Electrum 3.0.1 - Popup to upgrade version 4.0 - what to do?

[Nourin]

Hey guys,

It has been a while since I used Electrum, but today I wanted to send some BTC and logged back in.

When I tried to send the payment, I got a popup saying that I have to upgrade the wallet to version 4.0, and the popup had some links to download files for separate OS, such as windows, linux etc.. I clicked one of the links, and got the message that the download failed. After doing so, I figured I would be able to update the client through the application itself, but could not find a way to do so. I headed to the Electrum website andfound that this was a malicious popup and that the latest version is 3.3.6.

This is the situation:
My existing Electrum wallet is version 3.0.1
I most likely clicked a malicious link, my browser indicated that download failed, but malware bytes stopped some connection to malicious websites since. (though no threats were detected when I scanned my laptop).
I did not install a version 4 manually (maybe the "failed download" did so automatically).
I have not logged in using my pass in another version of Electrum wallet 3.0.1, and have not entered the pw since potentially downloading the malicious installer.
I have not used my seed anywhere what so ever.

My assumption is the following: My laptop is most likely infected with some shitty malware, but I'm not sure if they are able to access my BTC.

How do I proceed. Can I just download the latest Electrum version on another computer, use seed to install wallet there? Then create new wallet / seed and transfer the BTC just to be safe?

Any thoughts? Fingers crossed I'm not too far gone, reading others' messages send chills down my spine as I don't want to lose my holdings..

[1714702842]

1714702842

[Lucius]

You seem to have failed to download fake version of Electrum wallet, and this is great thing for you. Since you have another PC, just to be safe download new wallet only from https://electrum.org/#home and recover your coins with seed.

You can scan your old PC in safe mode (for better results) , but in most cases recommendation is to format disk and install clean OS.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Here's what I would do to be 100% safe:

Use a clean device
Download the latest version of Electrum only from https://electrum.org/#download
Verify your download by following the instructions here: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download/
Create a brand new wallet, write down and securely store the seed
Import your old wallet from your seed, and then transfer everything out of the old wallet and to the new wallet
Once this is done, and your coins are secured in a new wallet, then you can worry about cleaning and reinstalling Electrum on your laptop.

If what you say is true, and malwarebytes blocked the download, then you would possibly be safe just installing the latest Electrum version and taking it from there, but to me that wouldn't be worth the risk. Until your coins are secured as I have detailed above, I wouldn't even touch Electrum on your laptop, just to be extra safe.

You might also want to consider adding an extra layer of protection by using Electrum with a hardware wallet.