How to Protect Yourself From Seed Phrase Scams

Seed phrases are the most important piece of information that your crypto wallet has - it allows you to recover or access information from that wallet on different devices by entering a combination of 12 to usually 30 random words that were randomly selected for your crypto address and your crypto address alone.

Given how valuable seed phrases are for hackers and scammers, it is no wonder that they are the main crypto hacking and crypto scamming target in this financial ecosystem. Most of these exploits, unfortunately, don’t even require the criminal any expert hacking knowledge as it relies on human error.

With these factors considered, this article describes how to protect yourself from seed phrase scams with the five main factors to be on the lookout for when crypto investing and storing your assets.

Write Down Your Seed Phrase With Pen and Paper

When you set up a new crypto wallet, the app or desktop extension usually asks you to write down your seed phrase on pen and paper - and there is a very good reason for that. When you store your seed phrase information digitally, it runs the risk of being exploited through online applications that can take hold of your computer or mobile phone.

When it comes to your seed phrase content, the archaic method is the way to go; write it down on a piece of paper and hide it safely somewhere only you can find it. Your seed phrase holds the direct key to your funds and cannot be trusted with any digital form of storage - even safekeeping apps or extensions made exclusively for this purpose.

Never Share Your Seed Phrase With Anyone

Crypto developers will never ask for your seed phrase, community admins will never ask for your seed phrase and crypto exchange employees will absolutely never ask for your seed phrase. But do you know who will? Scammers.

Whether it is on Twitter, Discord, Telegram or Reddit - the most common social media for crypto investors - any person who asks for your seed phrase is absolutely trying to scam you. Remember: as long as you’re the sole holder of that information, along with your login and password if existent, no one can access your crypto wallet content.

This brings us to the next point to keep in mind.

Make Sure You Are Accessing the Official Crypto Websites/Dapps Before Connecting Your Wallet

One of the most common crypto exploits is called “phishing” - where scammers will copy pages, email content and apps from official sources to pass as legitimate and steal your information. If you connect your crypto wallet to a fake UniSwap app, the chances of them stealing your information from that point on is almost guaranteed - mostly because they have earned your unbeknownst permission to move your funds, something that legitimate apps never do.

So how can we verify what is original and what is not? By always checking the email addresses and the URLs. For example: say you got an email invitation to connect your wallet to UniSwap’s dApp and receive $100 dollars in UNI airdrops. Sounds great, right? But the sender’s email address looks a bit suspicious: it ends with [email protected], instead of the usual @uniswap.com that you’ve come to find as the original email tag. Same for the dApp link the scammer sent: it’s uniswapcrypto.com instead of uniswap.org.

It is a tedious task to be on the lookout for these things but make no mistake, it is an essential one towards protecting yourself from seed phrase scams.

Log Your Crypto Wallet Out of Dapps/Website and Clean the Cache After Use, Even if They Are Legitimate

You can never be too safe and cautious, and this applies to any moment when you are not using your crypto wallet too. Crypto wallets, or browsers for extensions, always have the option of logging out of the app you are using and cleaning their cache - meaning the recorded information of your uses will no longer be available for future references.

Whether it is an obviously official website or one that you connected and found a bit sketchy afterwards, you can only benefit from logging out and cleaning the cache after use. This method ensures that your wallet cannot be exploited as it is no longer connected to that application - unless you have shared your seed phrase, of course, which you should never again do.

Consider Keeping Your Crypto in a Reliable Exchange

Given the decentralized nature of crypto, it is inevitable for most arguments about custody to lean toward keeping the digital assets in decentralized wallets instead of exchanges. What’s rarely discussed is the immense security that big exchanges provide to the average crypto user.

With verifiable login methods such as two to three-factor authentication and multiple layers of passwords, popular crypto exchanges are popular for a very important reason - they work. Not just because of these obstacles of exploit, but the dozens of people that are part of the security team and work day and night to make sure no hackers can breach through their firewall.

There are some downsides to holding on exchanges, such as the number of different assets available to trade in some organizations, but the benefits still far outweigh the risk. If you are looking for peace of mind with a crypto custody option that has proven to work for several years, research the safest exchanges and cross-check that with those that have the largest variety of crypto available to trade.

Conclusion

The thought of your assets and accounts being exploited is always an anxiety-inducing situation; the possibility that things can be taken from us suddenly with no warning. Luckily, much like nearly everything else in life, protecting yourself from seed phrase scams is not only doable but also quite easy if you pay attention to these details and use reason. While crypto and blockchain technology is light years safer and more user-friendly now than a decade ago, investors must still exercise great care and caution - which is also similar to traditional finance and any other aspect of our lives involving funds and transactions. If you follow these steps and always keep them in mind as you navigate through the ecosystems, you can put your mind at ease!