Staying safe with bitcoin
Most people who lose bitcoin are not hacked: they are talked into sending it, or they lose the words. Both can be prevented.
Three rules we repeat in every class
Your recovery words are yours alone
Nobody genuine will ever ask for them: not support, not a teacher, not a wallet app. Anyone who has the words can take everything.
Nobody can double your coins
Giveaways, mining clubs and investment groups that promise returns are scams, however real the website looks.
Support never messages you first
Fake helpers answer public questions within minutes. Contact a company only through its own app or website.
Asked to pay in bitcoin? Stop.
A fine, a tax, a parcel fee or a “fix” for your bank account paid in bitcoin is a scam every time. Hang up, close the chat and talk to someone you trust.
Bitcoin’s value can rise and fall sharply, and you can lose all the money you put in. Nothing on this site is financial advice: we explain how bitcoin works, never whether to buy it.
The risks, in plain words
Bitcoin’s value can rise and fall sharply, and you can lose all the money you put in. Nothing on this site is financial advice: we explain how bitcoin works, never whether to buy it.
Value
It can fall sharply and stay down for years
Payments
Final once confirmed: nobody can reverse them
Protection
No deposit insurance or compensation scheme
Losing the words
Nobody can reset them for you
Tax
Selling or spending can be taxed where you live
Six scams we see every month
The story changes; the ask is always the same: send bitcoin, or share your words.
Giveaways
A famous name “doubles” any bitcoin you send. The video, account and website are fake.
The tell: Anything that asks you to send first.
Fake support
Someone replies to your public question and sends you to a page that asks for your recovery words.
The tell: Support that found you, instead of you finding it.
Recovery services
After a loss, a firm offers to get the coins back for a fee paid up front.
The tell: A fee before any result, often in bitcoin.
Friendship and romance
A new online friend introduces you to a trading app that shows growing profits you cannot withdraw.
The tell: A stranger who wants to teach you to invest.
If you think you have been scammed
Act in this order. Speed matters for the first two steps.
Stop sending
Do not pay anything more, whatever you are promised or threatened with.
Move what is left
If your words may be known, send remaining coins to a new wallet with new words.
Keep the evidence
Screenshots of messages, addresses, dates and amounts.
Report it
To the police and your national fraud line; to the exchange if coins went through one.
Ignore recovery offers
Anyone who contacts you offering to get the coins back is the next scam.
Talk to someone
Losing money to a scam is common and not a personal failing. Our teachers will listen.
Backups that outlive the phone
A phone can break, a laptop can be stolen; the recovery words bring the wallet back. Paper works if it stays dry; steel survives fire and flood.
- Write the words by hand, never in a photo, a note app or the cloud
- Keep one copy at home and one somewhere else you trust
- Test the backup with a restore before you rely on it
Holding your own keys means nobody can reverse a mistake or recover lost words for you.
Questions are the point of the course
Bring yours to an evening class in Springfield library. Seats are limited to twenty so everyone gets an answer.