Bitcoin Forum

Hello,
I have a crisis! I have withdrawn (for the seventh time) to my BTC wallet.
After posting the funds (and obtaining two confirmations) - there was an outgoing transaction that was not authorized by me !! The transaction was released twenty minutes after the first confirmation - to some fresh address with no transaction history and is an RBF transaction. It's exactly a transaction at 0.4BTC.
My BTC address from which the funds were stolen: 1CCEQxuUkb6RKQM4TDYbQemBVs2ihe45ps
Address to which funds were sent:
3DTjnTxjPnePfvg3haTyUQQeFK2riuZ1Fr
Unauthorized transaction ID: 2f79dda8aea3f06400be07f04f65b6045ba2e0235efa0bba0f6d9d6375da421c

The transaction is marked as RBF!
I use client Electrum 3.3.8
There is no option for someone to steal a private key from your computer because I watch security all the time!

Is it going to somehow stop the flow of funds or recover them?
I am desperate because these funds were supposed to be for my mother's health.

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. The finality of transactions is one of the greatest risk of bitcoin, but it comes in hand with all the benefits.


Well maybe someone stole your private key from somewhere else? Did you have it written down anywhere? Without a private key people can't steal from a bitcoin wallet.


What does this mean? Is the wallet client going to stop the funds - no? But you could see if their may have been an error with the operation of the wallet client...in that rare case they may refund you. But if it was theft, you're out of luck.


How else can you make money? When do you need the money for your mother's health expenses? How much do you anticipate those expenses to be?

----

This won't help you today, but there is a wallet that pays 4% interest annually, so it's a small way to make more money without actually working. You can find a link in my profile or PM me.

Good luck to you.

No there's no way to stop the transaction it's already confirmed of almost 4 confirmations if your transaction has more than 0 confirmation you won’t be able to cancel it. But if your transaction is still zero-confirmation you can cancel the transaction by doing "double-spend" with a higher fee.

For now, There's no way to cancel a transaction that already confirmed.

Let me ask if where did you download the Electrum wallet? You might be using the fake one.
The correct electrum URL is electrum.org if you download it to a different URL it's 100% fake electrum that can steal all of your funds.

From your explanations I do not know how your funds was taken(you can try and explain better), were you trying to send to an address and sent to the wrong address. Maybe your private keys aren't as secured as you claim it is, did you write or store it somewhere that's accessible to someone other than yourself.
I just hope it's not just you sending to another address of yours, sorry I just get a bit sceptical when a line like this is added in this kind of post. If your mum is truly ill, you will have to find a different means of footing the bills.

Where to turn in this matter? I sincerely doubt that this is a mistake, but the only thing that is certain to me is that the funds have disappeared from the wallet even though I did not order it.


I didn't save the key anywhere. The string of random characters that make up PrivateKey is created using the BrainWallet method, the salt of which is the password I use, consisting of 20 characters (including special characters and numbers), so there is no chance to guess. This was done manually and offline using a tool of my own authorship. I know the mechanisms of private keys very well


Recently, I have no permanent source of income. It allowed to spend more time in a family circle. I obtained funds mainly from orders in BTC requiring computing power to perform them. This is one of the last tasks to be carried out that took me a whole month. The last task may take me over a year, which in a situation where it is a race against time and a fucking cancer - is a blow to my heart. The day before yesterday, my wallet with physical cash was stolen, and today - the rest of my hope was cleared. I wish the perpetrator that all his life karma would not let him live for what he did.

Thanks for the reply :-(

The funds disappeared from my wallet without any action on my part. It was enough for me to transfer funds from the account to the stock exchange faster and there would be no problem. Please forgive me the nature of the post .... nobody will understand this situation because it is not about bills, but about a chance for health. These funds were 3/4 of the funds necessary to pay for a life-saving operation. Thank you for the answers ... now everything is clear to me.

Bitcoin transaction is irreversible.

Sad to say that you can't do anything about it at this point. The only 'logical' explanation on how someone steal your BTC is that someone knew your password/privatekey. Maybe your laptop/pc is compromised with malware or you download a fake electrum app. I'm sorry for your loss and do hope that it will give you a life long lesson on protecting your crypto assets.

Sorry but your funds was already stolen and you can't retrieve it anymore. Can you remember the software and apps that you have downloaded to your PC?

Let's say that you have been aware of protecting your security all of the time but you probably missed some random apps that you have downloaded and didn't noticed it as you use them.

Well, there is nothing much you can do now. The transactions has been confirmed and there is no way of reversing it. You computer probably got hijacked and your private keys are compromised. You better clean your computer and make sure you make no further transactions from the computer. If you have any coins left, make sure you send to another clean wallet.
Make sure next time to keep your wallets secured and your computer clean.

try to remember remember again, no one should be able to enter your wallet without knowing your private key, maybe you have accessed a phishing site or maybe your device has a security problem, there may be relatives or friends who have accessed your device, The transaction cannot be canceled because it has passed several confirmations.

I guess OP is using the legit Electrum as it is now on the 7th time withdrawing funds from it.

OP should think again if some mistakes might happen before that's why someone able to breach his security.

I'm just wondering why the transaction is marked as RBF.

Try to recall on how you make your latest transaction cause as explain here https://themoneymongers.com/replace-by-fee-rbf-bitcoin/
It looks like there is something wrong about how made it or mistakenly put a wrong addy. And as stated in the article, you will have to wait for 6 confirmation before it marks as successful transactions. Try to check back your wallet now.

very sad news for you, but no matter how it has happened, there is nothing you can do, I say this because I have experienced it, all my tokens are lost, if it is calculated to be more than 1 BTC, what I did at that time was just pensive . cannot be imagined and cannot be expressed .. !!

Really it was sad to hear about your loss, what you has been lose the around $3000 worth of btc. It think the hackers find your private key and stolen your bitcoin because this things will regularly happens in crypto. so we have to take more security precaution otherwise it can happen anyone here because the hackers be come more active in crypto world compared to other field.

Usually when I see stories like that it makes me think they're fake because I saw many similar ones where people were saying they have cancer or someone in the family and they are poor and lost their last coins. Usually at some point the thread turned into a donation request.

There were vulnerabilities in Electrum but those were patched. Are you sure your PC is free of malware and you don't have someone connected to your wifi?

The address was used before and the pattern of deposits and withdrawals is very similar every time.
You deposit and 1 or 2 hours later withdraw everything. This last transaction was almost the same. You deposited and close to an hour later there was a withdrawal in the same manner.

It is sad to say but your funds have completely stolen, there is nothing that you can do to retrieve your funds. The confirmations and the transactions have been completed. I think it is the main reason why we should invest in our knowledge, even if we have a high capital but we do not have knowledge then we can protect our funds from hackers and scammers. Our focus should protect it first than to grow it.

I am curious what OS you are running, anti virus software you are using.  Not that it matters since it is gone, but perhaps it will help someone else.

Electrum is quite secure if your computer is secure.  Anyone saying otherwise is spreading FUD.

Everywhere the crime can occur even in the real world and here in the virtual world so we have to be cautious to avoid involving with this crimes such as scams, hacking of accounts and stolen money. I think if you have a big amount of coin here you should balance your savings here and in the real bank. And then observe in which place do you it much safer.

besides that we do not store assets in one wallet, maybe storing them in several wallet will be safer, so if the worst happens, then not all of our assets will be lost. indeed, diversification to several investment sites with different levels of risk will secure the assets we have

That's true and that's one of the risks of keeping all your funds in a single wallet. I think you have downloaded or have clicked phishing sites that might hacked your wallet. It's a lesson for you to learn. You should secure your wallets and be mindful of every click and download that you will be doing. It's just sad that you have lost the funds that you have worked for.

Really feeling bad to hear, One should be more cautious about private keys.  Hackers find so many ways to steal the private key. Make sure the wallet which your using is safest. After so many transaction confirmation 100% it's hacked. Beware of scammers. Have you written down yours  private keys anywhere, make sure next you don't make this mistake again.

Sorry for this unfortunate incident, someone may have access to your private keys, or your computer may have been invested with some kind of malware. You need to abandon that wallet and stop any sign in transactions in the future. You can run an anti-virus scan on your system for safety and get a new secured wallet even a hardware wallet.

Sadly, there is nothing you can do to take back the amount of Bitcoin that you lost because that can already be a confirmed transaction. I am sure that many people can be wondering what really happened. Would it be possible that there is some sort of a malware or a virus in your gadget that was able to copy your private key and used it against you? I heard of the same incidents before. Horrifying as it is, this is one of the many reasons why many people are not actually adopting the cryptocurrency movement...people who are technically-challenged (just like me) can have a hard time and will be at risks of losing their funds and are powerless to get back the assets once already transferred into another hand.

I rarely use electrum wallet as their are plenty of breaches to their security and with your current situation it is almost 0% that you can still recover your funds even if you are desperate to take it back.

Next time it will be best if you use a much more secured wallet like blockchain or your local exchange if you have some so you can easily reach the customer service in case there is a problem in your wallet like this one. 

Without knowing the exact reason why he lost his funds or what kind of attacks that he faced, running av scan is not a good idea.

He probably needs to wipe out his entire drive and start reinstalling his OS or any other device that's previously connected, to prevent another backdoor installation to his computer. Even if he got an HW wallet, that's meaningless when the thief can log his private key.


What kind of breaches you're talking about here? Blockchain or any web-based-hot-wallet is definitely not better than Electrum. Storing on an exchange is definitely a bad idea as you don't own the private key. Looks like you're fine with trusting a lot of BTC on somebody you don't know. Good luck with avoiding cases like Cryptopia.

There is no way to stop or reverse bitcoin transactions, your money has been moved and you have lost it permanently. And I'm sure you revealed your private key outside and were stolen by others, only that way your wallet could be compromised. I'm sorry about this situation of yours, which is a lot of money for me and maybe it's also big for you. Hopefully in the future you will be more careful in everything

I feel sorry for you dude. Though if you can read back from other threads having the same topic, there basically no way for the transaction to be cancelled or for the funds to be retrieved. I'm not sure as to how that happened but there might be some error on your end with processing the transaction. I just hope you still have some left to use for your mother's medication.

      The blockchain system is a secure system. It is so secure that if you lose your private key, you will lose your investments. I am sorry to hear about losing your money, further choosing that this money was needed for a noble purpose. I think this happened to you because of your inattention. Maybe you had a private key on a stick and another person had access to that stick. Otherwise it is not explained. Something happened and it sure happened from your inattention. I am sorry and I hope that in the future you will be more careful with your funds.

Blockchain or a local exchange?  Those are bad ideas unless you are incompetent about securing your own computer.  Then you don't own bitcoin, you have an IOU.

Electrum is secure if your computer is secure.  People saying that "they" have lots of security issues are misinformed.

So you didn't actually create your private key with Electrum? I'm just thinking out loud here, but it's kind of pointless to generate your private key offline only to later import it into a hot wallet.

Anyway, are you suggesting that Electrum itself is compromised? If so, you might want to share more details so other people can verify where things could have possibly gone wrong. I personally don't believe Electrum has a problem, but that's only because there's no verifiable evidence presented thus far.


I can only remember two "breaches", the first of which is inconsequential if the user set a wallet password (with no verified Bitcoin loss), and the other only really affecting alerts which were used for phishing. I'm not going to say those aren't bad, but people who know what they're doing were never really at risk.


I'd still recommend Electrum over those alternatives to be honest. I also hate to break it to you, but customer service won't help you with anything unless (and maybe not even) they're the one who messed up. So if you got phished or caught a virus which led to your funds being stolen (which could very easily be OP's problem), you're going to end up just as helpless. That means these options are even worse because you have to worry about two parties messing up (you and them) as opposed to worrying only about yourself.

Somehow your private keys is no more private, got stolen by hacker or even people that are closer to you, honestly i have electrum wallets, I'm better off with coinomi or trust wallet, somehow you leak out your private keys and your fund got stolen, sorry pal nothing can be done about this

I just wanna share about how do I keep my account safe. I have a total of 19 accounts, and those accounts are my facebook, gmail, yahoo, twitter, IG, yobit and my crypto account but I do never experience any trouble like hack accounts and forgetten passwords because I have this attitude that I am frequently changing all my account's password every month and also I am listing all of my in a paper and also I am producing a copy by taking a photo and store it into my phone's privacy box.

That's sad! I feel bad while reading your post op. Since you can't stop nor do anything about the transactions, you need to look back what could have been the reason why this is happening. I mean, what did you do on your pc/cp and the sites you have tried to access for the past days before the said transactions happened. And think who can access your keys and such. Just try to look back and maybe you can get the answer.

Be careful everyone. This is one the risk that we have to deal here.

Honestly, i am very sorry to hear that someone stole your private keys and your bitcoins that was supposed to be for your mother's health. Sad to say that it is impossible for you to recover all of your funds because the wallet that you have been using will not take the responsibility to the incident that happened, and it is very difficult to trace the hacker.

It's very sad because OP needs it for the operation of his mom and this kind of incident did happened to him, very frustrating.

People never learn about keeping their funds with an exchange, local or international. I understand that they like it keeping there so that they can easily sell it if it's needed but they don't realize that once the exchange gets hacked, they can't retrieve it anymore unless the exchange is generous to refund the lost funds of affected users.

I'm sorry to hear that. Storing funds in btc can be even more risky then storing them in your bedside table.

it becomes very possible if he has used an app that contains a backdoor etc.
maybe this is my suggestion to use premium antivirus which has banking, payment and cryptocurrency protect features as I use it on my device
and to keep it even safer I recommend closing your webcam for secure your password

I am sorry about this situation but there is no way for you to get it back. It has been transferred to another wallet and you have lost it permanently. Every day I see a lot of hacks happening to everyone here, most of them have failed to secure the private key and were stolen by the bad guys. I hope you can secure it better in the future and let this situation not happen again

This is quite a misfortunate that you experienced this. It is always advisable to keep your wallet safe at all time. There are a lot of people on the internet just waiting for people with weak security settings on their crypto wallets and rob them off their crypto coins. Its very sad that you did experience this. This might help you keep your wallet safe at all time.  And also avoid making transactions using a public internet connection. You just put yourself at the risk of getting hacked.

Impossible and not way to return back our balance after sending by the other, little mistake sending with wrong address we can't get return back our bitcoin assets and the same thing if some one hacked and stole your assets, I think did you install some application on your computer look terrible and make your data is record on this site, I think we are the cryptocurreny world never install with some thing else of application on smart phone and computer.

I'm sorry but it's too late to recover it. That's one of the reason why you store your funds in a hard wallet especially when the funds you are storing are for emergencies like this, like funds that you can't just afford to lose even if Bitcoin dump for a little while.

Since that already happened, you should clean your computer for infections. Probably format it and before assessing important files, download an anti-virus for extra layers of protection.

In a world where security is the most important for people to put trust, technology is the thing that makes it 10x more possible, invention of digital currencies with a strong backbone such as bitcoin is one of the best invention that is now feared by banks and central authorities. Bitcoin is showing a strong security features that makes it possible to be considered the most safest storage of our currency in terms of having it digitally. The only problem arises is when the decentralization that is offered by bitcoin right from the start is disregarding for us using centralized exchanges. But keep in mind, that security in systems is still on our hands, as long as we keep ourselves personally responsible and knowledgeable about keeping the best wallet possible.

Meehn, sorry for you  >:( there is nothing like recovering your money when you send it to the wrong address, as long as you have sent it you should just forget about it because it’s not coming back again.

I am still not understanding how you made this kind of mistake of sending to the wrong address, maybe you have installed a software that’s owned by hackers and scammers, because I have once heard of some apps that automatically rewrites the addresses you copy so that when you paste it and send, it goes to the wallet that’s owned by those scammers. Unless you’re the one that just made the mistake.

I'am so sad to hear that.
may we know what type of bitcoin wallet you are using, what is a hardware wallet ?
and what device do you use to make transactions ?

Maybe some on entered your wallet without your permission. If I were you, you should maximize the security that your wallet is offering. If they are offering double authentication, make sure that you have activated it so that those hackers that are planning to enter on your wallet will have a hard time since they need an authorization code that will be texted by you.

we don't know how hackers work,maybe they could steal without involving the private key, even the exchangers were their victims. however, if a transaction takes place, it will be very difficult to return the asset, and can't even. the only way is to forget it and try to find another way to pay for your mother's treatment. sometimes the situation is not on our side's friend, I'm sorry about that.

Unfortunately this happens. Even if you are sure that your device is protected from viruses, the vulnerability itself could be in the wallet that you installed. There may be many options. It’s a pity, but you can’t get the money back.

What kind of antivirus is that?

Even you are activated with premium and best antivirus but if your browsing activity isn't monitored and you keep downloading unfamiliar apps, there's still a chance that you might get a backdoor. Or there is a tendency that you might your wallet info into an unknown sheet or fill up forms.

That's the thing, antivirus only adds a layer of protection for the user, it's the users fault for downloading a shady app and doing dangerous things that could compromise his security. But still, antivirus would still be a great help protecting the users.

My recommended antivirus is just windows defender when you are using windows 10.

well if he uses a hard wallet, of course, the closest person can be one of the perpetrators. make sure that no one knows about it, even if your friend, because in money matters if there is an opportunity, they might take it. the problem with crypto is, when you send money, you won't be able to take it back.

It's a free and built-in antivirus whenever you install a Windows 10 OS. And whether it is like that, nothing beats the safe browsing style and being aware of your activity on the web including surfing and downloading.

How could the closest person will know your hardware wallet's detail? it's not advisable to do that if you're doing it. Anyway, OP didn't reply anymore, I guess he has found already the reason base to the posts of everyone the cause of how the hacker stole his funds.

To avoid any type of complications, this was why I stopped using the electrum wallet entirely. And I think Electrum isn't even doing enough sensitization on the difference in the URL to help users not falling prey to scammers. I believe this is also causing them patronage.

Then I figured that you don't own a Cryptocurrency judging on your post, and it's likely that you do not know how Bitcoin works, because you do not know how to secure your Bitcoin, you are just making assumption that Bitcoin is not safe to store when in reality it's the holders or keeper of the coins that is at fault.

That's the most strange suggestion i have ever heard. Storing funds in form of Bitcoin is never risky if you know who and where to store it properly.

As per the OP, i am afraid his system might be infected by a virus which result in automatic sending of the BTC to a certain address.

OP, you're going to need to run a virus sweep of your PC.

You've either got a RAT installed, or something did a paste swap on you. Alternatively, you might be using a compromised version of Electrum, or somebody managed to exfiltrate your private keys and used another client to send the payment (most likely option).

You're not going to get your money back, police wont touch the issue, and you probably can't afford a blockchain analysis company to do cluster analysis.

Unfortunately, this is one you're going to have to take on the chin.

This is why we should be aware in every decision we make. Every steps we take we must know what's gonna happen after because one single mistake can be your loss and that's what happened to him, he should be informed that we are in a digital world and we are holding digital money we cannot bring it back if it is stolen or lose, because where do you complain? Cryptocurrency is decentralized. To sum it all up, I recommend that you should protect every important information about your wallet and be informative in every transaction you make because scammers are everywhere.

If funds transferred to another unknown wallet without any action from your side mean your seed phrase or private keys have been compromised somehow. May be you have downloaded electrum from fake source or may be you have created paper wallet from fake or phishing sources. Sorry to say but it won't reverse anymore.

Are you sure your private key were not written on your physical wallet ? If so, then likely same guy steal your fund. Anyway don't be hopeless, somehow you will be out of this problems. Try to manage fund from offline.

I've done a little lookup of those addresses on my mobile but haven't found anything very useful, maybe an extensive research would help identify who the guy who stole the funds is although I believe the chances are slight. Anyways, I'll post what I found here.

Your funds have been sent from your address to this wallet (https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/2eace149b23d395c) which, according to Wallet Explorer, has 6 addresses.

I looked up every address out of this wallet and upon searching the address "1Xfo3QqkKNV8vrsEs1LvPZsEjorMsFebM" out of the wallet I linked above, Google results provided me a link to a Bitcoin Private Key Generator (http://web.archive.org/web/20200125113729/https://www.google.com/search?q=1Xfo3QqkKNV8vrsEs1LvPZsEjorMsFebM&oq=1Xfo3QqkKNV8vrsEs1LvPZsEjorMsFebM) which makes me believe the owner of the walled linked above has stolen money from some leaked wallets too. Apparently,

This makes me believe the money has been stolen for real from the OP. I've seen replies suspecting the OP will soon request donations though. In that case, don't donate to him. It's nobody's fault he did not safely store his funds.

Actually, there are always a case like this. Phishing sites can victim people by just copying the address. Maybe, he gathered the site without asking some veteran in using electrum wallet. I was also a victim of phishing site before but I prevented it when I verified to my mentor and he said its a wrong mew.
As of now, I am always double check the sites first before I am opening so that I am aware of the site.

this may be a lesson for you to Download the Electrum wallet so you wont be redirected to fake sites since i am sure this is the reason why you were being hacked just soon after you make a transactions and easily for the hacker to transfer your coins to another wallet.
that's the point because in this short message we can evaluate how Noob he is about cryptocurrency.
he don't even Know the real way on how to treat Bitcoin and not because the currency is in your wallet it means they are safe because at any mistake this will all Gone in a minutes time.

This is the first time I have heard that you can become a victim of scam/phising just by copying your address. Address cannot be used to open the wallet, so I don't think until today that it is possible?
Do you have a referrence the same case as this? Because it is very alarming for everyone, if addresses is also being used then sharing it is not safe anymore.

I don't know why i am feeling that your whole story is a fake one and maybe it is an attempt to seek kindness and funds in the name of your mother's health. I do not see what you saying of stolen funds is real. Sorry, but i have just this feeling when i read your whole story.  :-\

I think the hole is in this scenario.  I guess OP's PC was compromised with key logger.  I also think that it is pointless to generate a private key then later to import it to hotwallet.  So I guess that import stuff is the source of all those problem.

It looks like we won't be hearing from OP. It's been days and no info. He either has some real problems or managed to somehow find the infection and link it to his missing coins.
With millions of Bitcoin users around the world if coins were disappearing like that and you could intercept someone's private key and steal everything, the Internet would be boiling.

I'm sorry, friend. I also know what it's like, our BTC is moving to another wallet even though it is not our control, even though we will use the funds for urgent needs. It's sad, but what else can I do? although me and you have tried your best to maintain the security of the device, nothing is really safe. And the thief can always enter through the slightest gap.
As many members explained, there is no way to cancel the transaction, it might be tracked but "they" seem to have prepared the theft well so it is not easy to track.
Hopefully, you can accept this gracefully and get a better chance soon for your mother's recovery.

Let me guess, Windows? Did you never read that using insecure OSes for money handling leads to this?

The private key is not exposed, but they could: Keylog so they get the password from your wallet when you opened it, and (probably earlier) already copied your wallet out since they compromised your PC.

Yes in theory you can double spend but that has to be done too quickly, before the next block is found probably (unless they used a very low fee). To double spend you could recreate your wallet in a secure pc using your seed words and quickly send all your funds elsewhere. Of course by the time you read this is too late, this kind of thing can only be done in advance, but if you have been paying attention something like this would have never occurred in the first place.

Sorry but Bitcoin has no hand holding. When you are your own Bank, if comes with responsibilities. If you cannot trust protecting yourself, you probably need to keep paying others to protect you instead.

In an ideal world, you would have known better. That the computer to do the serious stuff, cannot be the same one you do your leisure things.

A 3rd alternative is trusting the hardware wallet manufacturers, if you cannot be bothered to use a Free and Open Source secure OS like everyone should. Hey, even if you DO use a secure OS, extra precautions are needed when handling valuables by yourself, but when you use the most insecure OS on earth, don't expect miracles.

Another possible vector would be that you had that computer compromised at wallet creation, in that case they got the seed words. This is why there is a guide out there that teaches people how to use (Linux+Tor) Tails) to create a wallet using Electrum securely.

If you search the forum you will find people had lost millions doing the same exact mistake, you are not alone.

Think of a valet parking that copies the key of your car then follows you home and steal it. Its not the car company fault that you gave the key (if temporary) to a stranger. A wallet is that, keys. Don't let it get copied by strangers... And yes, you could have chosen to go to a more secure location where you never handle your key or risk it in any other way.

Electrum is great, I use it and have never lost any BitCoins !!!  I put my BitCoins on a USB stick so that even though hackers can see my Seed Words, they still can not get my BitCoins.

https://i.imgur.com/C1qWPII.png

Hard Facts

Are you sure you want to show your seed in public ?  :o

While there are many reasons why this happened, I particularly think that there might be 2 major reasons why this would have happened.

1. You might be using a pirated version of the Electrum wallet. There are thousands of infected versions of wallets on the internet.
May be you just got unlucky and downloaded one of those infected versions.

2. Your system might be infected with a virus or something that gained authorization over your system and made the second transaction.

For the past year or 1.5 year or so. Electrum was under major phishing attacks. Basically you would load Electrum and when you tried to send a transaction it would give you an error saying you need to download a new version. You would click that link without looking and download an authentic looking electrum version and it would steal your private keys as soon as the file was executed. This has been going on for a while. Some people got lucky and their electrum crashed so they would have to manually go to the official electrum website and find out what is going on.

I am assuming this is what happened or he got some virus or malware somehow. Visiting some shady sites or downloading some shady wallets/miner software. This is why you should always keep your BTC in cold storage so its impossible to get your coins stolen. All you do is go on the cold storage computer and just sign your transaction. Only way to keep your coins secure, that or a hardware wallet.

sad to say but your funds has been stolen and there is no chance of getting them back.

it happens to me once in the past when i used a fake site(but in another wallet and exchange)and all i do is just use it as a wake up call of downloading all important sites or Bookmarking them for future using so i may stay safer .

or maybe there are someone got into your file without noticing like friends or house mates.

The OP has already got the answers so I think he should lock this thread and people should stop giving more advises when he has got his understanding cleared.

You are using a wallet which is not official. Where have yoi downloaded the wallet? Verify the app. If that's not the case, someone else have your private key or seed or your wallet file. Better you change everything.

Or Keep you BitCoins in a hardware wallet and hidden where no one can find it, so even if someone is able to see THIS, they will not be able to get your BitCoins out !
.


https://i.imgur.com/C1qWPII.png

Hard Facts

Thank you very much for the fact that many of you have contributed to this topic. Not wanting to remain indebted - I think I should respond to any statements I have read here. Thank you especially to those who took the time to explain the real cause of the theft. So to sum up the recurring conclusions, tips, opinions:

1. "Use of an infected / unofficial version of the wallet": dropped out. The wallet came from the manufacturer's official website and was not updated. I do not use any intermediate pages when downloading anything (let alone a wallet application)
2. "I have my computer infected": nothing more wrong. Both before and after the disappearance of funds - no infected processes or files were present on the computer. Unless it's something that is not known to anyone (?). In any case, Malwarebytes Premium and additional Microsoft Safety Scanner tools have not detected anything, the computer is automatically updated every day, and the browser and even stupid autostart is so pedantically clean that I do not know whether additional packet transfer monitors that track traffic are also needed, because nothing has ever aroused my suspicions. I agree on the issue of your system ... it's actually WINDOWS .... 10 ... PROFESSIONAL. Also from the original ISO distribution under the original license.
3. "Physical interception of a saved key" - dropped out ... The key was not saved in writing NEVER and ANYWHERE! I entered it ONCE once using CTRL + V - five transactions before an unauthorized transaction. So the keylogger is also out, and I won't mention swapping, interception or anything else, because, as I remind you: after withdrawing funds to my stolen address - the funds were available for 30 minutes and I did not make any outgoing transaction.
4. Someone rightly stated that I was not involved in the discussion .... I now have very serious problems that are really more important for me to control than reading opinions like:
5. ... "that I will ask for donations and I will bitterly regret to pluck anyone" - those ignorant and "masters" I especially greet with the middle finger ... you will understand when someone closest to you will depend only on you. I wrote about it, as a result of the trauma that occurred on the day it happened ... Understand who will actually have the basis to feel guilty of something that has not been done, but could. I don't want anything from anyone, much less from the poor who said that.

Thank you again for your kind words and for your private inquiries that specifically target something ... I will be grateful for the leads on the sites where I can also carry out such activities, because my Google inquiries and transaction tracking came to the point where I found that mixes were made to lose track.

P.S. To the gentleman who proposed an investment in BTC (gold) for 1550 USD / oz ... - and what ... should I buy bars and mock them?

Regards

Given the amount of money you have, you could NEVER afford bars, not even if you worked your entire life.    If 3000.00 dollars was a lot to lose for you, that is 2 coins that will fit in your pocket.  My suggestion was to not buy BTC, and you would never have been hacked and been much better off.

WISE UP

There are two things you can confirm that if you lose your money from your desktop client. If you you give your your private key phrase to someone else or or  JSON file then anyone can access your wallet from their computer installing the standalone version of electrum. Even if you Share or lost wallet phrase the time also chance of cleaning your wallet is possible.

In my opinion, your bitcoin's amount have been stolen because  your private key was not secured well and unfortunately, you have nothing to do, it is impossible to recover your funds. Accept this loss and deal with it, complaining and crying will change nothing, try to find  a way to earn BTC, there are many opportunities, just use your mind smartly. Remember that security is essential in order to make your wallet safe without it  you will get stolen again.

Real ones?

If the Bitcoin is turned into a physical coin, it is not the real one. It may be viewed as a representation of the real one. The real Bitcoin is something you cannot hold with your hands.

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I'm afraid the Bitcoin that you've lost, OP will be lost forever. It is stolen and it is virtually impossible to expect some good deed from the thief itself. Your lesson here is very expensive. But next time, avoid saving significant amount of BTC in hot wallets.

If you want to save your money in a safe wallet go for the hard wallet or cold storage wallet. They are very reliable and provide you with the ultimate security. The important pint over here is the mistake done at your part. The important keys or information related to your wallet is your responsibility, you should yourself put it in a safe place so that no thief can approach it. Carelessness done by you can give you big loses so bring improvement in yourself before investing.

Well i have seen it before, so that might be so. Even having the system secured and updated is not safe enough. Airgap might help your company server, but you are taking a giant risk. There are zero day exploits, there are "private" exploits now known by few discoverers but kept secret until needed. Usually those are not seen for widespread attacks, but can for targeted attacks. OP might have drawn someone's attention.

This is the fundamental problem of "security by obscurity". By hiding the code, is not like exploits don't exist, they do. And worst of it is they remain hidden for much longer than with open source.

It might be something simple like you say, but its always a good moment to call everyone's attention. Do not fool yourself thinking a well maintained Windows is ever good enough, it isn't. The thing didn't earn its bad fame for free. A better OS also needs maintaining, but its far easier to keep those secure than Windows ever will and this is a rock solid fact backed by decades of experience. Sure, you can make a living maintaining those (maybe thanks for being what it is), but that doesn't mean its any good. Internet is not run by Windows servers, they remain a minority for this very reason.

I see that most probably did not understand what happened ... There was no double spending here !!! I received the funds at my BTC address (where they were still available for 30 minutes after posting). Wanting to make a payment to the stock exchange -> I realized that these measures have already been taken! There was no double spend attack!

i want to ask something. which version of electrum is safe?

you not recover bitcoin?

I am always concerning about victims of this kind of may i say hacking?because i also a victim back days when i am still active in online gaming where 2 of my accounts was hacked and did not manage to get them back having big amount of items that can be convert into fiat.

But like what many of members says above that moving on is the best key and we need to use this scenarios to prevent same issues again,0.4btc is a big amount specially now that the market is recovering and starting to be bullish again.
Hope you will find another way of profiting and this time must be full of secure and manage rightfully.

In terms of computer security features specifically from the electrum, it is impossible for them to compromise your funds and take it away unless the problem relies on your system it self, the only safe storage I know is the hardware wallets where the private keys are hidden, because basically using other software where you could see your private keys will expose it, malware could probably screen capture your monitor and if they see information about your wallet then, that is the vulnerability you need to consider.

  So sorry to hear about your misfortunes in the theft of your bitcoin. This has happened many times and you can read about such a case here...

https://www.ccn.com/kaspersky-lab-discovers-new-malware-that-stole-140000-worth-of-bitcoin/

  You have learned the hard way. Here is what I would do with my BTCitcoin to keep it safe.

  1) Never leave it on a hot wallet. Computer or phone. If I do have any on my phone Mycelium I keep only $100 worth of Bitcoin.

  2) Never leave it on any exchange, exchanges get hacked all the time. Also the saying NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COIN applies here.

  3) Buy a hardware wallet. I recommend a Trezor. I think its the best out there, and even if your computer gets infected you are still safe.

  4) I also use paper wallets to store my BTC. But don't do it if you cannot generate one in a air gapped computer and know what your doing. If no, then suggestion 3 is the best.

 

really ? i didnt know that a malware can secretly make a screenshot of the seeds or the recovery of our wallet but i thought malware on works like pasting different address or different text once you copied something on your computer  .

we still need to double check what paste tho just to be sure that its our wallet address we have typed in  . wallets like electrum are also known to be secure  . once you got your keys , they cant already have a control of your account  .  

I think your computer is attacked by malware, there are many malware which takes screen shoy of your seed words or else you have downloaded the electrum wallet from a fake or scammed website, make sure that next time when ever you are downloading any wallet or any application double check the link of website from where you are downloading...

well maybe his computer has been infected with various viruses and maybe he has logged into an improper site or phishing and maybe he has also installed various add ons where there are many gaps that can be used to get a lot of data stored in his search engine, so it's better when it happens like that then reinstall your computer and backup all the keys that you think are important.

All the keys that I had the opportunity to see go to the trash! I ALWAYS use the latest Chrome to browse the pages, and in addition - every time in incognito mode ... From plugins I have only ABP and WebRTC ... Ultimately, I remove even basic garbage from Google such as sheets, offline documents, etc. ... is undermining your bad luck. I am so experienced with Internet users that no phishing is possible. As for advice on not keeping large sums on hot wallets and exchanges - I AGREE ... I just remind you that it was the receipt of funds intended for payment to the stock exchange ... these funds disappeared after two confirmation of the payment transaction, so it was not "holding means "= no part of this knowledge would be applicable here ... although I believe that the less experienced thanks to this knowledge will protect their means against unauthorized hands.

As for the case itself:
Until now I haven't got the answer what really happened.
I know that no one in my computer personally rummaged because there is nobody [even in my absence]. The review of event logs in Windows also did not show any suspicious activity. Hash Electrum from the official website is consistent with the hash of the version used while I lost funds ... two conclusions can be drawn:

- a Trojan not yet detectable by anti-viruses has been used on my equipment
- the official version of Electrum is leaky

There are no more options.

In general, for readers who want to avoid adventures like me - I recommend from experience - (if you haven't already done so):

- check your computers regularly for viruses
- if you use the addresses generated in Electrum / by any site / BrainWallet / and have seen at least once your private key assigned to your wallet -> abandon them immediately and transfer funds to your hardware wallets. I personally had Trezor in my closet all the time, because I got it from the stock exchange for trading, but I didn't use it because I didn't see such a need ... oh, I regret it!
- ALWAYS install system updates from Microsoft if you use Windows!

Regards

Sorry for losing your funds to scammers. But unfortunately, nothing can be done about it again because the transaction has recorded some confirmations. Did you ever tried your private key on any DeX exchange? Or does anyone have access to it? On daily basis these hackers devise new techniques to hacking it's high time we stopped feeding.
1. Dont ever store your funds in an exchange.
2. Store your funds in secured wallets with extra 2FA
3. Do not share your private key with a second party and lots more. Its every ones responsibility to keep ones funds safe. Not your keys, not your bitcoin.

For those who have stolen funds, there is nothing you can do to regain it but there is something that you could change. You should find the lesson after you lose your money, you shouls now focus on protecting your funds. I'm using online bitcoin wallet and also a hardware wallet but most of my funds are in hardware wallet. I do not also store my funds in an exchange because it is risky due to the vulnerability to the hackers.

i am very sad about the proceeds of the Money,it is for His mothers Health so i think there is a much need,either His mother is sick or very old now i hate this hackers .

but nothing we can do about it because the confirmation are already there so surely the hacker is now celebrating and hope this will happen to His mother also.

maybe for Op this will serve a lesson not to make the same mistakes again.

Absolutely, there is nothing you can do if your money is being stolen here. We are in a digital world and we are earning and using digital money, one single mistake, you can lose all of your money. That is why we should study and think twice before making any decisions. You should be well informed before investing or buying tokens for you to secure your money, so that you can reach your goal being involved with crypto and that is to earn money.

This might help. Try to secure important information that includes your wallet information. And do not share that information to anyone. Do not trust anybody. There are actually lots of ways to secure your account. That should be a lesson to you that you should be careful in every move or decision you make.

Hackers do not care whether you are on any kind of situation as long as they can take over your assets or personal belongings, they might not know the situation you are having since we are on an anonymous state when using crypto. The only thing we need to do is to prevent them from making our security more harder for them to bypass. Once you are hacked it's almost impossible to regain your funds, Toughen up your security will make you more confident that no one will able to hack or to take advantage of you.

There are various ways to do it, at wallet creation they can take the seeds, or when opening the wallet, they can take the password the moment you type it. If they take the password they also need the wallet file as well. There is also that silly method that replaces the copy pasted address, but you can always hit the preview button and ensure the correct address is used.

In short you don't want malware running alongside your wallet...

i am really sorry to say this but the easiest way to put this is that someone else has access to your private key or seed phrase and has a stand-by alert for anytime you want to perform a transaction then used the Replace By Fee method to change the destination of your funds.

Thats happen to me also.You can do nothing to that as the transactions cannot be reverse anymore.Better find a way on how to secure your funds more.Be careful next time.

Sorry for that loss I hope you are honest with this issue  happened to you, although it's difficult to return those Btc as the process is irreversible

The worst thing is that it is impossible to predict where the threat of the theft of your funds might come from. Hackers can change your browser settings and calmly learn passwords from your wallets. Yes, it is very frustrating, but the bitter experience is also an experience. Be vigilant in using your cryptocurrency wallet

zielar so you need it for your greed I hope all that you still find will be taken from you

Why don't you use a hardware wallet? No system, no electronic wallet provides security. Trezor costs a few $ and you can buy it for BTC ... Think about it before your next transaction ...