Someone Sent Me Some Coins, Could Be A Mistake

[Newchanka]

I was surprised when I checked my email yesterday and saw a deposit alert for my exchange wallet. I naturally thought that a client paid for a service since I run a writing service and also own a news site. However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Update:

Someone said it could be a phishing attempt in the comment. It's not. I have actually checked the exchange wallet and the fund is there.

[Hispo]

I was surprised when I checked my email yesterday and say a deposit alert for my exchange wallet. I naturally thought that a client paid for a service since I run a writing service and also own a news site. However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Are you sure this is not some kind of phishing attempt?
I have to dealt some some fake deposit e-mails coming to my inbox claming I was just received thousands of dollars in BTC, hoping I click on anything on the e-mail so they can either infect my computer with some malware or trick me to type down my credentials /seed phrase.  

Be careful and do not click on anything on that email, check your exchange account directly and not through a link on your inbox.

[PX-Z]

I'll leave it as is, unless someone sent a request regarding that matter. Because there's no assurance that the sender address is owned by the one who mistakenly sent to your address, like he use an exchange to send that crypto to your address.  So sending back the amount won't help. If no one still contact you then i'll take it as a donation.

If it's okay, how much the amount is, and in what cryptocurrency. I hope it's not a dust amount or just experienced dust attack.

[cabron]

I was surprised when I checked my email yesterday and say a deposit alert for my exchange wallet. I naturally thought that a client paid for a service since I run a writing service and also own a news site. However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Are you sure this is not some kind of phishing attempt?
I have to dealt some some fake deposit e-mails coming to my inbox claming I was just received thousands of dollars in BTC, hoping I click on anything on the e-mail so they can either infect my computer with some malware or trick me to type down my credentials /seed phrase.  

Be careful and do not click on anything on that email, check your exchange account directly and not through a link on your inbox.

Same here. I received an email telling a deposit was successful in my Kraken account. I have not used my Kraken account for 4 years. Its impossible that someone will send some coins to it. But I wouldn't try to recover my password either as I don't wanna use the exchange anymore. If it turns out to be true then it will just stay there until I will login into it.

Its why I ignored to notification because it could be another scam. I wonder if someone received it as well and found they really got some coins. Free coins still is good.

[kamvreto]

you have to check it again in detail, is it really an official email or a fake email that spreads phishing links. because I often receive emails like that but then I ignore.
Please include an image to make it clearer and we can here judge correctly. If it's just a story we can't fully know what happened to your account.
Currently, many scammers are starting to disguise themselves as anyone, making wrong transfer scenarios or other things that will make you interested in following the instructions.

[bitcampaign]

I was surprised when I checked my email yesterday and say a deposit alert for my exchange wallet. I naturally thought that a client paid for a service since I run a writing service and also own a news site. However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

make sure it's not a phishing email and don't click on your email link, make sure the exchange site where the deposit was detected and see if there really is funds coming in, make sure to remember that you may have missed something, for example your friend sent money to you to pay debt or other, it's best to wait 30 days to not use the money

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

Besides a potential phishing attempt, which one always has to be wary of and check/contrast on the original site (not following the links on the emails in general), Kraken has been sending emails as such as of late as can be seen in this blog entry:

https://blog.kraken.com/post/15482/ethereumpow-ethw-trading-starts-now-token-distribution/

Check to see if the above is the scenario (scroll the blog entry to see the email they sent), and even so, make sure it’s not something dodgy trying to take advantage of the depicted scenario.

<…>

I presume that once you saw the notification, you actually logged into the Exchange and actually saw the funds there, on the Exchange itself. Is that so?
That would therefore be a different scenario to what is generally being speculated with here.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

I was surprised when I checked my email yesterday and say a deposit alert for my exchange wallet. I naturally thought that a client paid for a service since I run a writing service and also own a news site. However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

You just have to be careful, because nobody will ever give you a penny satoshi of Bitcoin for free. Because it's slightly impossible to send Bitcoin to the wrong address with just an alteration of a single letter. That's if I'm not making a mistake but I stand to be corrected. However, if I was to be in your shoe, the best thing I'll do is be patient till after 7 days, and if nobody then failed to indicate to have made a transfer, then the BTC automatically becomes yours, because since you run a writing service, an anonymous fellow or previous client may have decided to show you love today as a result of the quality of your service. But please be aware of scams and phishing sites for security reasons.

[Bitstar_coin]

Except you decided to send the coins back to the wallet out of your good mind, there is pretty nothing else to do. if you are sure the coins were not from any of your clients you render service to then it is up to you whether to keep them or send them back.

[logfiles]

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

I would send it back or contact support. At the end of the day, you are using a centralized exchange and if the money was erroneously credited to your account, then it's a matter of time before the exchange team realize the error and revert the transactions.

You don't want to fall in trouble for spending money that was not yours and above all, we all as human should have some integrity. One should be honest even when he is anonymous or is not being watched.

[hosseinimr93]

Someone said it could be a phishing attempt in the comment. It's not. I have actually checked the exchange wallet and the fund is there.

If you used the link provided on the email, did you check if you are in the real website?
If yes, can you tell us what exchange are you talking about?
It's possible that the exchange is a scam and they ask you to deposit some fund to be able to make a withdrawal.

[DaveF]

Or someone just sent it to an old address in their notes:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5378231.msg58800558#msg58800558

It happens, probably more then we think it does. Copy -> paste -> send -> OH SHIT!!!

If they know who owns the address they sent to, and they figure out that it went to the wrong person they will probably eventually contact you. If it was for a smaller amount and they don't have a clue where / why they had that address in their notes then you may never hear from them.

-Dave

[PrimeNumber7]

Are you sure this is not some kind of phishing attempt?

I get these kinds of emails all the time, but they are all phishing attempts. Sometimes I get notifications that I have received a deposit for services I do not have an account with. Most likely, this is a phishing attempt.

I was surprised when I checked my email yesterday and saw a deposit alert for my exchange wallet. I naturally thought that a client paid for a service since I run a writing service and also own a news site. However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Notwithstanding the phishing issue, you should improve your practices regarding handling crypto.

1 - Most exchanges will expect you to deposit coin from an address you personally control, and that you will not have a third party deposit coin to your exchange account on your behalf. You should not have your customers deposit coin directly to your exchange account.
2 - Based on your post, it appears you have a single deposit address that you have given to many customers to pay you. Assuming the unlikely event that you have actually received a deposit, you have no real way of knowing who has actually paid you. If you have given this address to two customers, either (or both) of your customers could be watching the address for transactions and could claim they have just paid you. You should not give the same address to multiple people for them to send you money.
3 - It is really best to go a step further than 2, and to give a new address for each transaction you are due to receive. In other words, don't reuse addresses.

[sheenshane]

Update:

Someone said it could be a phishing attempt in the comment. It's not. I have actually checked the exchange wallet and the fund is there.

Make sure you didn't click the link that was sent to your email, it could be a fishing link that could be hacked your exchange account and might get your account information.  But you already checked it and if nothing happens you'll be fine.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

You can withdraw the fund from the exchange to your non-custodial wallet and after that, you might contact the CS of that exchange and ask where the funds come from and you'll return it once it's confirmed the real owner via the sender's address.

Yes, possible this happen and it could be a coincidence.  Copy-pasting and send without checking the right address.

[Strongkored]

Someone said it could be a phishing attempt in the comment. It's not. I have actually checked the exchange wallet and the fund is there.

Looks like it's a notification from Kraken exchange (I got it too, but haven't checked the account yet) regarding ETHW forked token distributions to all kraken accounts that have ETH funds in their accounts, and since you said that the coins are credited to your account so you should be able to provide more detailed information

[YOSHIE]

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Sending the wrong coin has happened to other members here, besides you, I've seen a thread made by an honest member, but forgot where the topic was, but it happened in this forum.

You've already created a thread here, I'm sure some irresponsible member once sent a PM for you, it's mine and so on, be careful if you don't ask them for valid proof, they could be fraud, for that, if it's wrong send someone who says it's mine.
My advice, if you want to return it.
1. Have them sign the coin address/verify.
2. Have them take a photo of the shipping address, if they are sending from a wallet or exchange.

If they can prove, of course the coin is theirs, if not just leave it in your wallet, maybe it's your windfall.

Notes:
If the coin/token you received is worthless and has no value it's probably phishing, don't connect your wallet to their contract address, it could drain your balance.

[NeuroticFish]

However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.
[~snip~]

Update:
Someone said it could be a phishing attempt in the comment. It's not. I have actually checked the exchange wallet and the fund is there.

I was expecting it's phishing. You say it's not. OK.
I was expecting that if it's for real the customer will contact you in a few days. I see he didn't.

One thing that comes to my mind is that you can check on the blockchain if you've received in the past money from that same address (although most wallets don't reuse addresses).
Another thing would be you simply send back the coins to the address you've received from.
Or you can wait until the one who made the mistake figures it out and contacts you (but in that case, as said, he has to prove ownership of that address).


Is it a big amount?

[DaveF]

However, its 24 hours and no one has indicated that they paid for a service.
[~snip~]

Update:
Someone said it could be a phishing attempt in the comment. It's not. I have actually checked the exchange wallet and the fund is there.

I was expecting it's phishing. You say it's not. OK.
I was expecting that if it's for real the customer will contact you in a few days. I see he didn't.

One thing that comes to my mind is that you can check on the blockchain if you've received in the past money from that same address (although most wallets don't reuse addresses).
Another thing would be you simply send back the coins to the address you've received from.
Or you can wait until the one who made the mistake figures it out and contacts you (but in that case, as said, he has to prove ownership of that address).


Is it a big amount?

I would not just send it back to a random address. If it came from and exchange or any centralized service it's just going to go into their hot wallet.
Yes, by jumping through a lot of steps it might be recoverable, or they may just say thank you for your donation. The staff is getting beer & pizza on you tonight.

If the OP has not been contacted at this point, I would treat it as the same think, a donation.
Assuming it's not for a life altering amount of money, then I would sit on the funds for a while before spending them. No, they are not obligated to give it back, but it's still the right thing to do.

*Also keep in mind, 'life altering amounts' vary from person to person. So there is that too.

-Dave

[Darker45]

24 hours is probably a short time for one of your clients to finally inform you that he/she has already sent you your payment. But since it's already 5 days now that you received the unexpected funds, has there still been no one who communicated with you?

If you still haven't heard from anyone yet, I'd rather just keep it there for a while. I guess the sender would finally come forward any day. He/she has probably just missed informing you. It's probably for your services rendered, or perhaps an advance payment. Either way, it is probably something that's really for you. Unless the funds is that huge that you can't consider it a payment.

[rat03gopoh]

If it is a large amount, I'll issue it from my exchange to a different address (self-custody). Anyway I don't wanna be bothered with unknown income that I have to cover storage/growth costs like taxes.

Maybe I'll spend them someday before the coins become completely worthless, depending on how local rules allow me to legally use money from random people.