Electrum BTC stolen today / phishing scam? ANy help much appreciated

[Quack2341]

Hello everyone

Today I have tried to send bitcoins from my electrum wallet to an address burt before I could do this my wallet was emptied within seconds, and not to the address i send it to.


I lost approx 0.02154837 BTC

the transaction ID is 387a2ecb74fecfa8329b976c23032ef7f21adabdd15fe1923a54575f1697ba8e when the BTC went missing

as far as i can see on the blodckchain, the BTC ended up in address 14kuUTfXM1MLzmDidMZPEFrU7Z9hR6tX1q

I have an encrypted wallet, have tried restoring it from seed, have connected to differenct servers etc

There was not any links / pop up prompting me to download the newest electrum version so I'm confused about what happened.

My recieving address from a completely new wallet and downloaded wallet from Electrum.org is 12u67WtWiYGHx6FYJjEKaJESo9VH2PWUvJ


Does anyone know if there is a way to get back the funds or have any advice ?


Thanks in Advance

[AjithBtc]

Hello everyone

Today I have tried to send bitcoins from my electrum wallet to an address burt before I could do this my wallet was emptied within seconds, and not to the address i send it to.


I lost approx 0.02154837 BTC

the transaction ID is 387a2ecb74fecfa8329b976c23032ef7f21adabdd15fe1923a54575f1697ba8e when the BTC went missing

as far as i can see on the blodckchain, the BTC ended up in address 14kuUTfXM1MLzmDidMZPEFrU7Z9hR6tX1q

I have an encrypted wallet, have tried restoring it from seed, have connected to differenct servers etc

There was not any links / pop up prompting me to download the newest electrum version so I'm confused about what happened.

My recieving address from a completely new wallet and downloaded wallet from Electrum.org is 12u67WtWiYGHx6FYJjEKaJESo9VH2PWUvJ


Does anyone know if there is a way to get back the funds or have any advice ?


Thanks in Advance

Go through the link, you might get an idea about what happened today with the electrum wallet https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/an2khh/is_this_a_phishing_attempt_electrumorg_does_not/

[Quack2341]

There wasn't any such message pop up asking for an update or trouble with transaction, they just emptied the wallet straight after the funds came in. that's why I'm so confused as to why or how it's happened.

is there a way to track down the theif if it is them? I know it's very unlikely to get the funds back but I could try :/

And no I have not upgraded, I downloaded the file from electrum.org which is the latest version.

[coinwizard_]

Another sad day for bitcoin. Sorry this happened mate, lots of scams going around and many target electrum and MEW due to their popularity. Best to invest in a hardware wallet, scammers do not return funds and there are no refunds in a decentralised economy

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Absolutely no way to get the bitcoin’s back at all, bitcoin transactions are not reversible. Be thankful it wasn’t really that much money. I’ve seen horror stories on here about people losing hundreds of bitcoin’s due to a hack.

If you haven’t downloaded a new version of electrum then I can’t figure out how your wallet was emptied.
Do you use the same computer/laptop for downloading films/torrents etc?

I suggest that if you get a new computer or totally reset the current one to factory settings if you plan on using it to store crypto again.

I am sorry for your lose OP, just be happy it wasn’t more.

[Potato Chips]

With the information we have, its impossible to track them and they could use a mixer anytime. There's really nothing much you can do except to prevent it from happening again. I'm also suspecting a malware or some sort on your side, go with LFC's advice, always keep your pc clean.

Consider getting a hardware wallet either ledger or trezor and have a read at this good practices in securing your wallet

[livingfree]

The transaction for your approx lost bitcoins got 24 confirmations, sorry for your lost there's no way to get it back. And looks like that hacker has attacked other victims too, I really think that you downloaded the wrong electrum I have been using it and I don't have that kind of experience. Please elaborate if you do really downloaded the official one and you upgraded it to the latest update. It's either you downloaded the wrong and fake electrum or you've been a victim of a phishing link.

[kxz1498]

Sorry man. Your bitcoins are gone. This is crypto sadly. You prob upgraded wallet from phishing site.

[pooya87]

And no I have not upgraded, I downloaded the file from electrum.org which is the latest version.

the real question is have you checked the signature of the file you downloaded? you may think the website was electrum.org but in fact it might have been a lookalike with a similar name but a fake website.

if you have the legit wallet then the only remaining possibility is that you might have some sort of malware on your computer that stole your seed or somehow you leaked it and that is how they accessed your funds.

[Baofeng]

Bitcoin transaction is irreversible so there's no way for you to get it back. The last time I used my electrum is wouldn't allow me to send any transactions so I downloaded the latest version 3.3.3 here https://electrum.org/#home. Or it could be your pc is infected by a copy-and-paste virus/malware.

[Kakmakr]

It is not very difficult to miss this, if some Malware on your computer replaced the "electrum" with  "eIectrum". Some Malware will hijack your copy and paste function and look for the word "electrum" for instance and then replace it with something that looks very close to that, like "eIectrum".  

I have even seen shortcuts in favourites in browsers being replaced by phishing links, so I would suggest that you look at your link in your favourites, to see if it was changed. They even inject the changes, when you use the auto-complete option in the address bar.  

Rather type it, when you access these sites.  

[thesmallgod]

Sorry for your lost coin but I do not think you can retrieve or get back your coin. The rate at which people get hacked through electrum wallet this is day is alarming and I wont advise anybody to use the wallet. Since you said you do not update your wallet probably the wallet in your system has been affected by malware that automatically change your sending address when you want to send coin. Also you have not told us where you initially downloaded the wallet. If it is not directly from electrum website, that might be the source of the problem you have experienced.

[VitKoyn]

If you haven't clicked any links that prompted during a transaction and you're sure that you downloaded the wallet from Electrum's official website then there is a possibility that another person have access to your wallet/private key, is there someone had accessed the device you are using to store your Bitcoins before the time this happened? If none, then scan your device if there's a malware in it, possible that someone might also have access to your device remotely.

Does anyone know if there is a way to get back the funds or have any advice ?

Unfortunately there's no way you can get those Bitcoins back because it is already sent to another Bitcoin address that you probably don't own. My only advice to you is to move on and know your mistakes and learn from it so this will not happen to you again in the future.

[Lucius]

There wasn't any such message pop up asking for an update or trouble with transaction, they just emptied the wallet straight after the funds came in. that's why I'm so confused as to why or how it's happened.
And no I have not upgraded, I downloaded the file from electrum.org which is the latest version.

You probably have fake Electrum wallet, and hacker is wait a moment in which there will be some funds in your wallet. If wallet was empty before you could not even know it was fake. Second option is that you maybe have download good wallet, but your PC is infected with remote access trojan, which gives complete control of your PC to hacker.

Bitcoin can not just disappear for no reason, so let this be a lesson for you and maybe for some others that we all need start thinking in a smarter way to outsmart the hackers. My advice is to invest some money in hardware wallet and prevent this kind of thing happen again.

[aoluain]

Sorry for your loss OP!

Obviously as has been posted you wont get your funds back.
I never thought that you could have downloaded a fake wallet.

For the benefit of others that we/they wont make the same mistake
and that there is a sharing on knowledge could you post up
exactly what happened, where you downloaded it etc.

It just shows that the scammers have many opportunities to
claim our funds, its like they have traps laid all over the web
waiting to catch us off guard.

There wasn't any such message pop up asking for an update or trouble with transaction, they just emptied the wallet straight after the funds came in. that's why I'm so confused as to why or how it's happened.
And no I have not upgraded, I downloaded the file from electrum.org which is the latest version.

-snip-
 My advice is to invest some money in hardware wallet and prevent this kind of thing happen again.

absolutely, I'll bet the $100 trezor sounds like a real deal now
that funds are gone.

I also use Electrum but for temporary funds only like the proceeds
of my signature campaign or funds I use to buy odds and ends,
otherwise the coins go to the Trezor.

[pat4cryptoreal]

It is very sad, you can only see where your fund move to but you can not take it back. You need to be extremely careful and vigilant. 

[progamegamegame]

Help PLEASE, just made sending bitcoins through a mixer, clicked send a window appeared where update was written and so on, there were no versions download links, I clicked ok. I clicked send bitcoin to the address, after which the window clicked ok, I started updating version , I look and the translation has already gone, after which I started watching the transfer transaction, sending has already taken place, but bitcoins have not yet arrived at the address I have already received 3 hours and not one confirmed transaction please help the guys, I don’t understand me or what? I didn’t follow the links by any means, a small window popped up and I clicked ok and that's it!!!!http://http://

[kxz1498]

Help PLEASE, just made sending bitcoins through a mixer, clicked send a window appeared where update was written and so on, there were no versions download links, I clicked ok. I clicked send bitcoin to the address, after which the window clicked ok, I started updating version , I look and the translation has already gone, after which I started watching the transfer transaction, sending has already taken place, but bitcoins have not yet arrived at the address I have already received 3 hours and not one confirmed transaction please help the guys, I don’t understand me or what? I didn’t follow the links by any means, a small window popped up and I clicked ok and that's it!!!!http://http://

You downloaded the update through the program. Sorry man.

[amneziahaze]

No, this is not true. Electrum isn't safe. Sorry.

First btc i buy in 2011, so if i have same app, ga, 2fa, usb-backup's, knowledge, experience and i lost my coins yesterday just like that from original electrum - something is wrong. And its gone, i have diversification and money managament, but i cant trade now.

Someone steal low ammount, so for me this is paranoid. I read now about it, many people just hacked.  

[TryNinja]

No, this is not true. Electrum isn't safe. Sorry.

First btc i buy in 2011, so if i have same app, ga, 2fa, usb-backup's, knowledge, experience and i lost my coins yesterday just like that from original electrum - something is wrong. And its gone, i have diversification and money managament, but i cant trade now.

Someone steal low ammount, so for me this is paranoid. I read now about it, many people just hacked.  

Well, unfortunately you messed up somewhere. I use Electrum almost every day and my coins are intact. Electrum isn't the problem (trust me).

You must have:
a) downloaded a fake wallet.
b) downloaded a malware.
c) saved your seed online (where you shouldn't).

Or something else. These are the main reasons people get hacked.