CRYPTO SECURITY VERIFICATION

Verify the recovery process. Never verify by surrendering the recovery secret.

A wallet recovery phrase is a high-value secret. This guide helps you distinguish a legitimate recovery process from fake support, phishing, troubleshooting scams and other requests designed to obtain control of a wallet. The safest verification method is to verify the wallet and recovery process independently. Never give the requester your phrase.

Your recovery phrase is not ordinary account information.

Anyone who obtains a wallet's recovery phrase may be able to restore access to the wallet and its assets, depending on the wallet design. Treat the phrase as a master secret.

This guide does not ask you to enter, paste, upload or disclose a real recovery phrase. Do not use your real phrase in examples, screenshots, support chats or verification forms.

Can support ask for my recovery phrase?
Do not disclose your recovery phrase to a person who contacts you claiming to be support. Start from the wallet's official application or independently verified website and use the documented support or recovery process instead.
Can a recovery phrase ever be used legitimately?
A genuine wallet recovery or setup process can require the phrase when you are restoring a wallet through the legitimate wallet software or device. The important distinction is that you control the recovery process and independently verified the software or device. An unsolicited person or website should not be allowed to define the recovery process for you.
What if I already shared it?
Treat the phrase as potentially exposed. Do not return to the person or website that requested it for help. Use independently verified wallet documentation and legitimate recovery or asset protection procedures, and preserve useful evidence if a scam may have occurred.
STRUCTURED VERIFICATION

Work through the recovery-phrase verification checks.

Use these checks whenever someone asks for your recovery phrase or when you are unsure whether a wallet recovery instruction is legitimate.

STEP 01

Identify what the request is really asking for

A request for a wallet recovery phrase is a request for the secret that can restore control of the wallet.

How do I verify it?
Stop before typing, photographing, copying or reading the phrase to anyone. Do not treat a recovery phrase like an ordinary account detail. A legitimate wallet recovery process may require the phrase inside the wallet's official recovery flow, but an unsolicited person, message or website should never be allowed to define that process for you.
STEP 02

Verify the wallet or service separately

The person, support account or website asking for the phrase is not the evidence that the request is genuine.

How do I verify it?
Leave the message, call or social-media conversation. Open the wallet's official application yourself or find its official documentation independently. Use only the recovery or support process published there. Never use a support link, phone number or website address supplied by an unexpected contact as your only proof.
STEP 03

Check where the recovery phrase is being entered

A recovery phrase should not be entered into an arbitrary website, form, chat, support ticket or online checker.

How do I verify it?
Before entering a phrase, identify the exact wallet application or device you are using and confirm that the recovery action is part of its legitimate setup or recovery process. A page that says it is 'checking', 'validating', 'syncing' or 'unlocking' your wallet does not make the request trustworthy.
STEP 04

Verify the storage of the phrase

The phrase is a long-term security secret, so its storage deserves deliberate protection.

How do I verify it?
Review where the phrase is stored and who could physically or digitally access it. Avoid storing the only copy in an ordinary screenshot, cloud note, email, chat or unprotected document. Keep backups protected from unauthorized access, damage and accidental loss. Never publish or send the phrase to test whether a wallet or service works.
STEP 05

Verify every recovery instruction independently

Attackers often create a fake problem first and then offer a fake recovery process.

How do I verify it?
If a wallet appears disconnected, frozen, out of sync or unable to display an asset, do not assume the solution is to reveal the recovery phrase. Open the official wallet interface and documentation yourself. Follow the documented troubleshooting process and verify the network, account and application before taking an irreversible action.
STEP 06

Treat support claims as unverified until proven

A convincing support representative can still be an impersonator.

How do I verify it?
Do not reveal a recovery phrase, private key, password, PIN or verification code because someone claims to be wallet support. End the unsolicited interaction and start from the wallet company's official website or application. If support truly needs information, use the official support workflow and provide only what it legitimately requests.
STEP 07

If the phrase may be exposed, change the security situation

Once a recovery phrase has been exposed, simply deleting the message or closing the website does not restore secrecy.

How do I verify it?
If you believe the phrase was entered into an untrusted website, shared with another person or stored somewhere unauthorized people can access, treat it as exposed. Stop using the affected wallet for new security-sensitive activity and use the wallet's legitimate recovery and asset-migration procedures from an independently verified source. Never accept emergency recovery instructions from the person who may have obtained the phrase.
SECRETS THAT STAY SECRET

Never use these as proof of identity.

If someone asks for one of these secrets, the request itself is a reason to stop and verify through an independent channel.

01

Recovery phrases / seed phrases

Do not send it to a person, social-media account, chat, email address, website form or unexpected support contact.

02

Private keys

Do not send it to a person, social-media account, chat, email address, website form or unexpected support contact.

03

Wallet passwords or PINs

Do not send it to a person, social-media account, chat, email address, website form or unexpected support contact.

04

One-time passwords or verification codes

Do not send it to a person, social-media account, chat, email address, website form or unexpected support contact.

05

Backup codes

Do not send it to a person, social-media account, chat, email address, website form or unexpected support contact.

06

Screenshots or photographs containing recovery secrets

Do not send it to a person, social-media account, chat, email address, website form or unexpected support contact.

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES

Recognize the recovery-phrase trap in context.

The wording may change, but the underlying request is often the same: create a problem, create urgency and make the victim reveal the secret that gives the attacker control.

Example 1: 'Wallet support' asks for your 12 words

A social-media account with the wallet's logo says your wallet is under review and asks you to send your 12-word recovery phrase. Do not send it. Leave the conversation and open the wallet's official application or independently verified website to check whether any real support action is required.

Example 2: A website says your wallet must be synchronized

A link claims that your wallet is out of sync and asks you to enter your recovery phrase to restore access. Do not enter the phrase. Open the wallet yourself through its official application and check its documented recovery or troubleshooting process.

Example 3: A friend says they can help recover a wallet

Someone you know says they have fixed a wallet problem before and asks you to send the phrase privately. Familiarity does not change what the phrase can control. Do not share it. Use the wallet's official recovery process instead.

Example 4: An 'airdrop verification' form requests the phrase

You see an attractive token or airdrop opportunity and the claim page asks for your recovery phrase before you can receive it. Stop. A promotional opportunity is not a reason to disclose a wallet recovery secret. Verify the opportunity independently and use only the official wallet or project's documented process.

Example 5: A troubleshooting video tells you to paste the phrase

A video or post claims that pasting your recovery phrase into a website will repair a wallet or recover a missing token. Do not follow the instruction simply because the explanation looks technical. Verify the problem and the remedy through official wallet documentation.

Example 6: Someone says the phrase is needed to 'check the balance'

A person offers to check whether your wallet still contains funds and asks for the recovery phrase. They do not need your secret to establish whether a public blockchain address has activity. Do not disclose the phrase.

Example 7: You stored the phrase in a cloud note

You discover that the only copy of your recovery phrase is in an ordinary cloud note or email draft. Treat that storage location as a security concern. Review who or what can access it and move toward a properly protected backup arrangement without exposing the phrase to another online service.

Example 8: You may have entered the phrase on a fake site

You realize that a website you used for 'wallet recovery' may have been fraudulent. Do not return to the site for help. Preserve useful evidence, stop relying on the site's instructions and use independently verified wallet recovery and asset-protection procedures.

Example 9: A hardware-wallet setup is asking for a phrase

During a genuine wallet setup or recovery, a hardware wallet may legitimately use a recovery phrase as part of the device's recovery process. Verify that you are interacting with the genuine device and its official setup process. Never enter the phrase into a random website or disclose it to a person assisting you remotely.

Use the six-question Recovery Phrase Test.

1. WHO is asking for the phrase?

2. WHY do they claim they need it?

3. WHERE are they asking you to enter or send it?

4. HOW did you independently verify the wallet or service?

5. IS the action part of the wallet's official recovery process?

6. HAS the phrase already been exposed to an untrusted person, website or storage location?

IF THE PHRASE MAY BE EXPOSED

Stop the scam from becoming a second incident.

If you may have revealed the phrase, focus on legitimate recovery and protection. Do not negotiate with the person who requested it.

01

Stop following the request

Do not continue the conversation or return to the suspicious website for instructions.

02

Preserve useful evidence

Keep relevant messages, URLs, wallet addresses, transaction references and timestamps where safe to do so.

03

Use official wallet procedures

Open the wallet through a verified official channel and follow legitimate recovery or asset-protection documentation.

04

Check asset activity

Review wallet activity and relevant transactions through trusted wallet or blockchain interfaces. Do not use a suspicious website as your source of truth.

05

Protect the remaining access

Review connected accounts, devices and other credentials that may also have been exposed. Change credentials where appropriate.

06

Get legitimate help if needed

Use the wallet provider's independently verified support route or an appropriate incident-reporting channel. Never pay an unknown person who promises to recover stolen crypto.

Do not confuse technical language with proof.

Words such as "synchronization," "validation," "RPC," "recovery," "verification," "airdrop," "migration" or "security upgrade" can sound technical without proving that a request is legitimate.

The requester's confidence is not evidence. The independently verified wallet, application, device or official support channel is what you use to establish whether the process is genuine.

VERIFY BEFORE YOU TRUST.