<blockquote>
<p><strong>Can I recover btc sent to an incorrect address?</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Confirmed Bitcoin transactions cannot be cancelled, reversed, undone or recovered.</p>
<p>The only person who can give you your money back is the recipient, by creating a new transaction to send the same amount back to you.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>I realize now that I had a malware copy of electrum</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>If the initial mishap was due to a malware copy of Electrum, there is no chance the criminals, who created that, would choose to give back money they stole from you.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>I read somewhere something...</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The things you describe won't work.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>something else to get those funds back?</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nothing. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to scam you.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-07T17:41:23.573Z
Just for the record, this is where I read that explanation: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/scam-unknown-btc-addresses-are-generated-funds-never-received-on-electrum/
johnbchron
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-07T18:40:44.233Z
@johnbchron: If I understand it right, that article seems to be about people who use wordpress to create a website to sell products, use woocommerce to provide e-commerice features on their website and use the cryptowoo plugin to enable their customers to pay using cryptocurrecies like Bitcoin. If that's what you were doing I'd expect you to have mentioned it in your question. As originally written, your question reminded me of the scam explained in the "Warning" atop https://electrum.org/ - folk were tricked into downloading a fake Electrum that rewrote addresses.
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-10T16:16:18.217Z
Yes I fell victim to the electrum scam, but I was referencing the technique explained in that forum post.
johnbchron
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-21T04:23:01.597Z
@johnbchron it's not possible to use public information to derive the private key. if it were possible then it wouldn't be secure at all. btc would have no value.
Abdussamad
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-07T16:13:34.677Z
2020-08-07T16:32:40.383Z
2020-08-07T16:32:40.383Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>So I have an electrum wallet and I sent about $150 in btc to it. That all worked but when I tried to send it to another address, it didn't go through. Looking at the transaction, the btc went to an address similar (3F***...) to the one I entered, but not exactly the same (3D***...). I realize now that I had a malware copy of electrum, but I've taken care of that. What I'm worried about is recovering the funds sent to that address. When I look at it on a blockchain explorer, I can see that it started at 0, I sent 0.009 btc to it, and nothing has been done with it since. I read somewhere something about &quot;restoring&quot; a read-only wallet from the transaction ID and then getting the address' private key from the send address and sweeping it into my main wallet, but I haven't figured out how to do that with electrum yet. Does anybody know how to do that or something else to get those funds back?</p>

<address><private-key><electrum><wallet-recovery><malware>
Can I recover btc sent to an incorrect address? (electrum)
johnbchron
# Can I recover btc sent to an incorrect address? (electrum)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-07)

So I have an electrum wallet and I sent about $150 in btc to it. That all worked but when I tried to send it to another address, it didn't go through. Looking at the transaction, the btc went to an address similar (3F\*\*\*...) to the one I entered, but not exactly the same (3D\*\*\*...). I realize now that I had a malware copy of electrum, but I've taken care of that. What I'm worried about is recovering the funds sent to that address. When I look at it on a blockchain explorer, I can see that it started at 0, I sent 0.009 btc to it, and nothing has been done with it since. I read somewhere something about "restoring" a read-only wallet from the transaction ID and then getting the address' private key from the send address and sweeping it into my main wallet, but I haven't figured out how to do that with electrum yet. Does anybody know how to do that or something else to get those funds back?

**Tags:** address, private-key, electrum, wallet-recovery, malware


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-08-07. Score: 9

> **Can I recover btc sent to an incorrect address?**

Confirmed Bitcoin transactions cannot be cancelled, reversed, undone or recovered.

The only person who can give you your money back is the recipient, by creating a new transaction to send the same amount back to you.

> **I realize now that I had a malware copy of electrum**

If the initial mishap was due to a malware copy of Electrum, there is no chance the criminals, who created that, would choose to give back money they stole from you.

> **I read somewhere something...**

The things you describe won't work.

> **something else to get those funds back?**

Nothing. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to scam you.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Just for the record, this is where I read that explanation: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/scam-unknown-btc-addresses-are-generated-funds-never-received-on-electrum/  
> **username_1**: @username_0: If I understand it right, that article seems to be about people who use wordpress to create a website to sell products, use woocommerce to provide e-commerice features on their website and use the cryptowoo plugin to enable their customers to pay using cryptocurrecies like Bitcoin. If that's what you were doing I'd expect you to have mentioned it in your question. As originally written, your question reminded me of the scam explained in the "Warning" atop https://electrum.org/ - folk were tricked into downloading a fake Electrum that rewrote addresses.  
> **username_0**: Yes I fell victim to the electrum scam, but I was referencing the technique explained in that forum post.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 it's not possible to use public information to derive the private key. if it were possible then it wouldn't be secure at all. btc would have no value.  

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