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

[_act_]

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

My wallet connect automatically to available nodes. I have not checked my address balance or transaction before on an explorer. On the wallet that I am using and on the wallet knowledgeable people are telling people to use like Electrum, there are many nodes there and if some are not working, some other ones will be working.

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).

This has not happened to me before but that would be the next thing someone can do. Your anonymity is not lost if you use tor. It is just one address.

[1715565198]

1715565198

[Mayor of ogba]

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?

Op, did you confirm the BTC in your wallet before making the payment? If yes, maybe you could have clicked on a phishing link that allowed someone to have access to your wallet or it could be that same person who sold the BTC to you who still stole from you without your knowledge because you don't understand how Bitcoin transaction is done and also believed he can not steal from you. Op, after the person finishes sending you the Bitcoin did he take your phone from you or send a wallet address to your phone? you can share your Bitcoin wallet address let's take a look at it too. Try and update your wallet if it appears.

[pixie85]

It sounds like you accepted an unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction, and got scammed. Bitcoin fees are quite high at the moment, which gives the seller/scammer plenty of time to use RBF to replace the transaction by another one.

I've heard stories of people who allowed the seller to help them set up a wallet in person and then bought coins from them and the money disappeared because the seller came back home, accessed the buyer's wallet and moved funds.

I've also heard stories of people buying wallets from others, like they wanted to buy bitcoin and the seller would add a hardware wallet or a phone with the wallet on top of it, claiming it to be a gift for the buyer that will also speed up the transaction because the buyer will get the whole source wallet, without having to wait for any confirmations and pay fees.

Looks like we'll have to wait for OP to come back and explain this.
 

[hosseinimr93]

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?

As mentioned above by LoyceV, you can use TOR browser whenever you want to check your addresses balance or a transaction on block explorers.
And to protect your privacy better, you can use a new TOR circuit every time you want to check an address or a transaction on a block explorer.

You can also run your own node, so that you have a full copy of the blockchain and unconfirmed transaction. In this way, you can check any transaction or address without relying on any third parties.

On the wallet that I am using and on the wallet knowledgeable people are telling people to use like Electrum, there are many nodes there and if some are not working, some other ones will be working.

You are right about electrum, but we don't know whether OP is using electrum or another wallet.

[yazher]

Looks like you were scammed using an image edited and sent to you as proof and once you check your balance it's obviously not there because they just let you see the edited one, not the actual site that indicates your total BTC balance. I guess the main reason for this is a lack of basic knowledge regarding bitcoins because if you know how to check everything before sending them your payment, you wouldn't be complaining about this right now. Looks like your information about it lacks some key info, just like the other said, we wanted some more enlightenment in order to warn others as well.

[Wend]

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.

Trading with people is not a big deal because there will always be a way to prevent fraud. But in OP's case, he is newbie and lacks knowledge in all aspects, so choosing to trade on the floor will reduce risk compared to trading with a complete stranger. They can use tricks that a newbie will not know and easily scam him. As a newbie, I always give advice that using an exchange will help them feel more secure in buying and selling.

[The Cryptovator]

I saw your latest thread where you mentioned the deposit you made on Binance, which is confusing. If you use a Binance address to receive bitcoin from the seller, it won't show on your balance until you get confirmation on the blockchain. I assume you checked the transaction on the blockchain, which was an unconfirmed transaction; they probably doubled the amount. So I believe you have been deceived by the scammer. Why haven't you used Binance P2P instead of dealing with scammers?

[albert0bsd]

OP might be a bit mixed up here. When you get money on Binance, they give you an address (an address that bianance control, rember not your keys not your coins). But then, Binance moves that money to another Binance address (Binance Hot wallet). Don't worry, your Binance account should still have that money, even though if you check that address on some explorer, it'll look empty.

At least that may confuse to some new users like him

[zaim7413]

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?

Did you know that the targets of scammers are newcomers to the crypto field, newbies are the most delicious food for scammers to drain their money with all their tricks. You have just become a victim of scammers, this is what happens if you are too trusting of people you have just met. Can you share your honesty here starting from the first time you started communicating with them until you had the courage to buy some Bitcoin from them?

Maybe you are tempted by the cheap prices they offer so you ignore the Exchange as a safe place to buy Bitcoin. Your lost balance cannot be returned, because of this incident you have lost a certain amount of money permanently. Be careful, there are lots of scammers who are targeting their victims, if you want to get Bitcoin and safe storage, ask for advice from members of this forum.

[virasog]

It sounds like you accepted an unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction, and got scammed. Bitcoin fees are quite high at the moment, which gives the seller/scammer plenty of time to use RBF to replace the transaction by another one.

In his other thread, the OP said that he received the BTC on Binance. So there is no chance of any transaction being replaced by RBF etc because binance will only show you the balance once it is confirmed.

I see this as a case where either the OP moved the funds from spot to funding or any other wallet or something else. If he had a balance in the binance account, and no one else had access to his Binance account, the balance could not just get vanish.

It would be good if the OP could show us the transaction history so we can see if the balance ever arrived and was later withdrawn by him or anyone having access to his account.

I purchased a quantity of BTC from a seller, I made my payment in cash and received the BTC on binance I saw that they were available I could use and transfer them and the next day they disappeared
I have read that the scam is called double spending, does anyone have any knowledge?

[Smartvirus]

Bitcoin deals greatly on trust and while trading with an unknown individual where there isn’t a third party to act as escrow involved, you’ve got to exercise a great deal of caution, knowing that this individual is a stranger, this individual don’t have much to lose once cash have been delivered to him/her and it’s your responsibility to ensure that, your coin is deposited safely.

Bitcoin transactions are irreversible but, this becomes the case only when there is at least one confirmation on the transaction. This is the only time when you can bank of the irreversible nature of the space to act in your interest.

In most cases especially when your using a custodial exchange like Binance and depend on its mail system or perhaps wallet history to display information on a transaction, it’s normal that, you would get notification on a pending transaction upon initiation of the transaction by the buyer.
That doesn’t mean you’ve been sent the coin. It simply means, there is a detection of a transaction on the bitcoin or Binance network. Untill a confirmation is done on it, the individual could attempt to double spend and cancel the transaction.

You ought to be more careful and can count this as a lose to experience.