Topic: Lost Bitcoines In A Transaction to Coinbase (Read 426 times)

Unless he had a password set. In that case the software waits until you try to spend bitcoin and enter the password to do so and then it steals from you.

Not necessarily. OP states he remembers copy and pasting the Coinbase address and creating the transaction. The malicious Electrum wallets did not wait for the user to create a transaction, and simply swept all the funds as soon the wallet was opened. It sounds more likely the OP either copied the wrong address from somewhere, or it was clipboard malware, rather than Electrum malware.

After poking around a bit more on the blockchain, some of the funds from the transaction which swept the address 1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc end up on Bitstamp through the following chain of transactions:

https://mempool.space/tx/ce1cef757536327cee8ef5f8a5a452f46e90aa1eb4eaada1eaad49454faf5760
https://mempool.space/tx/c545b162ecad5e8b5d320964587bd3cd0e09e4e22097ca0a460d261d46f78c29
https://mempool.space/tx/e0d290721225f5eba1bf5d51ee81fe4131db890294604f968e058f34005a949b

Ending at address 36uwFSav1wadZMf7nWzg9SJg8RLFtUzmob, which is known to belong to Bistamp (or at least, it was, but hasn't been used in over a year).

I don't think you can do anything useful with this information, unless there is any chance at all you actually copied an address from a Bitstamp account by mistake, rather than a Coinbase account?

Yes, Seems that OP is victim of the vulnerability in versions older than 3.3.4 and was deceived by the arbitrary message displayed when broadcasting a transaction.
According to this post , he was using the version 3.0.6 before the update.
And as OP was probably scammed in the same way as that Reddit thread, I think he/she updated electrum through the link displayed by a dishonest server.  

That's exactly what they are saying, sorry!

In terms of getting your coins back, your chances are slim. There is no centralized authority or customer support in Bitcoin that can help you and Coinbase can't do anything either because the coins were never deposited in one of their wallets either. Use this bad experience as a learning opportunity download software from official sources and verify its authenticity. 

Looking at the info hosseinimr93 found, it looks like you were a victim of a scam, yes. Finding a person behind a bitcoin address is a difficult task otherwise people wouldn't use Bitcoin. If the scammer sent those coins to an exchange where he performed KYC, it would be doable. But the exchange will never give you that information. You would have to get law enforcement involved and the sum that went missing is simply not worth it. It's around $800 worth of bitcoin. The cost of trying to recover it and finding the culprit could be bigger. Like Lucius said, too much time has passed. 

Given all the answers I read in this thread, we could very likely conclude that your transaction did not have its destination in the Coinbase wallet, but that you were a victim of clipboard malware or a fake Electrum wallet. You can try to report the whole thing to the police, but given the time that has passed and the complexity of finding the real owner of that address, the chances of a positive outcome are really minimal.

Hello,

So finally some updates...

After months, I heard back from Coinbase today with the following reply;

"Dear Mr. ...,

Thank you for your patience. Please excuse the delay in getting back to us.

With the help of the transaction hash that you have attached to us, it is possible to publicly trace the route that the transaction has taken, which is also visible to you.

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/ab7cc44f2916ccf0bdd45e95b089b66518344281bea059761b6b1bb56d6db4fb

The specified recipient address of the transaction is 1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc.

Each transaction on the blockchain is irrevocable, the correct entry of the recipient address is the responsibility of the user.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to let us know."


Now all this is literally saying is, "there is nothing we can do... Good day sir"

Though, is there really nothing I can do, given the blockchain information at hand?

Does this perhaps look like I fell into a scam, as some people have quoted, and thus getting in touch with the authorities would be to no avail, given how the Blockchain works?

I'd be even willing to pay someone to help me retrieve these funds. Initially I had hoped that I had mistakenly sent my fund to another Coinbase address, though this does not seem to be the case, and now I am a bit downtrodden.


Sincerely appreciated everyone's help thus far though, thank you all.

Sounds like you might have downloaded one of the "fake" Electrum versions that steals your coins... The likely reason for it crashing when the "correct" password was entered would be that the wallet file have become corrupted or the "fake" version was trying to prevent you from seeing that your coins had been stolen...

Given that it works with a fresh install, I'd suspect that it's more than likely that the "fake" version was the source of your issues

All of this is rather moot at this point... given that the evidence found by hosseiminr93 would indicate that your coins were indeed "stolen". At this point, there really isn't anything you can do to recover those coins

---

To OP:

Did a pop-up message ask you to update electrum? If yes, what did you do?
What was the version of electrum?
[/quote]

It was version 3.0.6 when I originally downloaded it, im not sure if it asked me to update.

I crashes now when I put in my password, which is odd, as when I put in a wrong password it prompts the message; 'wrong password', yet when I put in the right password it closes.

Anyways, I re-downloaded Electrum and now it's working fine, though I can't seem to find out for certain if I updated the program at any point

The address OP's coins sent to belongs to this wallet.
The fifth address of the list (1KwRzmWAX1bX82us1G5uHzC8U5JorQEkPC) has been posted in following reddit thread.

All my BTC stolen from Electrum Wallet

Since both addresses (the one posted in reddit thread and the one posted here in this thread) probably have a same owner, it's likely that it's the same story.

---

To OP:

Did a pop-up message ask you to update electrum? If yes, what did you do?
What was the version of electrum?

I am not sure about this as I didn't dig deep enough.. But it looks like the sent coins (or coins that were linked to them at one point) ended up on one of Binance's hot wallets (1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s)!

@op, do you have, by any chance, a Binance account? You can check your email to see if you've ever received a confirmation email from their part.

So, that's certainly a possibility. However, looking at the onwards transaction, it looks much more like an exchange or service consolidating many inputs rather than the wallet of a scammer who has sent out clipboard malware. OP, could you have copied this address from somewhere else? Another exchange? A gambling site or sportsbook? Even a web wallet could consolidate deposits from multiple customers.

Check any other accounts you were using around the same time as this deposit was made, if you still have access to them. If not, then I would agree that this could be an atypical clipboard malware, and it would be worth reinstalling your OS to ensure your safety moving forwards.

So your device is infected with clipboard malware which used to replace the destination address you copied with the address injected by the hacker. Your device might be having the issues now as well so the only option is to reflash the OS or reset to factory settings to avoid this atleast in future.

So I have these in front of me now, and sadly the listed bitcoin address does not match '1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc', hence I must have sent it to a wrong address right? All I can remember is that it was generated by Coinbase and that i copy and pasted it.

Yes it is possible, and it can be seen only if user logged into their account and redirect to : https://www.coinbase.com/addresses

So they can see all the previous address used for deposit in the past since the account creation.

It shouldn't matter. If he has sent coins to the correct address, then Coinbase have possession of them. Doesn't matter if it has been 2 days or 2 years; refusing to credit them to his account if they are in possession of them is theft.

Is this possible? I have no idea since I have never and will never own a Coinbase account, but if they do indeed show a list of all your previous deposit addresses then it should be trivial for OP to check if the address he sent coins to - 1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc - is indeed associated with his Coinbase account or not.

Yes, it normal to get new address but the new addresses are not generated automatically cause it was program to generate base on user request and newbieeee only need to be sure the address was the exact deposit address provided on their coinbase account.

Certainly.

Agreed.

But its just norml to get new address every time even if it is unused still you will get new address every time so a complete newbie may think that it was not the address where he send his coins.

But I guess it is possible to see all the generated address in their account by logging into their desktop site.

Yes, re-reading my post, I realise that I perhaps should have made it clear that just because it isn't currently "linked" to Coinbase... does not mean that it isn't a Coinbase wallet... it just means that there is currently no "easy" way to say "This is a Coinbase address/wallet".


^^^ This

You should contact their support at the right time, now is a little late after 2 years. But maybe they can try to fix your problem,

Bitcoin transactions don't just go to limbo... They get recorded on the blockchain, and that should be enough evidence for you to recover your coins.

Coinbase and other big exchanges have an unknown number of hot wallets and an unknown number of cold wallets, each with an unknown number of addresses in them. Only a small number of their wallets are publicly known about, and they will be generating new wallets and new addresses all the time to accommodate new customers and new deposits.

It is entirely possible that the address you used for Coinbase back in 2016 was part of one wallet "cluster", was consolidated with other deposits to this cluster, and was used to process withdrawals from this cluster, while OP used an address in another "cluster", and the two clusters never mixed.

I'm sure some of the big blockchain analysis companies could analyze this transaction some more and discover whether or not it really did end up on Coinbase (or perhaps someone with a lot of time on their hands), but the quickest option for OP is simply to contact Coinbase, state they made a deposit to the address 1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc, and ask why it was never credited to their account.

The last time I checked, coinbase generated new deposit address base on user requests.

People always have issues in getting responses from coinbase support.


It makes sense but checking the wallet you sent the bitcoin it doesn't look much like a coinbase address but you need to contact coinbase for verification if the address belongs to them before we can reassure.

Providing the transaction ID is enough to make them understand your issue.



Yes, it does not look like a wallet that belongss to a big exchange like coinbase. I check an old coinbase wallet I once used back in the year 2016 and it shows coinbase wallet to be 00000014ea not 00052e20f14c2c57.

Unfortunately, the address appears to be from an "unknown" service of some description: https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/00052e20f14c2c57?from_address=1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc

As it is not linked to any wallets of the "big players", it may be quite difficult to identify exactly who is the owner

This is an automated reply. Your case will never have been looked at by an actual person. Contact them again. Try reaching out on Twitter or their Reddit channel. Get a real person to take a look.

There is no need to send coins to your Coinbase wallet first, or indeed to even have a Coinbase wallet at all. Your transaction was definitely not sent to your Coinbase wallet based on the subsequent consolidation transaction the coins were included in.

By all accounts, you made a successful transaction, and it ended up on an address which is certainly in keeping with an address belonging to an exchange. Did you have any other exchange accounts you were using at the time?

There are different possible scenarios;
• They had looked into it and the address was wrong, as coinbase admins they could contact the technical team for details about your account, such as deposits and withdrawals, this would reveal any bitcoins which were received by addresses linked to you.
• Or they simply did not pay enough attention to your situation.
I do not use coinbase and I'm not familiar with how their support team operates, but it's a big exchange and I'm yet to encounter a situation where they try to deliberately rip off users.

You mean you didn't request a deposit address? Coinbase is a non custodian exchange and generates addresses on behalf of its users.
AFAIK, if you did send it to an exchange address, it would be on trade to be exchanged for some other currency.

Thank you for all the replies,

I did contact coinbase originally, but they did not look into the issue further and simply replied;

"Digital currency transactions using blockchains are irreversible, meaning once they are sent there is no way to recover funds. Because your transaction was sent and completed on the blockchain, Coinbase cannot recover your funds as this is an external process."

They did not however seem to ask me for any transactions ID's or so forth, which makes me think they just quickly wanted to answer my question as they always have multiple other inquires going on, so when I posed a few follow up questions I never got a reply and eventually the case was closed...

---

'And you are talking about coinbase exchange or coinbase web wallet?'

I think Findingnemo might be on to something here though, I remember trying to exchange the bitcoins for euros, or at least that is what I eventually had planned - yet maybe I skipped a step by transferring the bitcoins to the coinbase exchange right away instead of my coinbase wallet... If that makes any sense? I never actually created a coinbase wallet..!

It probably doesn't and I apologise that I am so inept at transferring Bitcoins... It's what got me into this mess to begin with and after numerous tries to retrieve the coins and being told they are gone I eventually gave up. Now with my financial situation looking a bit bleak during corona and bitcoin being on the rise, I thought I might give it another try! - So thank you for all the commenters trying to help, I do appreciate it and I have gotten in touch with Coinbase, do I do not expect to much help from their side, as past experience has shown, maybe there are particular thing like the 'blockchair' link I could include to help them understand the issue?

Best,

O.

When looking at the transaction ID the amount you send pooled into a cold storage which most probably an exchange in my opinion. And you are talking about coinbase exchange or coinbase web wallet?

AFAIK, Coinbase webwallet will give new address everytime when you click the deposit address it doesn't mean if you send the coins to previously generated one was sent to a wrong address.

The coins you sent were quickly moved on, so it certainly wasn't an inactive address. Looking at the onward transaction, your coins were combined with coins in dozens of other addresses and consolidated in to one single address. This is the kind of transaction we see from an exchange or service consolidating deposits from many different customers in to one address. This would certainly be in keeping with a deposit to Coinbase, but also to any other exchange. It is not really in keeping with a transfer to another individual person.

Zero chance, unless you know who owns this address. There is no way to "contact" an address.

I'm afraid so.

Your best bet is probably to contact Coinbase, explain the above, and ask them to check if the address you deposited to belongs to them.

It's been almost 2 years but why you didn't raise this problem since then?

First, you need to contact Coinbase support if the Bitcoin address that your Bitcoin was transferred belongs to them or check your Coinbase Bitcoin wallet address if this is the same as the address where your Bitcoin last landed.  If not, then, that might you have been sent to the wrong address as what o_e_l_e_o said above that you might have infected by a clipboard malware which is automatically changed into a scammers Bitcoin address.

I checked the Bitcoin address where your Bitcoin last landed and it seems it was transferred to a cold wallet similar to an exchange wallet.

Just follow the suggestion above and ask Coinbase support if that address belonged to them.  But I don't if think there's a high chance that you can able to recover your Bitcoin back.

Thank you from the reply.

Does it perhaps look like I sent the Bitcoins to another active user by mistake? Or simply to some inactive address where the Bitcoins might be sitting around? What, if at all, are the possibilities of me retrieving these bitcoins, could I perhaps try to contact the address?

The deposit address on the coinbase account seems to be different now, though this might have to do with the fact that the website was updated, and when logging in today it asked me to fill out some new information and agree to the updated terms.

Perhaps though I simply did somehow copy and paste the wrong address, this means the bitcoins are non retrievable I assume?

Best,

O.

Looks like a straightforward transaction to me. You sent coins from your address - 1Hb4iYb1B316jzXSg7QzH7SSktYx1xmt22 - and they arrived at the recipient address 1Q6Boa9VQxxcCCNDKK1dennXSud1m5ALAc.

The question you need to ask is whether this was the correct address or not. If this address is correct, then Coinbase have your coins. If the address is wrong, then you have sent your coins somewhere else by mistake (possibly due to a mistaken copy/paste or due to clipboard malware).

Are you able to check your Coinbase account for this deposit address?

Thank you two for your help, here are the transaction details according to blockchair:

https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transaction/ab7cc44f2916ccf0bdd45e95b089b66518344281bea059761b6b1bb56d6db4fb

Let me know if any of you can make any sense of this

Best,

O.

Either share a screenshot of this transaction window, or copy the long string of characters from the box at the top titled "Transaction ID". This will allow us to take a look at the transaction and see if anything might have gone wrong. It won't allow anyone to steal your coins, but will obviously let everyone see the transaction and the addresses and amounts involved.

Do you still have your Coinbase account? Do you still have a record of the address you tried to deposit to on your Coinbase account?

Transaction's details are public on the blockchain, unless you're sharing your 12 word seed or your private keys, you should be fine. Sharing it does mean that your privacy would be gone; people can link the transaction to the account that you're using right now.
I assume you are checking your transaction on a blockexplorer like blockchair.com? If it didn't show up on the blockexplorer, can you try searching up the address that you have sent the funds from? If the transaction ID cannot be found on the blockexplorer or if the address is wrong, Coinbase can't help either.

Hello Bitcointalk community,

I will admit that I am rather new to Bitcoin, a friend of mine payed me in Bitcoins a few years ago, and when I decided to transfer the money from my Electrum Bitcoin wallet, to my Coinbase 'wallet' something went wrong in the process.

This was in 2019, and when reaching out to the Coinbase community, nobody was willing or able to help me.

My Electrum history shows me that the Bitcoin's left the wallet in 2019, and double clicking the transaction prompts a transaction screen, showcasing the details of my transaction, these details look to me like looking at a language I cannot decipher, yet perhaps someone here would be able to see what went wrong by simply giving this a quick look....


Now I have two questions;

1) how much of these transaction details do I need to share, and/or should I share publicly, without potentially being duped by someone else allocating my bitcoins (if the bitcoins are even retrievable)

2) At the time I entered my coinbase wallet 'address', or so I thought, but nothing showed up, even after weeks of checking. so if I did end putting in the wrong coinbase number - does this mean coinbase could potentially help me in retrieving the bitcoins, or does this simply mean the bitcoins are lost in the deep ether of the internet?

I am thankful for any help 

O.