Bitcoin ATM paid out to a phone number, how can the funds be retrieved?

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?

user96229

Posted 2019-06-17T15:08:21.570

Reputation: 11

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 – 2019-06-17T15:44:45.803

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 – 2019-06-18T21:49:52.077

Have you tried contacting the ATM operator? – Murch – 2019-06-23T19:35:30.900

Answers

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

Posted 2019-06-17T15:08:21.570

Reputation: 4 815