Fake crypto support scams: how to tell it isn't really Coinbase, Ledger or MetaMask

• —Coinbase: its agents will never ask you to secure or move funds, give you or ask for a seed phrase, ask for your password or 2FA code, have you install software, or access your device remotely. It also says it will never call or text you with a new seed phrase or wallet address.
• —MetaMask: MetaMask Support doesn't have a phone number and will never speak to you on the phone. It will never DM you offering support, and says anyone asking for your Secret Recovery Phrase is trying to scam you.
• —Ledger: Ledger Support and the Ledger Wallet app will never ask for your 24-word recovery phrase, Ledger employees never make unsolicited phone calls, and Ledger will never send you a direct message on social media.
• —Binance: anyone calling you by phone and claiming to be from Binance is a scammer.

The FTC's rule of thumb covers everyone else: no real business or government agency will demand that you buy or pay with cryptocurrency.

• —Fake support numbers. Coinbase warns that scammers set up fake customer support lines and impersonate companies, including Coinbase, and that they can spoof legitimate phone numbers. Only use the contacts listed on the company's own website.
• —A hand-off to fake officials. The FTC describes tech-support scammers who pass victims on to fake bank or government staff, who then tell them to move their money to “protect it”, sometimes by buying bitcoin.
• —Letters and packages. Ledger says any physical mail asking for your 24-word phrase, in any form, is a phishing scam, and that your recovery sheet should always be blank when you first receive a device.
• —Fake apps and sites. Ledger warns of fake Ledger Wallet apps and websites: if a “Ledger Wallet” asks for your 24 words, it's fake.

Act as if the wallet is already lost, because whoever has the phrase controls it. Ledger's advice is to immediately send your remaining assets to temporary accounts on a different recovery phrase (tokens first, keeping enough of the network's coin for fees), then reset the device and set up a new phrase. MetaMask says the same in its own terms: create a new wallet and send whatever is left to it.

Both are clear that what has already gone can't be pulled back: MetaMask says transactions cannot be reversed, nor missing funds restored. Our wallet-drained guide covers the first 24 hours step by step.

• —Stop all contact, and don't send anything else, however urgent the next message sounds.
• —Save the transaction hashes, wallet addresses, amounts, dates and every message, including the phone number or account that contacted you.
• —Report to the company that was impersonated, using the contact details on its own website. Coinbase, for example, asks people to email security@coinbase.com.
• —Report it to the IC3 and ReportFraud.ftc.gov in the US, or to Report Fraud in the UK, and to the exchange you used to send the money.

Expect a follow-up. People who have just lost money are prime targets for recovery scams, which our recovery-scam guide explains.

Very. People told the FTC they lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, including nearly $1 billion to scammers posing as businesses and about $920 million to scammers posing as government agencies.

If funds were moved, we trace where they went and write a report your lawyer or law enforcement can act on. Scammers impersonate tracing firms too, so our verification guide lists what we will never ask for and how to check a message really came from us. The intake review is free.