wrong address

[mimosizz]

i don't know how the fuck i did that holy shit. i was trying to send 0.01 btc to my friend as he wanted to check out how bitcoin works. he sent me the address last night. i had the address copied and pasted in sending tab and sent. but my friend said he didn't receive. when i explored, i discovered i sent in a wrong address. how the fuck that shit happened? i still remember i had the address copied.

[1714940400]

1714940400

[1714940400]

1714940400

[1714940400]

1714940400

[1714940400]

1714940400

[1714940400]

1714940400

[1714940400]

1714940400

[Pmalek]

Hard to say without more information.
You might be infected with a clipboard hijacker. A type of malware that replaces the address you copy with one belonging to a fraudster. Try and copy and paste any address in your wallet software, and see if it's the same one.

When we are on the subject of software and wallets, which client did you use to send the coins from and where did you download it from?
Are you absolutely sure your friend sent you the correct address?
is it possible that you did some other work with bitcoin and addresses while copy/pasting that address from your friend, which could have resulted in you accidently copy-pasting a wrong address instead of the one from your friend?

[mimosizz]

i don't usually share private info. sorry if it sounds weird to you. i can't share you the transaction details with you though the wallet isn't a private one. i use this wallet for small transactions only.
i'm using electrum atm. afaik it's safe. i have downloaded this from authorized website- electrum.org
i had no transaction within last few days other than the one i sent to my friend. i didn't have any other bitcoin address around at that time.
is this info enough? i guess you are right that i have been infected with malware. gotta get out of this.

[Pmalek]

You don't have to share any of your private info, but there is an easy way to check if you are infected with clipboard malware. Just take any address from a blockchain explorer, copy it, and paste it into your electrum wallet like you would normally do when you create a transaction. If the pasted address changes and is a different one from the address you copied, your computer is infected. It it's the same, it's not a clipboard hijacker.

[LoyceV]

It sure sounds like this: How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Possibilities include:

Your friend copied the wrong address and sent it to you.
Your friend copied the correct address, but clipboard malware on his machine changed it to the wrong address when it sent it to you. (Do you still have the message your friend sent you containing the address? Is it the correct address?)

You copied the wrong address.
You copied the correct address, but clipboard malware on your machine changed it to the wrong address when you pasted it in to your wallet. (Try copy and pasting the address again as Pmalek has suggested. Is it changed?)

You have a malicious wallet. (Did you verify your Electrum download?)
Your communications were intercepted. (As above, do you still have the original message your friend sent you?)

This is why you should always double check everything, but for now I would be thinking about reformatting my hard drive.

[nc50lc]

-snip- guess you are right that i have been infected with malware. gotta get out of this.

There's a fast way to test if you've been infected.
Get a random address from your wallet, paste it to the send tab/text file; if the pasted address is different, then it's the culprit.
If it's your friend, tell him to check the address he sent to you (not in the wallet but in the message) if it matched with any of his wallet's addresses.

Note: Check all the characters, the common clipboard malware can generate similar addresses with same first and last few characters.

[DannyHamilton]

In addition to the clipboard hijacker malware, there is another common possibility.  It is possible that you failed to copy the address when you attempted to.  In that case, whatever was the last thing you copied would still be on the clipboard.  So, if you had recently copied a bitcoin address from somewhere for some other purpose, your paste would have pasted that older address from your clipboard instead of the new one that you were attempting to use.

If you find that you are not infected by malware, then try and think of where you might have copied that address from.  If it's another friend, or a trustworthy business, you might be able to get them to send it back.

(Note: I describe this possibility from personal experience.  It's happened to me more than once in the past 9 years. Fortunately, each time that it's happened, I've been able to remember who the other address belonged to, and they've been willing to send the bitcoins back.)

[RapTarX]

So, if you had recently copied a bitcoin address from somewhere for some other purpose, your paste would have pasted that older address from your clipboard instead of the new one that you were attempting to use.

It is very possible and it happened with me few times though I was lucky enough to have another look before sending. But here in this case, OP already stated he didn’t send fund anyone within last few days. Therefore, it's sure that OP has been infected with malware; not a mistakenly copy/paste.

Probably you have missed this-

i had no transaction within last few days other than the one i sent to my friend. i didn't have any other bitcoin address around at that time.

[Pmalek]

In addition to the clipboard hijacker malware, there is another common possibility.  It is possible that you failed to copy the address when you attempted to.  In that case, whatever was the last thing you copied would still be on the clipboard.  So, if you had recently copied a bitcoin address from somewhere for some other purpose, your paste would have pasted that older address from your clipboard instead of the new one that you were attempting to use.

I though about that as well. That's why I asked him this:

is it possible that you did some other work with bitcoin and addresses while copy/pasting that address from your friend, which could have resulted in you accidently copy-pasting a wrong address instead of the one from your friend?

Op never mentioned if he was using the mobile or desktop version of Electrum. One thing I have noticed with my mobile phone (it's not related to bitcoin or Electrum though), is that sometimes when I copy a link to send to a friend, my phone sends the wrong link of something I visited and copied before that last link I sent. If that can happen with normal link to videos or articles, I would think it can happen to addresses as well. I sometimes see that with Facebook or Instagram videos. I copy a specific link, send it to a friend, and he receives the link to the profile page of the poster and content creator instead. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.