Told to move money into a safe crypto wallet
No legitimate bank, police officer, or genuine financial organisation will ever instruct you to transfer your money into a cryptocurrency wallet to protect it. If you are told to convert funds to crypto to safeguard them, stop all contact immediately because it is an impersonation fraud.
- This fraud begins when a caller claims your bank account is compromised and insists you must quickly move funds into a newly created cryptocurrency wallet to protect your balances from internal theft or cyber criminals.
- Warning signs include high pressure to stay on the phone, requests to open accounts on unfamiliar platforms, and strict instructions to lie to your bank teller or customer support agent about the purpose of the outgoing transfer.
- Hang up the phone immediately, do not send any further funds, and contact your bank using the trusted phone number printed on the back of your debit card or through their official mobile application to secure your accounts.
- Preserve all incoming telephone numbers, call times, text messages, written directions, and transaction records from the exchanges where you bought assets, as well as the external wallet addresses you were instructed to send cryptocurrency towards.
- Report the incident promptly to Action Fraud on their website or by calling 0300 123 2040, notify your bank's specialised fraud department so they can log the caller details, and inform the platform where the cryptocurrency was bought.
- An onchain trace can map where your outgoing assets moved and identify which recipient deposit accounts they reached, but it cannot automatically reverse the transactions, recover the balances, or uncover the real-world identity of the caller without legal intervention.
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Written by the Wallsec investigations team. General information only, not legal or financial advice.
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