<p>Unfortunately, there is not much you can do.</p>

<p>By design, it is very difficult to identify a person from a Bitcoin address. In principle, if the thief eventually  transfers the coins to an exchange in order to sell them, it could be possible to trace  the coins to that point, and the exchange might know who got the money. But they would probably not divulge this without a court order (if even then), and they may be in a different country with different laws. Moreover, the thief could use a mixing service or other techniques to make it much more difficult to trace the coins to the exchange.</p>

<p>The IP address is a little better (yours is missing some dots, by the way). You can use a tool such as whois to find the ISP to whom the address is registered, and their records would show which of their subscribers was using it at that time. But again, you'd need a court order, and they could be in a different country. Furthermore, there's a very good chance that the thief is not actually their subscriber, but someone who compromised their subscriber's computer and used it remotely. There could even be several layers of this.</p>

<p>Each of these steps would need the assistance of law enforcement, so it would be reasonable to report the theft to your local or national police agency, and give them the information you've shared with us. (It could take some work to educate them about Bitcoin, or find an officer who is already familiar with it.) But unless      the thief has done a shoddy job of covering his tracks, it's unlikely he'll be caught, and even less likely that you'll be able to recover your coins.</p>

<p>Sorry.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-17T16:25:35.243Z
2013-12-17T16:25:35.243Z
Nate Eldredge
<p>I'm convinced the thief can be found, still today.</p>

<p>In 2013 only very few people understood how their transactions could be traced and their addresses clustered. So obviously as well 'your thief'. He used this address 15M9rP1GshzBfMbqnHL77iqVcvmgbzVa4S in 116 Transactions and received 380 BTC. And obviously he tried to obfuscate his traces by splitting larger amounts into smaller and did the mistake to use this address as well as change address. This makes the detective work much easier. There are in the meantime millions of exchange addresses known. So if one of the many transactions after one, two, three ... steps ends up at a known exchange address then you can go with this information to police and they can ask the exchange(s) if the owner of the related address was KYCed (if they have his id or bank account and transferred fiat after an exchange).</p>

<p>In case you got your coins already back it would be interesting to hear how the thief was caught. Btw I assume you weren't the only victim ...</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-08T10:20:27.577Z
2019-11-08T10:20:27.577Z
tempo
<p>My btc-e account was hacked (or my passwords stolen from my computer). I was able to make screenshots while they were withdrawing my bitcoins. So i have the btc wallet adress where the money went to and I have the ip adress of the thief. 
Is there really nothing I can do? Can I find and contact the owner? how?</p>

<p>The ip is: 21211716315</p>

<p>The wallet is: 15M9rP1GshzBfMbqnHL77iqVcvmgbzVa4S</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-16T13:02:13.140Z
See with BTC-e, but I guess that there is nothing to do.
Sorry for your loose.
Jan Moritz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-17T12:57:02.733Z
Just curious - how do you know the IP address?
sashoalm
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-17T16:28:19.447Z
Did you use 2 factor authentication?
RentFree
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-06T16:08:07.903Z
Given how popular Bitcoin news is lately, I would imagine that if any TV news station were able to get a story about how you were able to catch someone via the IP+wallet, it would make national news.
djangofan
<theft>
Trace and contact bitcoin thief
Martijn
# Trace and contact bitcoin thief

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-16)

My btc-e account was hacked (or my passwords stolen from my computer). I was able to make screenshots while they were withdrawing my bitcoins. So i have the btc wallet adress where the money went to and I have the ip adress of the thief.
Is there really nothing I can do? Can I find and contact the owner? how?

The ip is: 21211716315

The wallet is: 15M9rP1GshzBfMbqnHL77iqVcvmgbzVa4S

**Tags:** theft

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: See with BTC-e, but I guess that there is nothing to do. Sorry for your loose.  
> **username_2**: Just curious - how do you know the IP address?  
> **username_3**: Did you use 2 factor authentication?  
> **username_4**: Given how popular Bitcoin news is lately, I would imagine that if any TV news station were able to get a story about how you were able to catch someone via the IP+wallet, it would make national news.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-12-17. Score: 2

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do.

By design, it is very difficult to identify a person from a Bitcoin address. In principle, if the thief eventually transfers the coins to an exchange in order to sell them, it could be possible to trace the coins to that point, and the exchange might know who got the money. But they would probably not divulge this without a court order (if even then), and they may be in a different country with different laws. Moreover, the thief could use a mixing service or other techniques to make it much more difficult to trace the coins to the exchange.

The IP address is a little better (yours is missing some dots, by the way). You can use a tool such as whois to find the ISP to whom the address is registered, and their records would show which of their subscribers was using it at that time. But again, you'd need a court order, and they could be in a different country. Furthermore, there's a very good chance that the thief is not actually their subscriber, but someone who compromised their subscriber's computer and used it remotely. There could even be several layers of this.

Each of these steps would need the assistance of law enforcement, so it would be reasonable to report the theft to your local or national police agency, and give them the information you've shared with us. (It could take some work to educate them about Bitcoin, or find an officer who is already familiar with it.) But unless the thief has done a shoddy job of covering his tracks, it's unlikely he'll be caught, and even less likely that you'll be able to recover your coins.

Sorry.


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### Answer by username_6 on 2019-11-08. Score: 1

I'm convinced the thief can be found, still today.

In 2013 only very few people understood how their transactions could be traced and their addresses clustered. So obviously as well 'your thief'. He used this address 15M9rP1GshzBfMbqnHL77iqVcvmgbzVa4S in 116 Transactions and received 380 BTC. And obviously he tried to obfuscate his traces by splitting larger amounts into smaller and did the mistake to use this address as well as change address. This makes the detective work much easier. There are in the meantime millions of exchange addresses known. So if one of the many transactions after one, two, three ... steps ends up at a known exchange address then you can go with this information to police and they can ask the exchange(s) if the owner of the related address was KYCed (if they have his id or bank account and transferred fiat after an exchange).

In case you got your coins already back it would be interesting to hear how the thief was caught. Btw I assume you weren't the only victim ...


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