My Electrum wallet says I have no Bitcoin

[BitMaxz]

I set up my wallet years ago from the electrum website.   I only use their site for updates etc.  

I have the seed written down on a piece of paper hidden.

How exactly did you set up your wallet from the Electrum website? Are you sure? Do you remember the website where you set up your wallet?

The official Electrum website doesn't offer to set up a wallet directly from their website you can only set up a wallet from Electrum wallet(software) that you can download directly from Electrum.org.
So if you set up your wallet from a website or Electrum website then you might be accessing a phishing site.

[hosseinimr93]

How exactly did you set up your wallet from the Electrum website? Are you sure? Do you remember the website where you set up your wallet?

I don't think OP has installed a fake version of electrum.
If OP had installed a fake version of electrum, the thief wouldn't wait until May and would steal the fund much earlier (probably once received).

This is assuming every thing OP says is correct and he doesn't miss anything.

[Z-tight]

So what is the best easiest way to find out what's up and to try to find my coins.  Please dumb it down, assume I know nothing because I don't.   I'm baffled

I'm sorry, there's really no way to recover your funds, BTC tx's are irreversible. You may meet people who would tell you that they can recover stolen BTC, don't fall for it, they are scammers, if you pay them any money to recover your stolen funds, consider the payment as stolen funds too.

It is hard, but the only thing to do right now is take this as a lesson, anything online is prone to hacking, and for your funds to be safe, it has to be in cold storage.

[Lucius]

If we take into account that the OP uses a legitimate wallet and that the seed is saved on a piece of paper that no one has access to - the question arises how the wallet was hacked, especially if it is also protected with a password?

Something obviously happened between December 20th and May 4th, and that is the period in which the OP should check all her online activities because any installed program or downloaded file could have been malicious. It is also possible that the malware arrived via USB stick or DVD/CD or portable disk, in fact anything that was connected to the computer during that period.

[Z-tight]

Something obviously happened between December 20th and May 4th, and that is the period in which the OP should check all her online activities because any installed program or downloaded file could have been malicious. It is also possible that the malware arrived via USB stick or DVD/CD or portable disk, in fact anything that was connected to the computer during that period.

That's true, op could have been hacked in any of these ways and more even, it is usually hard to figure out the exact way one was hacked online, it will be difficult for op to remember all of their online activity within that time. It is a sad one for them, but a lesson that anything online is prone to hacking, it is difficult to protect your coins when they are on the same device that one uses for online activities, a lot of us surely knows this, but there are so many people out there who use BTC, but they do not know.

[nc50lc]

So what is the best easiest way to find out what's up and to try to find my coins.  Please dumb it down, assume I know nothing because I don't.   I'm baffled.

Finding "what's up" is not easy, you'll have to deduce every possible scenario.
Start by providing more info aside from what's already written in your post history:

• What happened to your old PC or its HDD/SSD where your wallet was?
• Was your original wallet that has the same seed in the old PC has a password?
• Is your current and old password strong enough (long and complex) to be immune to bruteforce attack?
• Etc., like your machine's overall security.

But even if you find out what's happened, the only way to get your coins back is to make the culprit send it back to you.

[Cryptmuster]

Finding "what's up" is not easy, you'll have to deduce every possible scenario.
Start by providing more info aside from what's already written in your post history:

• What happened to your old PC or its HDD/SSD where your wallet was?
• Was your original wallet that has the same seed in the old PC has a password?
• Is your current and old password strong enough (long and complex) to be immune to bruteforce attack?
• Etc., like your machine's overall security.

But even if you find out what's happened, the only way to get your coins back is to make the culprit send it back to you.

If the OP did not make this transaction, then you understand what the probability is of getting these coins back...

If everything is as the OP describes, that no one had access to his PC, and it is quite possible that the reason should be sought in the software that was installed during this period. I think this information can be found in the installation and removal section, the dates when they were installed should be saved there. But unfortunately, I am almost sure that this will not solve the OP's problem, since the fraudster has already gained access to the wallet, and I do not know of any cases where the thief decided to return the coins back.

[Findingnemo]

I do not know of any cases where the thief decided to return the coins back.

There are instances hackers decided to give up the money after taking certain percentage but it's basically the exchanges and we are talking about millions there.

Here with OP's I don't think there is any possibility of retrieving the funds back, he could trace the address and find if it ended up with any of the exchange where the user KYCed so by contacting the exchange after providing the necessary contacts the exchanges may reveal the information if authorities were involved but that's too much for the amount we are talking.

I guess OP has to learn the lesson in a hard way, next time make sure you put in a cold storage.

[nc50lc]

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It's funny how your reply sounds like a correction yet it agrees and just rephrased some of what I've just written.

FYI, most of "hacks" aren't all just simple installation of a malware.
There could also be undiscovered bug in the software or other software, a vulnerability in the OS, etc.
And if his password is strong enough, if you consider the time frame, the possibility of it being a malware at that specific time when he didn't even opened Electrum is low since the only source where the hacker can get the seed phrase is encrypted with it.