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Free tool · from Chapter 11

Is this a Bitcoin scam?

Paste the message before you reply, click, call, or send anything. This checks it against the 10 red flags I teach in class. It runs on your device. Nothing you paste is sent anywhere.

The one ruleNobody will ever need your seed phrase, the 12 or 24 words. Not support, not a friend, not me, not this website. Anyone who asks is a thief.
Or try an example:
The 10 red flags. Matches are checked for you. Add any it missed.
This runs on your device. Nothing you paste or check leaves this page.
Two questions
Who wants my keys?
Who wants me to hurry?Every scam in Chapter 11 wants one of those two things, and often both. Keys means anything that opens your bitcoin: the words, a login code, your screen, a device someone else set up.
The pause line
“Let me talk to my family and call you back.”A real business accepts it without a fuss. A scam pushes, and the push is your answer. Then the callback rule: hang up and dial the number on your card or statement, typed in yourself.
If it already happened
  1. Stop. Send nothing more. No tax, no fee, no “final verification.”
  2. Write down everything: names, numbers, screenshots, addresses, transaction IDs.
  3. Report it today at ic3.gov and reportfraud.ftc.gov, and tell the exchange you sent from and your bank.
  4. Tell someone. Shame is the scam’s last tool.
Anyone who offers to get your bitcoin back for a fee is the next scam.
Pass it on

Send this page to someone you love.

People over 60 lost more to crypto scams in 2024 than any other age group, according to the FBI. A link saved before the bad day beats a warning after it.

Before you send bitcoin to anyone, or type your 12 words anywhere, paste the message here first. It checks for the 10 red flags and nothing you paste leaves your phone: https://yourbitcoinbasics.com/check
Your Bitcoin Basics · the red flags
  1. A stranger, or a new friend, who steers the conversation to money.
  2. Anyone who asks for your seed phrase, for any reason at all.
  3. Anyone who asks to see or control your screen.
  4. A call, text, or email you did not start, about a problem with an account.
  5. Send some, get more back.
  6. A guarantee.
  7. A window closing today.
  8. A fee to unlock money that is already yours.
  9. A device or an app that arrived with the words already in it.
  10. Being told to keep it private from your family.

Who wants my keys? Who wants me to hurry?

Say: “Let me talk to my family and call you back.”

Check a message: yourbitcoinbasics.com/check · Report: ic3.gov · reportfraud.ftc.gov · Forward scam texts to 7726