Fraudulent approaches to crypto estates

Families dealing with a possible crypto estate are often approached by strangers offering help. The assets are invisible, the relatives are looking for answers, and most fraudulent approaches around a crypto estate follow a limited number of patterns. Knowing them protects you.

The patterns

• Fake wallet or exchange support. Someone calls, emails or messages you pretending to be from Ledger, Coinbase or another company, and asks you to “verify” or “secure” the account. Real support never contacts you out of the blue and never asks for passwords or recovery words. Example: “Your wallet has been blocked, click here to verify”, with a link to a fake login page.

• Fake recovery companies. A company contacts you after a death and promises to “get the crypto back”, often before you have contacted anyone yourself. Real professionals do not contact relatives first; you find and verify them yourself. Example: “We found your loved one’s wallet and can recover it for a fee.”

• Sponsored phishing links. Search results that look like the official website of a wallet or exchange but are not. The address in the browser bar differs slightly, for example “ledger-secure.com” instead of “ledger.com”.

• Requests for secret access information. Anyone who asks for the seed phrase, private key, password, PIN, wallet file or authentication code (“to check”) is asking for the keys to the wallet. No legitimate person or company ever needs them from you.

• Fees before any work. Upfront “unlock”, “release”, “tax” or “insurance” fees before any work is done.

• Guarantees. Promises of access or results. A guarantee is a warning sign, not a reason to trust.

• Fake reversals. “We recovered it, pay the release fee” without a verifiable result. You are asked to pay again for something you cannot see. The money is only back when you can see it in an account you control.

• Fake numbers. Support numbers that are not the official numbers on the official website.

The warning combination: pressure and secrecy

Pressure (“immediate payment, or the money is lost”), secrecy (“tell no one”), and payment in crypto to an unknown address together are strong warning signs. Take your time, a trustworthy route will still exist tomorrow.

How trustworthy professionals behave

They never ask for secrets, never guarantee outcomes, state scope and fees in writing, work within legal authority, and can be verified on their official domain (typed, not clicked from a message).

How to verify who you are dealing with

Type the official domain yourself in the address bar, never click a link from a message or email. Check the company’s registration, history and described field of work. Check the official support pages, and confirm the person’s identity and role through the official channel. When in doubt, stop and ask the estate’s lawyer or notary.

For the official channels of the main exchanges and wallets, see official channels and source verification.

What you never do

Never send or enter secret access information (seed phrase, private key, password, PIN, wallet file, keystore or authentication code) through forms, email, messages or apps, to anyone, and never into a website that asks for it “to check”. The only place it belongs is the official wallet app or device you control yourself, after legal authority is confirmed, and only when you are certain it is genuine, because fake apps and fake support pages are widespread. When in doubt, enter nothing. Never pay an upfront fee for “release” or “confirmation” of assets.

If you are targeted

Stop all contact. Do not pay. Report to the relevant authorities and the platform involved. Preserve messages as evidence. National authorities differ by country, for example the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) are the reporting routes in those countries; verify the agency for your country on its official domain. There is no requirement to respond quickly: take the time you need. If something was already typed, sent or paid, see you already made a mistake; what now?.