Upgrade Stole My Bitcoin

[Rex717]

It's my first message and I'm crying...

I had about 3.5 bitcoin, I tried to use some a short while ago and got a message that there is a compulsory upgrade.

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

It immediately said there was not enough funds to transfer the amount of ALL my coins but continued trying to process it until it eventually said there is a zero balance.

BOOM! EVERYTHING IS GONE!!

:-(

[1715088575]

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[1715088575]

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[1715088575]

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[o_e_l_e_o]

Unfortunately you have fallen victim to a phishing attack and have been tricked in to downloading a fake copy of Electrum. You can read more about this phishing attack here: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968

You should only ever download Electrum from the official site (https://electrum.org/#download), and you should always verify the signature before installing and opening your wallets. See the guides on how to do this at the end of this post.

Sorry for your loss OP. You could file a police report or similar, but this scam has been going on for some time and as far as I am aware no one has ever managed to recover their stolen coins. You obviously need to delete all traces of the fake Electrum from your system and install the real copy by following the steps above.


https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download/
https://bitzuma.com/posts/how-to-verify-an-electrum-download-on-mac/

[Reid]

You are using Electrum.
Try seeking help here.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=98.0

Oh  o_e_l_e_o above already answered your question.
Sorry for your loss.
Damn! The post from github is December 2018 and it is still happening.

[jerrison]

It's my first message and I'm crying...

I had about 3.5 bitcoin, I tried to use some a short while ago and got a message that there is a compulsory upgrade.

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

It immediately said there was not enough funds to transfer the amount of ALL my coins but continued trying to process it until it eventually said there is a zero balance.

BOOM! EVERYTHING IS GONE!!

:-(

so sorry for your loss but if you could trace the details of the transaction, perharps, you can flag and report it so people can be on the lookout for transactions coming from the receipient address.  Phishing attacks have been around for sometime and I have personally been a victim of phishing attack on two occasions and it has made me wiser, though, my funds never got retireved but then it has further advised me on how to safeguard my only wallet.

[bitmover]

You are using Electrum.
Try seeking help here.

It is useless to seek help. Nobody can help him.

Those coins were already transferred to another address. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible.

It's my first message and I'm crying...

I had about 3.5 bitcoin, I tried to use some a short while ago and got a message that there is a compulsory upgrade.

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

There is one thing you can do: Get informed.

You had 3.5 bitcoins. For about 0.006 btc you can buy a ledger nano (https://shop.ledger.com/ buy only in this website).
The price of the proper security equipment for your investment is about 0.17% of what you invested.

A hardware wallet is, without a doubt, the best and most secure way to store your bitcoins. I strongly recommend one.

[gmakaveli]

Damn, that's a hard lesson to learn man. Just don't get discouraged, if you believe in BTC it'll all eventually worth it!

[sunsilk]

You are using Electrum.
Try seeking help here.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=98.0

He downloaded a fake electrum app, electrum had a warning on their website above to be careful downloading into other sources.

Sorry about what happened to you OP but there is no way to get back those bitcoins. 3.5BTC is a big amount and I know what you are feeling right now. Did you just searched through google the word electrum and didn't go directly to the official Electrum website?

Most cases did like that and downloaded the wrong electrum.

[philipma1957laptop]

It's my first message and I'm crying...

I had about 3.5 bitcoin, I tried to use some a short while ago and got a message that there is a compulsory upgrade.

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

It immediately said there was not enough funds to transfer the amount of ALL my coins but continued trying to process it until it eventually said there is a zero balance.

BOOM! EVERYTHING IS GONE!!

:-(

Okay I will assume op is telling the truth.

Lesson number 1) do not have all your coins in 1 wallet

[electronicash]

3.5 BTC is a huge amount. sorry for the loss.

damn its just a very unforgiving world. you lost it all and you don't have anyone to turn to but the forum. this is why i don't trust any emails i got and would rather research first who else got some message same as what i got. you'd have to be very vigilant when it comes to crypto that even the emails from the exchanges you signedup might not really be from them at all.

[rexxarofmoknathal]

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

BOOM! EVERYTHING IS GONE!!

:-(

Sad to see that another mate has fallen to the hands of phishing attacks. This is so common that it makes me want to cry too. From now on, never act on upgrades especially when it comes from softwares you downloaded of the internet. The electrum wallet like any other wallets should always be downloaded from their official sites, if in doubt better ask first before it is too late - unfortunately, like in your case

[hosseinimr93]

Did you just searched through google the word electrum and didn't go directly to the official Electrum website?

This is not the case here.
According to what stated by OP, he/she got a message regarding updating Electrum and fell for the scam.
Old versions of Electrum let the servers to display a message when users broadcast a transaction. This feature can be easily abused. Servers can ask the users to install a fake version of Electrum instead of a real update.

A link to more details about this phishing attack posted above by o_e_l_e_o.

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968

[dunfida]

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

BOOM! EVERYTHING IS GONE!!

:-(

Sad to see that another mate has fallen to the hands of phishing attacks. This is so common that it makes me want to cry too. From now on, never act on upgrades especially when it comes from softwares you downloaded of the internet. The electrum wallet like any other wallets should always be downloaded from their official sites, if in doubt better ask first before it is too late - unfortunately, like in your case

People should really mind even on the most basic things to avoid these kind of situation or circumstances.I didnt really expect that there are still people who got victimized
on this classic phishing attempt via Electrum updates yet this had been known already in the past. Damn, 3.5 bitcoin isnt something an amount that can easily be ignored.
@OP, sorry for your loss but no one could able to help you out since tx's are irreversible and theres nothing we can do about.

[rdbase]

If holding anything more than 0.01btc which is around $100 by todays price. You should be using a hardware wallet since they cost less than this to purchase one and hold more than what this device costs you is worth the piece of mind to not rely on software related ones or webwallets which is as worse as holding them on an exchange.
Only use them if you are planning to transfer any sort of cryptocurrency between access points but hold any large amount over $100 worth of crypto on a hardware wallet.
Preferably one that is air gapped. Meaning not connected to the internet 24/7.

[yhiaali3]

This is really unfortunate. I don’t know exactly how it happened. Did you download the Electrium Wallet from the official website? How have hackers managed to hack into the wallet and demand mandatory update?
It is also bad to keep all the money in one wallet only.

[DarkDays]

If your funds were stolen, then you should be able to share the transaction ID for the tx which saw your Bitcoin moved.

If not, then it could be possible that the latest version of the wallet simply updated to SegWit and lost legacy support, or that you just created a new seed.

Please post the transaction ID for the transfer here and we'll see if we can help, if you can't provide this because there isn't one, then your funds are likely still safe.

[Jating]

Most likely he fell for a fake Electrum. Remember that a few days ago, Electrum just upgraded and release a new version 4.0.1. So we don't know where he the OP gets the message, maybe in an email because base on my experienced, there are no message in ver 3.3.8 that you need to upgrade to 4.0.1. But if you know that they have a new release, you have to manually update the version by yourself, download the latest and then verify. And this is where the OP might have fallen, he got a message not from the official Electrum, but from a cyber criminal.

[crzy]

If you go to the real site of Electrum you can see the warning their that you should not fall into a fake Electrum account and never download anything aside from the real site. I’m sorry buddy but you’re a victim of the scammers and the you download the wrong file which corrupted your private details. Electrum is a good wallet but there’s a lot of phishing site for Electrum, this is a very unfortunate to you buddy.

[Hypnosis00]

What a tricking message just to fool someone new to the market. This will happen over and over again tends to lost potential investors away from crypto because of these phishing sites and scamming activities.

BTW, It is really sorry to have this bad experience, you can't bring it back to you as it was totally gone. However, it is probably not the end of your crypto journey, I understand it is really a big loss but I believe also that you can still have that amount of you never quite. But of course, you should use reliable sites and be careful in using a wallet, much better to use a hard wallet to give additional safety and the most important it, you don't need to reply someone/strangers that sends a message to you in regards to wallet upgrade or anytime coz it redirects you in the fake site.

[Rengga Jati]

I had about 3.5 bitcoin, I tried to use some a short while ago and got a message that there is a compulsory upgrade.

First, so sorry to hear that, and hopefully, you are really tough to face this incident.
Second, you own big amount of BTC, 3,5BTC, and you don't know about storing it on the hardware? Sorry, not to blame you, but this is am kind of very important lesson.
Whether this story is really real or not, but this can be a lesson for all related to the safety of storing BTC. Before having BTC, basics like this should be understood, related to volatility and security of how to store BTC safely. In addition, the most basic thing is about the new information that we must check again and again, as faced by the OP, namely the number of phishing that causes loss of assets.

Unfortunately you have fallen victim to a phishing attack and have been tricked in to downloading a fake copy of Electrum. You can read more about this phishing attack here: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968

yeah there is nothing to be able to be done to recover the funds because it has been lost exactly. This is not the first, not the first case and this happens very often. theft and fraud in the crypto world also very often occur with models that are often almost similar. Should this always be a lesson for everyone? Care must be taken in this matter, no matter how assets.

[DoublerHunter]

It's my first message and I'm crying...

I had about 3.5 bitcoin, I tried to use some a short while ago and got a message that there is a compulsory upgrade.

I downloaded and installed the upgrade on my iMac, restarted Electrum, and then it happened...

It immediately said there was not enough funds to transfer the amount of ALL my coins but continued trying to process it until it eventually said there is a zero balance.

BOOM! EVERYTHING IS GONE!!

:-(

^ No, do not click the popup message on the electrum wallet that said you need to upgrade your wallet to another version. By the way, what electrum wallet version you use? Because the latest update is 4.0.2 https://electrum.org/#download. You can directly check to the official website of the electrum.
Nevertheless, there is no way to return your bitcoin loss and sorry about that. Next time, be sure that you will learn from this mistake. Be vigilant of all times and don't be neglect.