Unfortunately, scammers are everywhere in crypto. We want to raise your awareness about some of the common scams and phishing attempts so you can be prepared if you are targeted. Almost all scams have similar tactics, which usually involve soliciting your private information so they can gain access to your crypto.
You should never share your recovery phrase or private key with anyone. Scammers may pretend to be someone of importance, such as our founder Viktor. You should know that Viktor, nor any other member of Trust Wallet staff, will never ask for your private information.
If scammers get access to your private information they will instantly withdraw your crypto and you’ll never see it again. That’s why you have to be careful.
Follow these rules to stay safe
- Never enter your private key or recovery phrase on any website unless you know what you are doing.
- Trust Wallet moderators or staff will never message you directly first.
- Trust Wallet moderators or staff will never have a reason to ask you for your recovery phrase or private key.
- Trust Wallet will never invite you to any Telegram giveaway groups.
- Always check to make sure you are on the official Trust Wallet website or social media channels.
- If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you’re ever unsure you can ask our staff about your concerns in Telegram or on the community forum.
Common scam examples
We’ve highlighted some of the ways scammers may try to steal your funds. Some of their favorite tools are fake Twitter accounts or Facebook pages, Telegram giveaway groups or disguised phishing websites. We will show you how to identify them and how you can help to fight back against the scammers.
Scammers will set up Facebook pages that have a similar name to real crypto pages, such as the Trust Wallet Facebook page. Most often they will send out private messages or post comments on real posts claiming they are running an official giveaway. They will commonly have a number of fake accounts that post thankful comments to build up the allure. Their goal is to lead you to a fake website that looks like a real one, where they encourage you to enter your personal information so they can steal it.
Here’s an example of a fake Trust Wallet post.
Here’s a scammer pretending to be MyEtherWallet.
Trust Wallet and our associates will never ask for your private key. They are called ‘private’ for a reason.
How to Protect Yourself
Always make sure you are visiting our official Facebook page @trustwalletapp. We will never message you directly with any giveaways or promotions. Visit @trustwalletapp to see if there is an ongoing promotion. If in doubt you can always message us directly on Facebook, we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can. If you find a scam page, please help us by reporting it to Facebook and sending us a message to let us know so we can share it with our internal anti-scam team.
Telegram
Scammers often pretend to be one of our moderators or Trust Wallet team members and message you directly claiming that they can help you with your problem. Here’s an example of a scammer posing as our founder Viktor. Reminder: we will never ask for your private information like your 12 words.
Recently we have also seen an influx of fake Telegram giveaway groups that invite users out of our official Telegram channel and lure them to visit phishing websites through competitions or giveaways. Trust Wallet will never invite you to any special Telegram giveaway group and if you’re unsure you can always ask a member of staff whether something is real.
How to Protect Yourself
If you want to speak to a member of staff, message us directly. Make sure you only do so by clicking on our admin nicknames in the Telegram welcoming message. You should change your Telegram privacy settings (Settings > Privacy & Security > Groups > and change your Group invite settings to My contacts) to avoid rouge group invites. Only join our official English Telegram group and announcement channel.
If you receive a message from a scammer you can report them at the top of the chat. If you want to report the issue to an admin, please message them directly and refrain from posting about the issue in our group because it can confuse new users.
Phishing Websites
Phishing websites are designed to look like popular websites, but they are fake. They are used to collect private information and unfortunately, there are a lot of them. Always make sure you’re on the official website when you are entering any information. The best way to do this is to bookmark websites like your wallets and only enter them via the bookmark.
How to Protect Yourself
- Make sure you check the domain you are using. If in doubt type it manually into your browser (trustwallet.com).
- Never enter your private key or recovery phrase on any website that asks you to.
- Bookmark our official domains: trustwallet.com and https://community.trustwallet.com/ so you always know that you are on the real website. If you spot a phishing website make sure to contact us immediately.