In short
Nobody can recover crypto without the keys, and nobody legitimate will ask for your seed words, ask you to pay upfront, or contact you out of the blue offering help. Anyone who does one of those things is almost certainly a scammer.
People who have just inherited crypto, or think some has been lost, are ideal targets. They’re under stress, unfamiliar with the technology, and hoping someone can help. Scammers know this.
The usual tricks
“We can recover it for you”
Adverts, forum replies and messages from “blockchain forensics” or “crypto recovery” firms promising to get lost or stolen crypto back, for an upfront fee. They take the fee and disappear, or keep asking for more.
The FTC’s advice is short: never pay upfront for a refund or help with a refund (FTC). The FBI has warned about fake law firms that claim to work with government agencies to recover crypto. In its words, “there are no law firms which are officially authorized partners of US Government agencies” for this (FBI IC3).
Fake support
You search for “Coinbase support” or post a question, and “support” replies on social media or by phone. They ask for your login, a seed phrase, or for you to install remote-access software “to help”. Real exchange support doesn’t contact you through social media and never needs your seed words. That rule has no exceptions: anyone who asks for seed words is a scammer.
The balance-checker website
A site or app that promises to show the balance of a wallet if you enter the seed words. It does show the balance. Then it empties the wallet.
The helpful stranger
Someone in a forum or group offers to walk you through the recovery, free. At some point they need to “see” the words, or ask you to install a particular wallet from a link they send. Plenty of people online are genuinely helpful, but this particular pattern is a scam.
Pressure and deadlines
“The wallet will be closed in 48 hours unless you verify.” “The funds will be forfeited to the state.” Real forfeiture only happens after years of inactivity, through the exchange or the state, never through a message demanding that you act today. Tight deadlines are how scammers stop you from thinking or asking someone.
Rules that stop all of them
- Seed words never leave the paper, except onto a hardware wallet’s own screen.
- You contact companies; they don’t contact you. Use the address you typed yourself, not a link you were sent.
- No upfront fees, no “unlock” payments, no crypto sent to “verify” anything.
- No remote-access software on your computer for anyone you haven’t known for years.
- Talk it over with someone you trust before any irreversible step.
If you’ve already been scammed
Stop all contact and don’t pay anything more, including to someone who then offers to recover your losses from the first scam. That second offer is usually the same people. Report it to the police, and in the US to the FBI’s IC3. If crypto was sent from an exchange account, tell the exchange straight away. They can sometimes flag the receiving address.