How not to lose your crypto

A checklist: what never to do, how to protect yourself, and what to do if it has already happened.

Never do this

Never tell anyone your recovery phrase (12–24 words) or private key. No exchange, support team or police officer will ask for it. Whoever asks wants to steal.
Never invest through someone you met online: on a dating app, Telegram, WhatsApp or Facebook. That is how most scams start, even after months of chatting.
Never believe guaranteed profit. “2% a day”, “no risk”, “today only” always mean a scam.
Never pay to withdraw your own money. If a “fee”, “tax” or “insurance” is demanded before a payout, the money is already gone.
Never install remote access apps (AnyDesk, TeamViewer and the like) because someone asks you to.
Never answer “support” that wrote to you first. Real admins and exchange staff do not message first.
A call from your “bank”, “exchange” or “the police”? Hang up and call the official number yourself.
Never approve anything in your wallet you do not understand. One “Approve” or “Sign” on a fake site can empty the whole wallet.
Check the whole recipient address, not only the start and end. Do not copy addresses from your transaction history: scammers plant look-alike addresses there.
Never trust “recovery” services that guarantee your money back or want crypto up front. That is the second scam after the first.

Type the exchange address yourself or open it from a bookmark. Fake sites appear in Google results and ads.
Use an exchange licensed to operate in your country or region. Turn on two-step verification with an authenticator app, not SMS.
Turn on the withdrawal address allowlist on your exchange, so money can only go to addresses you approved.
Keep larger amounts on a hardware wallet bought only from the manufacturer.
Now and then, check which sites your wallet has given permissions to and revoke the ones you do not need (for example with revoke.cash).

Do not pay anything more and stop talking to the scammers.
Save the evidence: transaction IDs (TxID), addresses, amounts, times, and screenshots of the chats and the website.
Report it at once to your exchange and to the police. The first hours matter most: while the money is still on an exchange, it can be frozen.
If you need to trace where the money went and prepare evidence for the police and the exchange: trailforensics.com.

Scammed in crypto: what to do in the first 24 hours
Step by step: what to save, whom to tell and why speed matters once USDT or other crypto has been sent to scammers.
“We will recover your crypto”: how to spot recovery scams
After a scam, victims are often robbed a second time by “fund recovery” services. How to recognise them and what real help looks like.