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A friend was trying to send me bitcoin using a Bitcoin ATM, she sent the funds to "her phone number" instead of my wallet QR code. The ATM indicated that Bitcoin was sent, but my friend doesn't even have a wallet address. It seems like a wallet address was generated for her and we don't know how to retrieve this bitcoin back, can you help?

Murch
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user96229
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  • Did she get a transaction ID (64-character hex code)? You can look it up on a site like http://blockchain.info and see what address the coins were actually sent to. – Nate Eldredge Jun 17 '19 at 15:44
  • Did the ATM provide a receipt? What's on it? (Do not share any exact numbers or codes on the receipt. Just generally describe what's on it!) – David Schwartz Jun 18 '19 at 21:49
  • Have you tried contacting the ATM operator? – Murch Jun 23 '19 at 19:35

2 Answers2

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it seems like a wallet address was generated for her

This seems most likely to me. An ATM should not allow the destination/receiving address to be empty or to contain something that is not a valid bitcoin-address (e.g. a phone number would be rejected)

A phone number might be requested for an online custodial wallet service with two-factor authentication (2FA) - if so you'd need to find out the URL of the service, and the corresponding username and password or other credentials.

If your friend doesn't have a printed receipt with some details on it, it is likely that the money is now forever inaccessible.

I would

  • try to find a printed receipt
  • contact the ATM owner (although I would not expect them to be able to help)
  • visit the ATM with your friend and try to recreate what happened with the minimum possible amount of money as a test.
RedGrittyBrick
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I haven't tried to receive or send bitcoins using an ATM, but I think there are special account statements that you can get from an ATM (you can also fund anything there). I sometimes call an ATM to check my account but always make myself a number to receive sms online uk. It turns out that no one will know my real number (anti-spam for advertisers). I think bitcoin can be topped up when you have accurate information about the possibilities of using the currency elsewhere.

TomHowland14
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