BTC sent to an unknown address. shows "unspent"

[maxxoutt]

Does the wallet have to belong to someone?

It can't be just a random wallet as each address has a checksum and if you change any character it will be invalid.
Since you use Electrum, it will not allow you to send to an invalid address. So yes, that address must belong to someone.

I'm 99.9% sure the vendor wouldn't scam me.

Don't be so sure. The only way to verify this is by going back to the message where he sent you the receiving address and compare it to 1FbhSvzFQAYm2FTUjJeRB366N8ap3TgwWa.
If it is not the same then you must have copied it from somewhere else. Since the coins haven't been moved yet then its owner doesn't know about it which reduces the chances of him being a scammer.

Thanks, so originally when I placed the order it prompted a "payment gateway" with a BTC address.  I copied and pasted it and sent to that address.  I did not go back to the screen and double check before I actually hit send.  Then, I went back to the screen and hit "confirm payment", and it took me to another processing screen.  The processing screen disconnected, and so I contacted him and he said he got the order but not the coin, and to re-submit the order.  So, I re-submitted it, and it gave me another "payment gateway" with a btc address.  I didn't send the funds to that address since I had already sent it to the previous one.

So, I have no proof of the first btc but he sent me screen caps from his end of both payment gateways with 2 BTC addresses that were assigned to me, and neither of them were the ones I sent to .

Hope that makes sense.  welcome to any other ideas.

[jackg]

Who owns the payment gateway? Can you contact them if its a third party and send them the deposit address, if it was shown they should be able to trace it. If not he might be scamming you if that was the payment address on the gateway page.

But its probably an error with the gateway engine.

[HCP]

Thanks, so originally when I placed the order it prompted a "payment gateway" with a BTC address. 

...The processing screen disconnected...

Then you (or the merchant) will need to contact the "Payment Gateway" provider and ask them to investigate. It is quite likely that something has gone wrong on their end and the payment for the order has not be registered correctly, so the merchant has not received his funds.

At this point in time, the Payment Gateway Provider are the probably the only people who will be able to track down your coins... as the "1Fb" address most likely belongs to them.

Does the wallet have to belong to someone?

It can't be just a random wallet as each address has a checksum and if you change any character it will be invalid.
Since you use Electrum, it will not allow you to send to an invalid address. So yes, that address must belong to someone.

Note that this isn't strictly true. You can send to any valid address... it doesn't necessarily mean that someone, somewhere has the private keys to it... for instance, "Bitcoin Burner" addresses like "1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE"