Lost 100 000$ in a scam.

It happened to me. Something I though would never happened. Especially like this.

I received a call from the support department of a hardware wallet company (that I will not mention) saying that there was an attempt to connect to my dashboard (of that company). Which right here doesnt make sense. His name was Thierry. He asked me to open the dashboard and upgrade it to the latest version. After it was upgraded, still in the dashboard, he asked me to click a link that redirect to the official website of the hardware wallet company. A couple a minute on that website, and of course, something was wrong. I had to enter manually another website and update my hardware wallet. That website was a fake of course and I add to enter my seed phrase to ”upgrade” it. And by know you probably know the rest… I have a hard time writing it (because I’m ashamed and I feel stupid) as I write this post but yes, I did write my seed phrase on the website. Something you should never do of course.

1 minute after the call I contacted the hardware wallet company and they told me that they don’t call their customer (you probably can guess why) and that it was a scam. I’ve sent them the website that ”upgrades shit” and they confirmed that its was a scam. By that time my money was already gone.

My knowledge level in crypto is above average and I would never invest in something that I know nothing of. My point here is that I thought I was above scam and that would never happen to me. Especially after reading stories like mine on this sub, I was sure that I wasnt gullible enough to get scammed. And yet, here we are… I know now that there was at least 42 red flags in this call. I was suspicious the whole time of the call. Here’s some stuff that confused/trow me off. They had my physical address (I’m pretty sure how they got it now that I know its a scam), they sent me an e-mail with a ”legit” email address (not like scamangel@gmail.com) to confirm that the ”attempt to connect to my dashboard” was cleared. Thierry spoke my native language, which is not English. The call/scam took around 35 minutes.

I’m still unsure how I managed to write my seed phrase somewhere else than in a book. Like if I’d receive another call (while I was entering my seed phrase on the fake website) saying ”you are entering your seed phrase on a website”, I would’ve probably paused and think for a second. But Thierry was a good mf and I guess I believed him.

And just fyi, this was crypto that I bought way back then, some 6 years ago. I was in the 20x/2000%, like in a fucking dream. This money wasnt need for my short term survival in society and I will not attempt anything on myself or something, so don’t worry on that front. But I was hoping to live an early retirement in a paid house or something. Not that it matter in the end…

The lesson here, and there is one in each good post of stories like mine, is not ”not your key not your coin” or ”dont say to other people that you own crypto” or something cliché like that. The lesson here is ”KNOW YOUR FUCKING SHIT”. When the guy called and said that he was working for the company, I should’ve known that it was a scam and hang up. When I contacted the company after the facts, this is the first thing they told me: we dont call or contact people.

Also, I’ve reported the scam to the company and the police. And I know I’m not going to get this money back.

And, just to be clear, its not the blockchain or my phone or my pc or my hardware wallet or any part of the ”blockchain system/ecosystem” that failed me… I failed/fuck myself.

I’ll stop rambling…

If you want to leave a nice comment and cheer me up, you can. But I’d like you to do me a better one and spend some of your coins and have a good time or give a good time to someone else….even if you’re in the red…

And hey! I can now answer my dm’s!

Stay safe and alert!

D