What to do if you used a fake crypto helpline
If you contacted a fraudulent helpline and lost cryptocurrency, immediately disconnect any active sessions, secure your genuine accounts with fresh credentials, and alert your bank. Legitimate wallet providers and exchanges never operate phone lines that ask you to transfer funds or reveal passphrases.
- Fake helplines typically appear at the top of internet search results as sponsored advertisements, directing you to fraudulent call centres that pose as customer care for major wallet applications or digital asset platforms.
- Callers should be alarmed if the support agent insists on moving your balances to a new holding address, demands remote connection software, or asks for your confidential passphrases to resolve an alleged technical error.
- Sever communication immediately, remove any remote management tools installed during the call, revoke permissions on any compromised software, and transfer any remaining assets to a completely new, independently generated secure wallet.
- Save the telephone numbers called, website addresses visited, call logs, transaction hashes for every transfer, and the receiving destination addresses provided by the impostors during the conversation.
- Report the incident to Action Fraud to obtain a police crime reference number, notify your bank if fiat payments were involved, and alert the genuine compliance team of the impersonated platform.
- An onchain forensic analysis can map the movement of your assets through intermediate addresses to establish where they were deposited, but it cannot automatically reverse completed transactions or reveal the real-world identity behind unhosted wallets.
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Written by the Wallsec investigations team. General information only, not legal or financial advice.
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