They sent me btc to my wallet they were available and then they disappeared!

[traderethereum]

I bought an amount of BTC from a stranger and made my payment in cash! I checked to see if the BTC was available and if they were, after a day they just disappeared. Does somebody know anything about this? What happened? What is this situation called or something like that?

Without any informations further, we can not know what exactly is happening.
You need to tell us where you buy btc and how much satoshi you bought and if necessary, you can paste your wallets here so we can check it for you to see what is happening.
But if you do not want to explain more, we can conclude that they scammed you and there is nothing you can do because they already disappeared and you do not know where they are going and who they are.
We can advise you to be more careful next time and make sure you get a seller with a good rating if you buy bitcoin at a third-party service.

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[_act_]

You have been scammed mate, never deal with strangers because even people that you know can scam you talk more of a stranger that you don't know where to get him. Next time buy bitcoin from an exchange and use p2p method. There is nothing one can do to help your situation, this is a hard lesson for you. Always make sure that the transaction is confirmed before send the funds.

You can do a business with a stranger in some cases. People on this forum can be strangers to themselves, but that does not mean they can not trade bitcoin. If you have a reputable escrow, you can proceed in a bitcoin and fiat exchange with the stranger. Another reason I can do a business with a stranger is if the stranger prefer to send first and agreed for the transaction to have at least one confirmation before I should send money.

[hopenotlate]

Always check things on blockchain using an explorer, never rely on third party wallets/apps/sites : judging by the poor info provided most likely we are talking about a double spending case.

[_act_]

Always check things on blockchain using an explorer, never rely on third party wallets/apps/sites : judging by the poor info provided most likely we are talking about a double spending case.

You do not have to check the blockchain explorer for your transaction when you are not using a paper wallet or wallet that you do not want to connect to the internet, online wallets have a transaction history and you can be able to know if the transaction is confirmed or not on the wallet transaction history. What you can say is that he should check and recheck that the transaction is confirmed already before accepting the transaction.

[tabas]

If it's not broadcasted on the network then it didn't happened. Unless you did this through offchain like the seller's account from an exchange and your account from the same exchange. That means that if it's just shown to you that the balance was there, that doesn't mean that it was transferred to you. Maybe that guy just shown you his walllet and that's what he has sold to you but if that's the case, that's not in your custody because he still knows the private keys of that wallet. But it's best if you can add more details on how did actually happened. Either hacked, setup by the seller or you're completely have no idea what the heck happened and you can't explain it.

[hopenotlate]

Always check things on blockchain using an explorer, never rely on third party wallets/apps/sites : judging by the poor info provided most likely we are talking about a double spending case.

You do not have to check the blockchain explorer for your transaction when you are not using a paper wallet or wallet that you do not want to connect to the internet, online wallets have a transaction history and you can be able to know if the transaction is confirmed or not on the wallet transaction history. What you can say is that he should check and recheck that the transaction is confirmed already before accepting the transaction.

Sure you are right, but ss as we know basically nothing about what original poster used I was referring to the most general case ( for example he might have used an exchange address or a gambling site deposit address or whatever) so to be 100% on the safe side check the most public and least manipulable infos available out there to check if a transaction actually went trough.

[satscraper]

Always check things on blockchain using an explorer, never rely on third party wallets/apps/sites : judging by the poor info provided most likely we are talking about a double spending case.

OP said that the coins he received have disappeared from the wallet "after a day" . Doable spending  in this case could be only possible if the coming transaction that brought those coins to his wallet was not confirmed during that day otherwise  doable spending could not be possible. Thus OP should tell us whether that initial transaction with BTC he bought was confirmed and  if yes, whether his wallet contains  outgoing transaction that steals his btc.

[Z390]

How come you do such business with a stranger? You manage to confuse them to pay up first before you send them money and they fooled you because they know you don't know too much about Bitcoin transaction.

This is what happens to people that believe they have the money, but not want to venture into having knowledge first, now after you become a victim you find your way to this forum seeking for help.

Unfortunately, it's too late, the scammer use your lack of knowledge to rob you in a broad daylight, next time always put learning first in everything you want to do.

Only release funds after the Bitcoin transaction is confirmed with at least 2 confirmations, you should ignore buying Bitcoin for now and instead spend time to know about Bitcoin itself and it's wallet operational, sorry for your loss.

[Yamane_Keto]

Copy the Bitcoin address from which you received that balance in blockchair.com. The balance that appears here is your balance. If the currencies are present, then it is either a synchronization problem or you made a mistake. If they are not present, then either you have been defrauded (the old transaction has become invalid) or Someone gained access to your private key.

[hosseinimr93]

You do not have to check the blockchain explorer for your transaction when you are not using a paper wallet or wallet that you do not want to connect to the internet, online wallets have a transaction history and you can be able to know if the transaction is confirmed or not on the wallet transaction history.

You can check your transaction on block explorers, so that you get information about that from different nodes.

It's possible that the node your wallet is connected to is not synced and you want to get information from other nodes.
It's possible that the node your wallets is connected to has dropped your transaction from its mempool for some reason and you want to know whether other nodes have done the same thing or they still have your transaction in their mempool.

If I have received a transaction and it doesn't show in my wallet, the first thing I will do is check the transaction in block explorers (This is assuming I don't care about my privacy).

[NotATether]

If the transaction was visible for a full day and then it disappeared, that means the other party used a very low fee, because most normal fees would make the transaction confirmed within a few hours max.

One of the disadvantages of bitcoin >>>"RBF" which is a good and bad feature about having this feature as it makes double spending so easy.

With the current low transaction fees do we still have transactions taking all day to get confirmed thought such a tx should be confirmed within a few hours at the most.

RBF is a two-edged sword, just like most other things in cryptocurrency.

It's primary purpose is to help you confirm a stuck transaction that is caught in a deluge of other higher-paying transactions, but it can also be used for scamming purposes.

Overall I think that pretty much any software or item can be abused for the purpose of scamming others anyway. I mean, even telephone calls.

[hopenotlate]

If I have received a transaction and it doesn't show in my wallet, the first thing I will do is check the transaction in block explorers (This is assuming I don't care about my privacy).

Going a bit offtopic here, sorry for this, may you please explain how checking block explorers can compromise our privacy? Guess you are referring to your ISP knowing you are checking a specifical address on block explorer ( it doesn't imply you control that addy) or is there anything else ?

[Zaguru12]

By the way, why are you doing business with a stranger? If you can confirm that this person is a Stranger, why do business with them? As a crypto newbie, you can't tell me that you don't know about crypto exchanges where you can safely buy your Bitcoin with Fiat.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with transacting with a stranger once you know what you’re doing. In this case is only the lack of proper knowledge by the OP that caused him this. A learned person will have at least opted to get at least one block confirmation before giving out the money. With OP’s lack of knowledge it would have even been easier to get scammed through exchanges self because he would still done same thing

I think there is more to this story than you are telling us, I think this stranger promised to sell the BTC for a cheaper rate to you, probably a 50% off, because what can make you buy Bitcoin from a stranger?

Can you provide screenshot of you and this stranger's conversation?

I don’t think this is necessary because it is like impeding into OP privacy by asking for such informations. Even if he shows the screenshot here there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it, the only thing is he should personally back track how he transacted with the stranger and learn a lesson from that. I hope it wasn’t a big amount though

[EarnOnVictor]

3. Was the transaction confirmed with at least 2 confirmations?

There is more to this, it is not about the transaction being confirmed or not as the OP indicates that the money is there but disappears after about a day. That's enough for 3 confirmations to have completed if it's really Bitcoin we are talking about.

And the way the OP sounded seems it has happened more than once, which reminds me of a similar post someone posted a while ago, but they tend to abandon the post without a reply if more information about the transaction is demanded, even by tech-savvy here.

This makes me believe that there is more to this. It's either the OP is looking for a scamming way of this kind after hearing it happens or the platform used is not a legit BTC related, but a fake.

[gunhell16]

I bought an amount of BTC from a stranger and made my payment in cash! I checked to see if the BTC was available and if they were, after a day they just disappeared. Does somebody know anything about this? What happened? What is this situation called or something like that?

Do you mean that you approached a total stranger in person and gave him/her the cash he was owed for selling you Bitcoin? And if so, where was the wallet delivered? Is it in the non-custodial exchange or app wallet?

But is there something wrong with what you did if you gave this unknown stranger money? I hope you inquired on this forum or with a buddy before paying. So, where did you make your payment? You may purchase Bitcoin in a variety of methods without ever having to introduce yourself to a stranger.

As far as I can tell, that style is the creation of a con artist who has abused your gullibility in this Bitcoin sector.

[Emmanuelex]

Before you give anybody money for Bitcoin, please always make sure that the transaction that was made received enough confirmations on the block before you pay them for it. There is a reason why. If you check a lot of local exchangers, or maybe you try selling your coin P2P to exchangers, you will notice that they always have a certain confirmation number that is required before payment is disbursed to you, these are for safety reasons. So be careful next time and try to follow these rules to be safe.

[JunaidAzizi]

I don't know why people trust strangers in such a case when you are buying a Bitcoin, Once people get scammed then after that start looking but why do they not listen to the other person's advice?

Op you are scammed but don't know which type. If you used some other wallet then I think after confirmation the holders stole your bitcoin from your wallet. But as you said you met him in person and gave him cash then may he take your phone and copy your private keys which will make him easily steal your fund from your wallet.

[hosseinimr93]

Going a bit offtopic here, sorry for this, may you please explain how checking block explorers can compromise our privacy?

With using a block explorer, you reveal your IP address to them. If you enter your address in a block explorer and they share such information with chain analysis companies, it may helpful to be used for tracking you, especially if you enter your address many times and you use different block explorers.

Checking the balance of an address on a block explorer doesn't mean you own that address, but it may give some hint to chain analysis companies.

[hopenotlate]

Going a bit offtopic here, sorry for this, may you please explain how checking block explorers can compromise our privacy?

With using a block explorer, you reveal your IP address to them. If you enter your address in a block explorer and they share such information with chain analysis companies, it may helpful to be used for tracking you, especially if you enter your address many times and you use different block explorers.

Checking the balance of an address on a block explorer doesn't mean you own that address, but it may give some hint to chain analysis companies.

I see, many thanks. So what are most viable solution to bypass this risk?  Do you think using a VPN or Tor browser or better both is enough or what? Or simply by checking dozens and dozens of addresses a day to mislead ( stupid idea yes but its the first thing coming to my mind when I read your answer lol)

[LoyceMobile]

Going a bit offtopic here, sorry for this, may you please explain how checking block explorers can compromise our privacy?

With using a block explorer, you reveal your IP address to them.

If you're not using a VPN all the time, it's convenient to keep a Tor browser open to access sites without exposing your IP address.
It just feed them the wrong information by looking up random addresses, but even that might tell them something about yourself.