hide the BTC trail.

Best regards.

Hi All-

Thanks for your answer, very appreciated.


What kind of dumb mistake? I hope it helps me :)

Can someone point me please to a some examples of mixing-services? Why are they used? Just to difficult track thief? The idea of mixing services is just to hide real source IP address of transaction?

Thanks.

even if  you  locate the  IP, what are  you planning  to do?
travel  and search?
what if you find out he used a proxy :D
seems like a dead end to me  :-\