Bitcoins stolen... Please help... Blockexplorer?

[mentalmatt]

So I know it's nothing to lose sleep over, but it does kind of suck to be stolen from and just sit back and do nothing about it.  So I'll at least give this a go.  This morning I had 12.88 bitcoins stolen from my eWallet.  I understand my options are probably limited, but please help...


Here's the blockexplorer.com log:

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1EAz3M77ZC4SbG8ACLa62whWAm8FKu3d6W


I definitely did not authorize this withdrawl... any help greatly appreciated.

[RandallC]

Which eWallet service did you use?

The only (possible) way to get back your money is to take it directly to the owners of the website. Try it.

Otherwise, there's no way to reverse transactions in the bitcoin protocol. They are definitive. And yes, when theft happens, everybody just watches the public transactions powerless.

It sucks to be stolen from but it can happen to everybody. A moment of inattention or overtrusting and it's done. Sometimes there's even nothing you can do.

In the future only use online wallets for small amounts, use two different wallets (checking/savings), with the savings wallet encrypted with Truecrypt and preferably created on a computer never connected to the internet.

12.88 is a small amout, some have lost far more than you. Don't give up on Bitcoin because of that, because the future will very probably cover your loss.

[koin]

This morning I had 12.88 bitcoins stolen from my eWallet.

any guess as to what happened?  same user/pass (or similar pattern) as was used elsewhere?
or perhaps your computer is compromised and there is a keylogger installed?

[John Tobey]

So I know it's nothing to lose sleep over, but it does kind of suck to be stolen from and just sit back and do nothing about it.  So I'll at least give this a go.  This morning I had 12.88 bitcoins stolen from my eWallet.  I understand my options are probably limited, but please help...


Here's the blockexplorer.com log:

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1EAz3M77ZC4SbG8ACLa62whWAm8FKu3d6W


I definitely did not authorize this withdrawl... any help greatly appreciated.

My sympathies.

First of all, whoever executed the transaction into that address had access to the wallet that previously held the coins.  You should create a secure wallet to hold any other bitcoins you may have or expect to acquire.  If you have given out addresses from the wallet, tell everyone not to send to them.  You can find guidelines on wallet security.  It is really hard to do right.  For starters, it involves securing your operating system from malware.

A stolen coin tracker would be a nice application and not terribly hard to implement.  Perhaps one day we'll have one.  (I've got it on Abe's to-do list.)  Meanwhile, you can follow the money with Block Explorer.  This will tell you when it may have changed hands.  For example, if you see 12.88 transferred to two addresses, one receiving 4.00 and one 8.88, you may conclude that the thief (probably) spent 4.00 on something and 8.88 was the change, or vice versa.  But they could just be self-transfers designed to confuse you.

Best advice is to move on.

[getsum]

what ewallet was it?

[mentalmatt]

ok, thank you for the quick replies... i figured that was the answer i would get.  Oh well, live and learn... could have been much worse.  I now see the need for two wallets and having one encrypted.  I'm tried of looking at the blockexplorer as I don't want to watch my money move around when I can't do anything about it.  Thank you again for the advice... I will be getting a second wallet and encrypting it.

Matt

[Exo]

Was it in a MyBitcoin wallet? I heard they are scammers... be careful, clean up your PC maybe?

[koin]

I will be getting a second wallet and encrypting it.

ok, so to rewind a bit here.  initially you had written that this was an "ewallet".  an ewallet is something like mybitcoin, or installwallet for instance: http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/EWallet

what you are describing is how the coins spent were used by your local wallet.dat.  

that can't happen unless the security of your computer has been compromised or your wallet.dat had been replicated somewhere else where it was not secure.

if your computer is compromised with someone having remote access or a keylogger, for instance, encrypting even won't help you.

it's your money and you can do with it what you want, but it sounds like you don't have a secure environment. getting ripped off a second time would be even more painful, i presume.

[spruce]

Put your "savings" into a paper bitcoin wallet, not connected to the internet, like those created by Casascius.

Then encode the private key instead of leaving it in plaintext. If you use a one-time code as described here it is unbreakable as long as no-one guesses your 64-character passphrase (don't write it down!).

This way — assuming you trust Casascius and you didn't screw up the encoding — you don't ever have to worry about it. And you don't have to worry about computer malware getting at it. You can even put your encoded private key on an open website or in a dozen emails to your friends to keep safe for you. Just don't forget your passphrase!

[Rudementry]

I feel safe keeping all of my coins in Mtgox... am I crazy?

[John Tobey]

I feel safe keeping all of my coins in Mtgox... am I crazy?

Depends how many "all" is.   

I consider MtGox a pretty good choice for most people with a few tens or hundreds of BTC.  More than that, and I'd consider it a good component of a diversification strategy.