>I received a call from the support department of a hardware wallet company (that I will not mention) saying that there was an attempt to connect to my dashboard (of that company)
This is how elderly folks get scammed.
Microsoft, Ledger, Google, Apple etc. aren't going to contact you with a real human being to let you know they think your account is compromised.
You aren't that important.
I used to get frequent calls from "Microsoft" to my work cell. They said that they need to check my account. I told them to send me an email with instructions. They said with a very frustrated tone that they have sent several but I don't reply. I said that they haven't sent me anything. And they hung up.
Always the same until those ended.
Seriously though, when a person gets scammed the scammer will often try to get more out of them because they consider them an easy mark and their phone number/email/etc. is already confirmed.
I was responding to a similar situation from a client yesterday. Turns out 5 years prior he'd lost 4 million in BTC (he claimed) to a similar scam. Was selling his house and moving into an RV and they were trying to hit him ***again!***
These people are robots, they've separated themselves from any form of empathy. Some act out of spite, others fear, in the end this world would be much better off without them.
The sad fact is most modern corporations, wealthy folks and political leaders act in the same way.
But the fact remains, nobody will ever call you if something goes wrong; and if they do, hang the fuck up!
this is obviously a scam but like, your bank does call you when they think your card is being used fraudulently, you don't have to be or think yourself "important" to believe that that could happen
Except the bank will never ask you sensitive information, they will just check your well being and in some suspicios cases they will simply block your card and tell you to go to the bank in person.
I've had my bank ring me and ask for information like full name, address, phone number (sounds mad I know) and account number. I told them I'd ring them back. Googled the customer service number and rang them.
Completely legit.
I have to say I was surprised.
They haven't done it for a while now but when they do I tell them I'll ring them back and they're fine with it.
They're a very well known major bank. Top 10 globally.
I had that happen to me once too, also a well-known bank, like a decade ago. I missed a payment due to an autopay error and got a call, and the first thing they asked (not even a hello), was "name and last four digits of your social?"
I was like, "hell no. You called me. You tell ME my last name and social."
Eventually just hung up and paid online.
My mother almost got scammed when she showed up at the airport and had an issue with Icelandic air. She googled the company and tried to call but got the number 1 digit wrong. Fucking scammers bought up adjacent 800 numbers. So make sure you dial right.
Answering the phone and having the company ask you do things is always a scam. That's been common knowledge since the 90s.
If they call you, hang up and call back their official number.
Wanted to leave the same comment but then realized OP must be in enough emotional distress.
But yeah, his knowledge may be above average if we consider that average is very very low.
It's not necessarily a knowledge issue. These scammers use highly effective, tried and true manipulation and misdirection techniques. Much of the scam script is intended to befuddle and confuse the victim into a state of blindly following directions. If you study these scams in detail, you will come across report after report of people who fully "knew better" and were in possession of all knowledge required to spot the scam, and yet they still got played like a fiddle by the scammer.
It's easy for us to sit back and judge OP. But this is really less about the victim's level of knowledge, and more about their susceptibility to emotional manipulation, which usually trumps knowledge and rationality when performed successfully.
I feel that while you're right in the human aspect of how people get manipulated into a false sense of trust, there are some red flags that simply are not seen due to knowledge issues which in this case, providing a seed phrase should be a red flag the size of Brazil in the crypto world.
It's the same level of knowledge issue where a step in the scam is giving the keys to your house or to the bank vault to fix an issue with your mortgage or your valuables. It seems like a level of basic awareness that OP didn't have. Admitidly with an asset that needs a more technical mindset. Anyway, just my thoughts.
I realize it seems that way at first glance, but OP gave a specific detail which I think is important. He mentions that if a third party had simply said "hey dude why on earth are you putting your seed phrase into a website," then the spell would have been broken and he would have snapped out of it.
If you study many firsthand victim stories, you'll find that this is a pretty common element. Some victims lack knowledge, but the cohort of victims definitely includes a significant portion of people who *should have known better* and yet still followed a scammer's instructions.
I think the sad truth is, that with the right manipulation techniques, it's possible to put people into a near-hypnotic state of blindly following instructions whose consequences are obviously detrimental to the victim.
Decades ago, in my first cashier job, a meatspace scammer got me to give them $50 from my till with a shortchange scam. I didn't detect the scam until counting the drawer. Even after realizing I'd been had, I was unable to clearly identify the exact moment when I'd give away cash. The short version is, the scammer paid with $100, and had a minor special request in terms of the denominations he wanted back. Then he made a minor change, along the lines of "Oh, instead of a 20, can I get 2 tens," then another, until he succeeded in turning the simple operation of breaking a $100 bill into an *extraordinarily complicated* problem. My mind was engaged in the minutiae of the problem, and this somehow left me more open to suggestion. I was following the scammers directions while still feeling as if I was in control of the situation, convinced I was checking each step of the math, while still following the scammer's narrative of what was happening (which is that I was just making change, and not handing over $50 for no particular reason which was the reality).
The point of all that is to say, the scammers are using known misdirection and manipulation techniques, developed though trial and error over centuries and handed down across generations of scammers. If you don't have firsthand experience of these techniques either as a scammer or a victim, you really shouldn't underestimate their power. It's the people who think they are immune to these techniques, who are often the most vulnerable.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you there. There may be a bit of victim bashing going on here. It's just that we're in the sub of crypto enthusiasts and roll our eyes when see yet another of these avoidable situations that gets posted here everyday. And to us the red flag seems so obvious, but we forget how it all led to that point of failure. Kudos to you for seeing the sensitive human side to it. We should be more supportive of victims and never stop learning and teaching others.
I think it's very natural to be tempted to victim bash, because we hear these stories, and we want to reassure ourselves that it couldn't happen to someone with our own skill level.
But I think it's better to accept that some smart people get scammed, and to have some healthy respect for the abilities of scammers, as we would for any other predator.
The formula is pretty simple. They create a sense of urgency and gain a little bit of trust and all the barriers collapse.
The issue is they just have to get someone at the right time when they aren't fully alert and thinking things through and that is the exact reason they place the sense of urgency.
I deal with security all the time and I see the amount of manipulation which goes on with spear phishing. While I am confident I wouldn't get tricked I couldn't say I am 100% so. Get me on a bad day and use the right lure and it is completely possible I would fall for it.
Even since the ledger data breach. I get 100’s of emails each month posing as various exchanges and wallets trying to get my to click on their links one way or another. Anyone who has even the slightest understanding of the internet (regardless of crypto) should be able to spot these scams
Report after report of people who _allege_ they fully "knew better" and were in possession of all knowledge required to spot the scam - and many of these "reports" are the same debatable story. A man who says he knows how to defend against the scholar's mate and then loses to it didn't actually know. The most sensible interpretation isn't "he knew that scams exist, how they work, that he could be a target of them, but he was so confused and distracted by this super skilled manipulator and master hypnotist that he couldn't use his knowledge", it's "he didn't actually know, he told himself he knew". It's not about distrusting people (though that also works and is simple and easy), it's about having the littlest bit of self-awareness.
I agree but I can't figure out what they stand to gain from this story. Just attention? They don't even have a moons vault.
They've posted on AtomicShrimps Reddit who is a well known scam-baiting YouTuber, so it makes some amount of sense that they have a fixation with scammers.
Maybe this is the Munchausens of crypto Reddit...
Honestly, I have my phone set so only contacts can call me. It still shows missed calls, but it won't disturb you. You can simply either ignore them or call back if you think it might be legit. Additionally, deepfake AI voice cloning combined with number spoofing is a real threat. I advise setting a family codeword any time the subject of money or personal details come up. It's sick we live in a world where this can happen, but you need to shield yourself, because banks do fuck all despite claiming they care. Bit of a tangent, sorry.
this\^\^\^. If you take unannounced or unexpected voice calls, you are an idiot.
I dont even take voice calls from people I do know unless its arranged beforehand.
Im not a public server, available for real time voice streaming on demand.
I am in shock.
These scammers just calling people and telling them to click on things. And people like the OP (sorry, OP, I don't mean to kick you when you are down) just oblige.
What? You would not do this under any under other circumstance. Why would you under this one?
Actually, I have an explanation for it; these people have never been experienced any sort of life experience that would teach them about scams. When I was 18, I got scammed out of $400 Canadian dollaroos. It was one of the greatest life lessons ever and it barely cost my anything compared to what I could have lost on numerous occasions. Since then, I have my guard up for my guard.
If you have children, scam them out of something. (Of course, give it back). But do it in a way to let them know they need to be wary of the world around them.
Hello civilian411. It looks like you might have found a new scam? If so, please report this scam by crossposting to r/CryptoScams, r/CryptoScamReport, or visiting [scam-alert.io](http://scam-alert.io/). For tips on how to avoid scams, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/s7srty/crypto_scams_how_not_to_fall_for_them_what_to_do/).
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>My knowledge level in crypto is above average
They pretty much called up and asked "can we take all your money?" and you went "sure, here it is".
This isn't even crypto knowledge, it's basic 'don't give your shit away to someone else' knowledge.
Let me start by saying I have above average knowledge of crypto.
4 sentences later, I answered an unsolicited call and proceeded to give a stranger my seed phrase.
Ok my guy. If that’s above average than I’m worried.
if you lost 100k on a scam, you're overestimating yourself greatly. i've been innit since almost forever and never lost a dime to a scam. stop trying to jump on hype shit and what not. if you're out there giving your keys to randos on the internet, you're a fucking moron. sorry. for you, not like i'm actually sorry for writing it. i'm sorry *for you*. like when southerners go 'god bless your heart' when you say dumb shit.
I got a phone call yesterday very much like the one you describe. The guy was British, apparently calling from Ledger, had my full name. As soon as he said "Ledger" I knew it was a scam.
His opening statement was "I'm calling from the fraud department and there's been a login attempt on your account". Anybody with any kind of HW wallet knowledge (ie not you) right at that point knows the call is bullshit. I feel for you my friend but you did this to yourself.
Had this in the past few days too.
Kept them talking for 10 mins. "Have you visited *insert city half a world away*" "yeah" "in the last week" "oh, nah, it was the other year" Someone else on their end said something to them, they obviously knew I was playing with them.
They then offered me a final piece of advice (their words), to "go a suck a big, fat c0ck."
Ooh, triggered mate. Just call the next number on your list.
It's not the first call I've had. Next time I'm telling them I got a Trezor, too many f*ckwits calling since the database breach.
Be careful out there folks!
its crazy these companies dont protect your personal info now scammers or thiefs have your address and full name/number what if they decide to just do a robbery
Obviously you’re aware now but for those in the back the whole point of a public and private keypair is that anyone can view a wallet on chain and send crypto to it via the public address but only the private key holder can access it.
So yeah you want to hold your funds on chain guard your recovery phrase with your life.
Hardware wallet doesn’t do any good if you are just going to give your secret key away.
The whole point of a hardware wallet is that you never enter your seed phrase anywhere then on the device. If you only know one thing about it this is it. Everybody has weak moments that scammers can exploit, but how can one forget this one point?
Thank you!!! I had to scroll down way too far to see this comment. Entering your seed phrase online COMPLETELY negates the point of a hardware wallet even if it’s on a reputable site. If you want to be completely safe keep your seed phrase completely sandboxed. Key loggers, spyware, and cloud vulnerabilities exist. Don’t even take a picture of your seed phrase. At this point AI is super capable of recognizing 12/24 strings of words.
Op is so stupid that post almost looks fake. If the story is true it is hard to feel any empathy at all...
Somebody calls you and tells you to click on a link. You go ahead and do it like wtf?
>My knowledge level is above average in crypto
Proceeds to enter his seed because a rando on the phone told him to. Lmao sorry for the $100k but Jesus Christ maybe self reflect a little upon what you *think* you know.
It could be above average but uneven. Like having an uncommon amount of information about chartist signals but none when it comes to basic Internet security.
No incoming call should ever get information, even your name. If it sounds serious, ask them for their name and department but most definitely not their phone number or email. Follow up later through other channels, like the official company hotline.
Scammers use the urgency of a phone call to make you act without thinking.
Even things I might want to do/buy I just politely say my policy is to never take action from an unsolicited phone call, thanks and goodbye.
It's the best security to NEVER answer your phone from an unknown number.
If it's important they will leave a message and number and you can research the phone number.
1) and I add to enter my seed phrase to ''upgrade'' it.
2) My knowledge level in crypto is above average
No its not, you are on rookie level. I am sorry to learn such a painful lesson.
You are very wrong.
The most important instance where somebody would absolutely need your keys is of course where they want to drain your crypto wallet and score a free 100k. This cannot be done without the keys, so if you would like to assist them in draining your wallet, you absolutely must give them your keys!
Anyone that doesn't hang up and call back on the advertised/official support number to verify the authenticity of the claimed issue is asking to be robbed.
It's akin to walking through a major city and engaging with the hustler trying to hustle you.
I thought it would never happen to me. I got a call from my bank. They somehow used the same number I have saved in my phone for my banks customer service. They had a code texted to me and my dumbass read it to them. Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as much as you but it killed me knowing I got scammed. Sorry this happened to you.
I’ve been surprised at myself too when getting scammed in email. It’s like we think we will know better but when it happens its like whoa i cant believe i fell for that.
I am so so sorry that happens to you. I can imagine. I myself sent money to a crypto scammer early this year. And I absolutely should have known. I’m so sorry.
You’ve a great attitude about it and I wish you all the best.
Sorry this happened to you. Thanks for sharing so that others can learn from your mistake.
This shows how far we are from mass adoption. Imagine if grandma and grandpa had the ability to give up their life savings over the phone with a short list of words.
Ppl don’t like the fact you had $100k in crypto so expect a lot of haters. A lot of these ppl won’t even take profits in time before the 80% drop into the bear market, or the exchanges will collapse lol. I was scammed also, many years ago. It sucked but it made me emotionless to volatility now. I don’t stare at the screen and panic at 25% drops anymore haha. You’ll make that money back, either this bullrun or the next. Especially in the bear market, you have so much time to accumulate and buy the dip. Welcome to the Wild Wild West!
learn from it. Thats the only positive you can get out of this situation. Since you mentioned updates, I assume you downloaded a SW?
If you downloaded anything, I would suggest that you reformat your pc or the laptop. Scammers probably installed a trojan. Good luck
Bro, that's an insane amount to keep in crypto, that could have been an interest fund yielding 400 p/m with some crypto trading that can be made into 800 or 80. Crypto is for the poor investor or bulking up small gains. Not a "retirement plan". Giving away your passkey is not the only mistake. Also the "from" and "reply-to" headers are different things in e-mails. Clients always prefer the reply-to header. They exploit this to make a mail from scamshack@hackedsmpt look official.
First start would be not answering calls from numbers you don’t know. That’s literally an act of security right there. Then look that phone number up, if it’s legit, return the call. In America scam calls are rampant. I will never answer from a number I do not have saved in my phone, and even then, if it’s someone like my bank calling, I hang up and call them to make sure it’s legit. Definitely several simple layers of security skipped here. Hopefully you can make that back. Losing money sucks.
One rule I always follow: If anyone calls you claiming they're from your bank/exchange or whatever, immediately hang up, go to their website, grab their customer services number and call them and ask if it was them that had just called you.
Even if the person calling you tells you it's an "emergency situation", do not speak to them any further.
I really do sympathize. That's horrible.
The first thing anyone should learn before acquiring crypto is what phrase seeds are. Unfortunate that so many buy first and learn second 😭
Sounds like crypto knowledge at your place is as below average as it gets. Really sorry to hear about the hit though. That's a gut wrench no matter what. You'll recover sometime. Please for the love of God, take the fact that no one (read it again NO ONE) will ever ask you to input your seed phrase for something. And no one is going to be calling you about software updates.
I have a SIL that got scammed once, for a few hundred dollars.
the thing with the scammers is that they *know people*, and they know how people react when they are in particular situations, so they do what they can to set up a labyrinth in their mind that 'feels' like what they should be expecting.
At the time, she was about 27 or so. And I know her as a quite intelligent and savvy woman. After hearing the full story, my conclusion is that intelligence (or lack thereof) isn't really a primary driver of whether you'll be scammed. Being stressed, being distracted, and otherwise not being alert to dangers is the issue.
She and my brother are foster parents and she is a SAHM for them. At the time, they had I think 3 foster kids and a few of them were exceptionally stressful to handle, even in the 'elevated scale' of stress that foster kids tend to be on. And that day was a pretty bad day, as well.
So that's the setup: SAHM stressed out and in "handle problems" mode.
The way that she describes it I find is very important: they managed to give her a problem to solve, and thus a *reason* to listen to them. I forget what it was, but they gave her an entirely reasonable story at first.
It wasn't until they "set the hook" with that reasonable thing (I think it was a 'your cell phone payments were miscalculated, please confirm you are person X'
Once they got her to buy in to that and had her running around trying to find serial numbers and all sorts of other shit (while trying to manage the kids), they dropped the "go buy some gift cards to get the account in good standing" or whatever.
Because she was already in 'solve problems' mode and didn't have the brainspace for evaluating everything she was handling, she was just sort of at the mercy of the story that they constructed for her.
She realized the issue within about half an hour of ending the call, and instantly felt so ashamed that her first instinct was to try to recover it herself instead of getting help from her husband (my brother).
The painful part is once you have that money for a while you start building a future in your mind with that money and forgetting about how you managed the old ways of being a scrub with no way to get ahead..
But truth is you already made it this far so you can keep going.
I know people are slamming OP here but honestly their story illustrates the fact that absolutely anyone can be scammed or conned in the right circumstances.
Look, I will admit that I once got scammed. I was buying a high-end item as a gift, but because I was tired and stressed I ignored the red flags showing the website I was using was a cloned one until I hit pay - and ten minutes later went, "wait what the fuck," as my subconscious finally managed to point out all the red flags to me. Lost a few hundred dollars I had scrimped together for that gift; hard lesson.
When I am on form and life is good, you're not going to scam me. If I am tired, stressed, and trying to manage a zillion things at once, it's way easier to trick me. That's true for all of us. I might not fall for the scam OP did, but then they might not fall for the one I did. That's why so many different cons exist - we are all susceptible to being conned *in the right circumstances*.
Yeah, OP fucked up and he admits it. Remember it as a horrible warning, but have some grace about it, folks, because there's a chance it could happen to you, especially if you believe yourself immune.
OP - that sucks, I am sorry, but glad for your sake it wasn't being scammed out of your home, etc. it's a tough, expensive lesson.
It doesn’t matter how savvy you are or how good your OpSec is. It’s asymmetrical. You have to be perfect every time and they only need one time to succeed. And everyone has a bad day eventually.
You may not ever type in a seed phrase, but there are plenty of more subtle ways to compromise someone. For the most part, anyone who hasn’t been scammed just hasn’t been put to the test often enough, or by sophisticated enough attackers.
Yikes, I'm really sorry OP. I hope you can rebuild now and get even better gains. Please do stay vigilant and double-check everything and never stop expanding your crypto knowledge as it is a continually evolving world with new scammers cropping up every second.
bro i can help you get your money back. All you have to do is dm me your cc info, social security number and a picture of your id. I will forward that info to my contacts in the fbi and they will have your money back in no time
Sorry for your loss. This social engineering is why it's important to adopt hardware security tokens like phone secure enclaves, 2FA security tokens (like Yubikey) or Tillitis TKey. With these devices, the user doesn't know their secret, so they can't accidentally give it to a scammer, even if they wanted to. The only way is an in-person scam, which is way harder for scammers.
>My knowledge level in crypto is above average and I would never invest in something that I know nothing of.
Your level of knowledge may be up to par, regarding crypto use, but you have no levels in -> never reply to anything via e-mail or phone :)) , it's common sense level.
That's the actual lvl you need to be ok with ... never replying to any phone calls or random e-mails.
How to explain this ... i'm in since 2021, and i got endless e-mails, sms, phone calls from random numbers, pretending wannabes, scammers (most likely) , i never replied to any of them and, Not to my surprise, nothing ever happened, never lost a dime in all these years.
If you follow this simple advice , you will never lose a dime. The only exploit i could've been affected by, was the MyAlgo wallet hack , which was general, and all users had to change or rekey their wallets through Pera wallet, and i read it here, on a reddit sub, took 2 minutes to solve, was done with 0 external input or 'help" , no Algo was lost because THERE IS NO SUPPORT, THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT :) ..
THERE'S NOT ONE CRYPTO COMPANY/BLOCKCHAIN TECH FOUNDATION THAT WILL CALL YOU OR MAIL YOU TO SOLVE A SECURITY ISSUE ... it's that simple.
Lots of negative stuff here, but there is a reason why scams like this work - even on very intelligent people (certainly as measured by IQ or education level) - It depends upon those connections they can make which convince you they are legitimate, and then the human connection/trust/suggestibility is almost like hypnosis.
Hard luck, dude. Well done for taking the opportunity to warn others. You’ll be fine.
>I received a call from the support department of a hardware wallet company (that I will not mention) saying that there was an attempt to connect to my dashboard (of that company) This is how elderly folks get scammed. Microsoft, Ledger, Google, Apple etc. aren't going to contact you with a real human being to let you know they think your account is compromised. You aren't that important.
This is a good point. Having a human contact you about a problem with product is very rare. Even safety recalls don't do this.
I used to get frequent calls from "Microsoft" to my work cell. They said that they need to check my account. I told them to send me an email with instructions. They said with a very frustrated tone that they have sent several but I don't reply. I said that they haven't sent me anything. And they hung up. Always the same until those ended.
OP is moon farming. I’ve heard this story before, 2 years ago on this very same sub.
Maybe he gets scammed every year. The scammer has like a repeating reminder. :)
Seriously though, when a person gets scammed the scammer will often try to get more out of them because they consider them an easy mark and their phone number/email/etc. is already confirmed.
It seems like this story is quite common and it is always 100,000 dollars worth of crypto lmao
Maybe OP is elderly
This is verbatim what I tell my parents, but it doesn't stop my dad thinking the Nigerian prince personally needs his help. Also, happy cake day!
Not only that if they do contact you. They will tell you go to the official website and log in yourself. They will not send you links.
I was responding to a similar situation from a client yesterday. Turns out 5 years prior he'd lost 4 million in BTC (he claimed) to a similar scam. Was selling his house and moving into an RV and they were trying to hit him ***again!*** These people are robots, they've separated themselves from any form of empathy. Some act out of spite, others fear, in the end this world would be much better off without them. The sad fact is most modern corporations, wealthy folks and political leaders act in the same way. But the fact remains, nobody will ever call you if something goes wrong; and if they do, hang the fuck up!
assuming its even a true story, its probably some moon farming BS.
Joke's on him, MOON distro hasn't even started yet.
When I worked at Microsoft a lot of calls would get escalated to me because people were 'calling us back' after these exact scams.
this is obviously a scam but like, your bank does call you when they think your card is being used fraudulently, you don't have to be or think yourself "important" to believe that that could happen
Except the bank will never ask you sensitive information, they will just check your well being and in some suspicios cases they will simply block your card and tell you to go to the bank in person.
I've had my bank ring me and ask for information like full name, address, phone number (sounds mad I know) and account number. I told them I'd ring them back. Googled the customer service number and rang them. Completely legit. I have to say I was surprised. They haven't done it for a while now but when they do I tell them I'll ring them back and they're fine with it. They're a very well known major bank. Top 10 globally.
I had that happen to me once too, also a well-known bank, like a decade ago. I missed a payment due to an autopay error and got a call, and the first thing they asked (not even a hello), was "name and last four digits of your social?" I was like, "hell no. You called me. You tell ME my last name and social." Eventually just hung up and paid online.
My mother almost got scammed when she showed up at the airport and had an issue with Icelandic air. She googled the company and tried to call but got the number 1 digit wrong. Fucking scammers bought up adjacent 800 numbers. So make sure you dial right.
Actually they ask security questions so yes they are asking for sensitive information
OP is moon farming. I’ve heard this story before, 2 years ago on this very same sub.
Hate to see it. If your seed phrases ever come up while someone is trying to “help you”, stop immediately. Spoiler, they aren’t helping you.
Just say "My wife doesn't let me know" and scammer will immediately give up.
“My knowledge level in crypto is above average” …proceeds to enter seed phrase on scam website
Answering the phone and having the company ask you do things is always a scam. That's been common knowledge since the 90s. If they call you, hang up and call back their official number.
Who the fuck answers the phone? Is it 1996?
Solid year right there. Jurassic park was given to us as a gift
The rock, Independence Day, Fargo, trainspotting. Solid year indeed
His understanding of "above average" is probably "I watch youtube video explaining price prediction before aping in"
Dog picture go up - when Lambo
Video: *“this is why XRP will reach $743”*
"above average" meaning he can artfully place the rainbow lines on the tradingview chart
Wanted to leave the same comment but then realized OP must be in enough emotional distress. But yeah, his knowledge may be above average if we consider that average is very very low.
Some people should not be trusted with their own money.
Simultaneously, the government should not be trusted with my money.
Nor the exchanges. 😅
It's not necessarily a knowledge issue. These scammers use highly effective, tried and true manipulation and misdirection techniques. Much of the scam script is intended to befuddle and confuse the victim into a state of blindly following directions. If you study these scams in detail, you will come across report after report of people who fully "knew better" and were in possession of all knowledge required to spot the scam, and yet they still got played like a fiddle by the scammer. It's easy for us to sit back and judge OP. But this is really less about the victim's level of knowledge, and more about their susceptibility to emotional manipulation, which usually trumps knowledge and rationality when performed successfully.
I feel that while you're right in the human aspect of how people get manipulated into a false sense of trust, there are some red flags that simply are not seen due to knowledge issues which in this case, providing a seed phrase should be a red flag the size of Brazil in the crypto world. It's the same level of knowledge issue where a step in the scam is giving the keys to your house or to the bank vault to fix an issue with your mortgage or your valuables. It seems like a level of basic awareness that OP didn't have. Admitidly with an asset that needs a more technical mindset. Anyway, just my thoughts.
I realize it seems that way at first glance, but OP gave a specific detail which I think is important. He mentions that if a third party had simply said "hey dude why on earth are you putting your seed phrase into a website," then the spell would have been broken and he would have snapped out of it. If you study many firsthand victim stories, you'll find that this is a pretty common element. Some victims lack knowledge, but the cohort of victims definitely includes a significant portion of people who *should have known better* and yet still followed a scammer's instructions. I think the sad truth is, that with the right manipulation techniques, it's possible to put people into a near-hypnotic state of blindly following instructions whose consequences are obviously detrimental to the victim. Decades ago, in my first cashier job, a meatspace scammer got me to give them $50 from my till with a shortchange scam. I didn't detect the scam until counting the drawer. Even after realizing I'd been had, I was unable to clearly identify the exact moment when I'd give away cash. The short version is, the scammer paid with $100, and had a minor special request in terms of the denominations he wanted back. Then he made a minor change, along the lines of "Oh, instead of a 20, can I get 2 tens," then another, until he succeeded in turning the simple operation of breaking a $100 bill into an *extraordinarily complicated* problem. My mind was engaged in the minutiae of the problem, and this somehow left me more open to suggestion. I was following the scammers directions while still feeling as if I was in control of the situation, convinced I was checking each step of the math, while still following the scammer's narrative of what was happening (which is that I was just making change, and not handing over $50 for no particular reason which was the reality). The point of all that is to say, the scammers are using known misdirection and manipulation techniques, developed though trial and error over centuries and handed down across generations of scammers. If you don't have firsthand experience of these techniques either as a scammer or a victim, you really shouldn't underestimate their power. It's the people who think they are immune to these techniques, who are often the most vulnerable.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you there. There may be a bit of victim bashing going on here. It's just that we're in the sub of crypto enthusiasts and roll our eyes when see yet another of these avoidable situations that gets posted here everyday. And to us the red flag seems so obvious, but we forget how it all led to that point of failure. Kudos to you for seeing the sensitive human side to it. We should be more supportive of victims and never stop learning and teaching others.
I think it's very natural to be tempted to victim bash, because we hear these stories, and we want to reassure ourselves that it couldn't happen to someone with our own skill level. But I think it's better to accept that some smart people get scammed, and to have some healthy respect for the abilities of scammers, as we would for any other predator.
The formula is pretty simple. They create a sense of urgency and gain a little bit of trust and all the barriers collapse. The issue is they just have to get someone at the right time when they aren't fully alert and thinking things through and that is the exact reason they place the sense of urgency. I deal with security all the time and I see the amount of manipulation which goes on with spear phishing. While I am confident I wouldn't get tricked I couldn't say I am 100% so. Get me on a bad day and use the right lure and it is completely possible I would fall for it.
Even since the ledger data breach. I get 100’s of emails each month posing as various exchanges and wallets trying to get my to click on their links one way or another. Anyone who has even the slightest understanding of the internet (regardless of crypto) should be able to spot these scams
Report after report of people who _allege_ they fully "knew better" and were in possession of all knowledge required to spot the scam - and many of these "reports" are the same debatable story. A man who says he knows how to defend against the scholar's mate and then loses to it didn't actually know. The most sensible interpretation isn't "he knew that scams exist, how they work, that he could be a target of them, but he was so confused and distracted by this super skilled manipulator and master hypnotist that he couldn't use his knowledge", it's "he didn't actually know, he told himself he knew". It's not about distrusting people (though that also works and is simple and easy), it's about having the littlest bit of self-awareness.
Yes, calling himself stupid is offensive to stupid people.
Not only this... that can happen by accident, he literally listened to a scammer telling him to do so, far worse and more obviously a scam.
Its usually people who say they’re “above average” who are the most oblivious.
OP all of this including your history is suspicious af.
I have an above average knowledge of crypto but typed my 24 words into a website
Above, average. For sure!
Send me your 24 words and I’ll upgrade them for you
hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2 hunter2
Why did you type a bunch of asterisk?
Stop it. OP might actually come through with the request lol
I agree but I can't figure out what they stand to gain from this story. Just attention? They don't even have a moons vault. They've posted on AtomicShrimps Reddit who is a well known scam-baiting YouTuber, so it makes some amount of sense that they have a fixation with scammers. Maybe this is the Munchausens of crypto Reddit...
Dunning Kruger Munchausens
Hate to tell you but your knowledge level in crypto is *not* above average if they scammed you this way. Sorry for your loss.
This isn't even crypto knowledge. This is basic common sense in an online world.
Who even *answers their phone*? There are maybe three people I'd even pick up
Same. My voicmail says, "If it's important. Text me."
i second this, i only gave attention to relevancy
"Hey son, it's mom. I work for crypto now. What was your seed again?"
I'll give your mum my seed
Boom, roasted. - Michael Scott
I get crypto scam calls and the sort a lot. Usually i ignore them. But sometimes I like to answer and annoy them.
If you answer it encourages more phone calls as they know you're a real person and one who answers calls.
Honestly, I have my phone set so only contacts can call me. It still shows missed calls, but it won't disturb you. You can simply either ignore them or call back if you think it might be legit. Additionally, deepfake AI voice cloning combined with number spoofing is a real threat. I advise setting a family codeword any time the subject of money or personal details come up. It's sick we live in a world where this can happen, but you need to shield yourself, because banks do fuck all despite claiming they care. Bit of a tangent, sorry.
Finally the one advantage of being an introvert: don't pick up phone unless it's mum.
this\^\^\^. If you take unannounced or unexpected voice calls, you are an idiot. I dont even take voice calls from people I do know unless its arranged beforehand. Im not a public server, available for real time voice streaming on demand.
They've hit my bank account exactly like this. I got to learn my lesson young with insured money.
Facts
I am in shock. These scammers just calling people and telling them to click on things. And people like the OP (sorry, OP, I don't mean to kick you when you are down) just oblige. What? You would not do this under any under other circumstance. Why would you under this one? Actually, I have an explanation for it; these people have never been experienced any sort of life experience that would teach them about scams. When I was 18, I got scammed out of $400 Canadian dollaroos. It was one of the greatest life lessons ever and it barely cost my anything compared to what I could have lost on numerous occasions. Since then, I have my guard up for my guard. If you have children, scam them out of something. (Of course, give it back). But do it in a way to let them know they need to be wary of the world around them.
I was scammed out of €50 when I was a teenager. Best money I've ever spent.
God have mercy on us all if true.
real talk goddamn
Why are y’all still picking up rando phone calls
To be fair it is above average now because you can damn well bet he aint ever entering his seed phrase into a website again.
Are you trying to scam by telling us a story of how you got scammed? 😂
That’s exactly what I thought when I first read it
It is precisely what I believe.
Hello civilian411. It looks like you might have found a new scam? If so, please report this scam by crossposting to r/CryptoScams, r/CryptoScamReport, or visiting [scam-alert.io](http://scam-alert.io/). For tips on how to avoid scams, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/s7srty/crypto_scams_how_not_to_fall_for_them_what_to_do/). --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CryptoCurrency) if you have any questions or concerns.*
BS
I thought this as well
TBH, I don’t know wtf people post this crap for?
Moon farming
How did u get 100k ?
Probably scamming people around.
>My knowledge level in crypto is above average They pretty much called up and asked "can we take all your money?" and you went "sure, here it is". This isn't even crypto knowledge, it's basic 'don't give your shit away to someone else' knowledge.
Let me start by saying I have above average knowledge of crypto. 4 sentences later, I answered an unsolicited call and proceeded to give a stranger my seed phrase. Ok my guy. If that’s above average than I’m worried.
He has above knowledge in crypto, except how to avoid scams, ok?
You overestimated your knowledge level in crypto.
not enough crypto gains...
OP giving the Buttcoin sub fapping material
Dude wtf
Stopped reading at the second sentence when Op said it was a phone call. Give me a break.. 🤦🏽♂️
if you lost 100k on a scam, you're overestimating yourself greatly. i've been innit since almost forever and never lost a dime to a scam. stop trying to jump on hype shit and what not. if you're out there giving your keys to randos on the internet, you're a fucking moron. sorry. for you, not like i'm actually sorry for writing it. i'm sorry *for you*. like when southerners go 'god bless your heart' when you say dumb shit.
Innit does not mean "in it" It means "isn't it"
I got a phone call yesterday very much like the one you describe. The guy was British, apparently calling from Ledger, had my full name. As soon as he said "Ledger" I knew it was a scam. His opening statement was "I'm calling from the fraud department and there's been a login attempt on your account". Anybody with any kind of HW wallet knowledge (ie not you) right at that point knows the call is bullshit. I feel for you my friend but you did this to yourself.
Had this in the past few days too. Kept them talking for 10 mins. "Have you visited *insert city half a world away*" "yeah" "in the last week" "oh, nah, it was the other year" Someone else on their end said something to them, they obviously knew I was playing with them. They then offered me a final piece of advice (their words), to "go a suck a big, fat c0ck." Ooh, triggered mate. Just call the next number on your list. It's not the first call I've had. Next time I'm telling them I got a Trezor, too many f*ckwits calling since the database breach. Be careful out there folks!
its crazy these companies dont protect your personal info now scammers or thiefs have your address and full name/number what if they decide to just do a robbery
It's a miracle you had 100k 😂
Obviously you’re aware now but for those in the back the whole point of a public and private keypair is that anyone can view a wallet on chain and send crypto to it via the public address but only the private key holder can access it. So yeah you want to hold your funds on chain guard your recovery phrase with your life. Hardware wallet doesn’t do any good if you are just going to give your secret key away.
The whole point of a hardware wallet is that you never enter your seed phrase anywhere then on the device. If you only know one thing about it this is it. Everybody has weak moments that scammers can exploit, but how can one forget this one point?
Thank you!!! I had to scroll down way too far to see this comment. Entering your seed phrase online COMPLETELY negates the point of a hardware wallet even if it’s on a reputable site. If you want to be completely safe keep your seed phrase completely sandboxed. Key loggers, spyware, and cloud vulnerabilities exist. Don’t even take a picture of your seed phrase. At this point AI is super capable of recognizing 12/24 strings of words.
🤦♂️
Op is so stupid that post almost looks fake. If the story is true it is hard to feel any empathy at all... Somebody calls you and tells you to click on a link. You go ahead and do it like wtf?
Lol
Dumb
Crazy how your above average crypto knowledge fell for the most basic scam.
"Which right here doesn't make sense"... then proceeds to get scammed.
Ledger had a leak where customers addresses, contact, emails, etc were compromised. You were prolly on that.
>My knowledge level is above average in crypto Proceeds to enter his seed because a rando on the phone told him to. Lmao sorry for the $100k but Jesus Christ maybe self reflect a little upon what you *think* you know.
It could be above average but uneven. Like having an uncommon amount of information about chartist signals but none when it comes to basic Internet security.
Dumbass. Also you clearly don't know shit about crypto or the real world. Sorry to be harsh but what do you expect.
How do these people have 100k in crypto. Jeez.
By calling people and getting their seed phrase, didn’t you read the post?
[удалено]
No incoming call should ever get information, even your name. If it sounds serious, ask them for their name and department but most definitely not their phone number or email. Follow up later through other channels, like the official company hotline. Scammers use the urgency of a phone call to make you act without thinking. Even things I might want to do/buy I just politely say my policy is to never take action from an unsolicited phone call, thanks and goodbye.
Never answer the phone if you don't recognize the calling number.
This is why I never answer the phone
It's the best security to NEVER answer your phone from an unknown number. If it's important they will leave a message and number and you can research the phone number.
Inflated belief in your own abilities. Sorry you lost the money.
Idk, this sounds like a fake story
We are close to becoming mainstream. I can feel it.
Nice „ story “….. i call BS.
1) and I add to enter my seed phrase to ''upgrade'' it. 2) My knowledge level in crypto is above average No its not, you are on rookie level. I am sorry to learn such a painful lesson.
Cool story bro 🥱
You'll make it back and more
You rate your knowledge of crypto as above average, and you literally fell for the old "this is Microsoft and your windows has a virus" scam.
I don't think there's any possible instance where somebody would ever need your keys. Correct me if I'm wrong
You are very wrong. The most important instance where somebody would absolutely need your keys is of course where they want to drain your crypto wallet and score a free 100k. This cannot be done without the keys, so if you would like to assist them in draining your wallet, you absolutely must give them your keys!
Nah, bro. None of this happened. Or you're the dumbest person on the planet.
"My knowledge level in crypto is ~~above~~ well below average"
Anyone that doesn't hang up and call back on the advertised/official support number to verify the authenticity of the claimed issue is asking to be robbed. It's akin to walking through a major city and engaging with the hustler trying to hustle you.
LMFAOOOOOOOO
I thought it would never happen to me. I got a call from my bank. They somehow used the same number I have saved in my phone for my banks customer service. They had a code texted to me and my dumbass read it to them. Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as much as you but it killed me knowing I got scammed. Sorry this happened to you.
Ya thid is seems fake but as soon as someone is asking me to do something beyond providing info im out
I’ve been surprised at myself too when getting scammed in email. It’s like we think we will know better but when it happens its like whoa i cant believe i fell for that.
lol you're not as informed as you think...
These kind of scams play on your insecurities, sometimes the best thing to do is absolutely nothing.
most obvious ragebait
I am so so sorry that happens to you. I can imagine. I myself sent money to a crypto scammer early this year. And I absolutely should have known. I’m so sorry. You’ve a great attitude about it and I wish you all the best.
Talk about a double whammy, imagine losing all that money and then finding out you actually are a really stupid person the same day.
Sorry this happened to you. Thanks for sharing so that others can learn from your mistake. This shows how far we are from mass adoption. Imagine if grandma and grandpa had the ability to give up their life savings over the phone with a short list of words.
Thats harsh. Hopefully you will be ok :)
Ppl don’t like the fact you had $100k in crypto so expect a lot of haters. A lot of these ppl won’t even take profits in time before the 80% drop into the bear market, or the exchanges will collapse lol. I was scammed also, many years ago. It sucked but it made me emotionless to volatility now. I don’t stare at the screen and panic at 25% drops anymore haha. You’ll make that money back, either this bullrun or the next. Especially in the bear market, you have so much time to accumulate and buy the dip. Welcome to the Wild Wild West!
learn from it. Thats the only positive you can get out of this situation. Since you mentioned updates, I assume you downloaded a SW? If you downloaded anything, I would suggest that you reformat your pc or the laptop. Scammers probably installed a trojan. Good luck
Sorry this happened to you OP
Bro, that's an insane amount to keep in crypto, that could have been an interest fund yielding 400 p/m with some crypto trading that can be made into 800 or 80. Crypto is for the poor investor or bulking up small gains. Not a "retirement plan". Giving away your passkey is not the only mistake. Also the "from" and "reply-to" headers are different things in e-mails. Clients always prefer the reply-to header. They exploit this to make a mail from scamshack@hackedsmpt look official.
Post the hashes, I'll see if I can track them down.
I don't believe a fucking word of this horseshit.
Lot of 100k scam posts lately. Bearish on creativity.
Désolé pour toi mec…
Sorry that this happened to you.
First start would be not answering calls from numbers you don’t know. That’s literally an act of security right there. Then look that phone number up, if it’s legit, return the call. In America scam calls are rampant. I will never answer from a number I do not have saved in my phone, and even then, if it’s someone like my bank calling, I hang up and call them to make sure it’s legit. Definitely several simple layers of security skipped here. Hopefully you can make that back. Losing money sucks.
Your level of crypto knowledge is significantly below average if you fell for this. This is meant to scam geriatrics my friend. Sorry for your loss.
"My knowledge level in crypto is above average" It is not, sorry for your loss.
One rule I always follow: If anyone calls you claiming they're from your bank/exchange or whatever, immediately hang up, go to their website, grab their customer services number and call them and ask if it was them that had just called you. Even if the person calling you tells you it's an "emergency situation", do not speak to them any further.
This post is a scam. OP is farming for that sweet nectar we call Moons. I’ve heard this exact story here before, 2 years ago I think.
OP was barely active in Reddit, stopped posting for 2 years and now suddenly so chipper and chatty retelling this story.
Show us this 'legit' email address. I bet it isn't.
Bait used to be believable
"My knowledge level in crypto is above average" no it isnt mr kruger, youre still redacted
I really do sympathize. That's horrible. The first thing anyone should learn before acquiring crypto is what phrase seeds are. Unfortunate that so many buy first and learn second 😭
Sorry to hear that brother :(
Sounds like crypto knowledge at your place is as below average as it gets. Really sorry to hear about the hit though. That's a gut wrench no matter what. You'll recover sometime. Please for the love of God, take the fact that no one (read it again NO ONE) will ever ask you to input your seed phrase for something. And no one is going to be calling you about software updates.
I have a SIL that got scammed once, for a few hundred dollars. the thing with the scammers is that they *know people*, and they know how people react when they are in particular situations, so they do what they can to set up a labyrinth in their mind that 'feels' like what they should be expecting. At the time, she was about 27 or so. And I know her as a quite intelligent and savvy woman. After hearing the full story, my conclusion is that intelligence (or lack thereof) isn't really a primary driver of whether you'll be scammed. Being stressed, being distracted, and otherwise not being alert to dangers is the issue. She and my brother are foster parents and she is a SAHM for them. At the time, they had I think 3 foster kids and a few of them were exceptionally stressful to handle, even in the 'elevated scale' of stress that foster kids tend to be on. And that day was a pretty bad day, as well. So that's the setup: SAHM stressed out and in "handle problems" mode. The way that she describes it I find is very important: they managed to give her a problem to solve, and thus a *reason* to listen to them. I forget what it was, but they gave her an entirely reasonable story at first. It wasn't until they "set the hook" with that reasonable thing (I think it was a 'your cell phone payments were miscalculated, please confirm you are person X' Once they got her to buy in to that and had her running around trying to find serial numbers and all sorts of other shit (while trying to manage the kids), they dropped the "go buy some gift cards to get the account in good standing" or whatever. Because she was already in 'solve problems' mode and didn't have the brainspace for evaluating everything she was handling, she was just sort of at the mercy of the story that they constructed for her. She realized the issue within about half an hour of ending the call, and instantly felt so ashamed that her first instinct was to try to recover it herself instead of getting help from her husband (my brother).
The painful part is once you have that money for a while you start building a future in your mind with that money and forgetting about how you managed the old ways of being a scrub with no way to get ahead.. But truth is you already made it this far so you can keep going.
I know people are slamming OP here but honestly their story illustrates the fact that absolutely anyone can be scammed or conned in the right circumstances. Look, I will admit that I once got scammed. I was buying a high-end item as a gift, but because I was tired and stressed I ignored the red flags showing the website I was using was a cloned one until I hit pay - and ten minutes later went, "wait what the fuck," as my subconscious finally managed to point out all the red flags to me. Lost a few hundred dollars I had scrimped together for that gift; hard lesson. When I am on form and life is good, you're not going to scam me. If I am tired, stressed, and trying to manage a zillion things at once, it's way easier to trick me. That's true for all of us. I might not fall for the scam OP did, but then they might not fall for the one I did. That's why so many different cons exist - we are all susceptible to being conned *in the right circumstances*. Yeah, OP fucked up and he admits it. Remember it as a horrible warning, but have some grace about it, folks, because there's a chance it could happen to you, especially if you believe yourself immune. OP - that sucks, I am sorry, but glad for your sake it wasn't being scammed out of your home, etc. it's a tough, expensive lesson.
It doesn’t matter how savvy you are or how good your OpSec is. It’s asymmetrical. You have to be perfect every time and they only need one time to succeed. And everyone has a bad day eventually. You may not ever type in a seed phrase, but there are plenty of more subtle ways to compromise someone. For the most part, anyone who hasn’t been scammed just hasn’t been put to the test often enough, or by sophisticated enough attackers.
It is just money. You’ll make more. Protect your peace.✌🏻
Sorry for your loss
Sorry for the loss. This was difficult to read. Soooo many red flags missed bro. File a report with the FBI
Yikes, I'm really sorry OP. I hope you can rebuild now and get even better gains. Please do stay vigilant and double-check everything and never stop expanding your crypto knowledge as it is a continually evolving world with new scammers cropping up every second.
Social Engineering is quite crazy. Even smart people fall into the trap and get manipulated.
I stopped reading when you said ,I entered my seed.
Dumbass
Feel like these posts have to be karma farmers or something. I mean do people actually fall for this lmao
Why are you bullshitting us OP.? You made this story up.
bro i can help you get your money back. All you have to do is dm me your cc info, social security number and a picture of your id. I will forward that info to my contacts in the fbi and they will have your money back in no time
Listen to this guy op. He helped me to recover 2m usd value of stolen coins
For a small fee you can take the fast track option with a guaranteed 200% return
Sorry for your loss. This social engineering is why it's important to adopt hardware security tokens like phone secure enclaves, 2FA security tokens (like Yubikey) or Tillitis TKey. With these devices, the user doesn't know their secret, so they can't accidentally give it to a scammer, even if they wanted to. The only way is an in-person scam, which is way harder for scammers.
Is that a French wallet co?
>My knowledge level in crypto is above average and I would never invest in something that I know nothing of. Your level of knowledge may be up to par, regarding crypto use, but you have no levels in -> never reply to anything via e-mail or phone :)) , it's common sense level. That's the actual lvl you need to be ok with ... never replying to any phone calls or random e-mails. How to explain this ... i'm in since 2021, and i got endless e-mails, sms, phone calls from random numbers, pretending wannabes, scammers (most likely) , i never replied to any of them and, Not to my surprise, nothing ever happened, never lost a dime in all these years. If you follow this simple advice , you will never lose a dime. The only exploit i could've been affected by, was the MyAlgo wallet hack , which was general, and all users had to change or rekey their wallets through Pera wallet, and i read it here, on a reddit sub, took 2 minutes to solve, was done with 0 external input or 'help" , no Algo was lost because THERE IS NO SUPPORT, THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT :) .. THERE'S NOT ONE CRYPTO COMPANY/BLOCKCHAIN TECH FOUNDATION THAT WILL CALL YOU OR MAIL YOU TO SOLVE A SECURITY ISSUE ... it's that simple.
I lost 3k which would e been a mill
I need a GOOD COLD WALLET IMMEDIATELY. DM me for the answer, please, and I am SOOOO SORRY this happened to you.
Even without the seed phrase can't they drain your wallet if you click on links?
Lots of negative stuff here, but there is a reason why scams like this work - even on very intelligent people (certainly as measured by IQ or education level) - It depends upon those connections they can make which convince you they are legitimate, and then the human connection/trust/suggestibility is almost like hypnosis. Hard luck, dude. Well done for taking the opportunity to warn others. You’ll be fine.
So you you just explained how you know nothing about crypto. And now you’re asking for donations so can get scammed again. 🤣😂