Recognizing fake Bitcoin wallets

[casey15]

It isn't about sending the incorrect amount to an incorrect address; it is about downloading a fake wallet. Once you have funds in an evil wallet you might have your money stolen before you can realize that there is something amiss, and bitcoins cannot be recovered once lost. This is why it is important to know how to recognize a fake bitcoin wallet as well as how to use it.

What is a fake bitcoin wallet?
Fake Bitcoin wallet is fake software, a mobile or desktop application, website or hardware that is disguised to be a genuine Bitcoin wallet but it has been created with the aim of stealing Bitcoin, seed phrase, private keys or personal data. Some are simple scams, but there are others that are clones of the popular Bitcoin wallets, except the name or logo is slightly altered.

What are some of the common signs of a fake Bitcoin wallet?

1.It requires the seed phrase since the beginning.
If you have created a new wallet, then it should have a new seed phrase; if you're restoring an old wallet, then you should enter the old seed phrase.
When you are creating a new wallet and are prompted to enter your seed recovery phrase even when you will not be using the wallet to restore a previous wallet, it is a red flag.

2. It guarantees profits and income
Your Bitcoin wallet stores and manages your digital assets, but it doesn't earn you any money.
Any Bitcoin wallet that guarantees profits, guaranteed daily income or anything with ‘AI trading' built in is a scam.

3. It is not downloaded and has rare reviews.
When downloading a Bitcoin wallet, it is always best to check on its track record first... if it has  few downloads, if all  its reviews were done at the same time, its press releases are clichés, or the majority of its reviews point to a loss in coins or that money has simply disappeared, you should be cautious.

4. The name looks very similar to a widely-used wallet.
Most times the scam wallet's name or logo will be similar but not identical to a popular wallet. The  wallets may be undetected until the user eventually learns he or she has been the scam's victim.
It's always a good idea to make sure the application you're downloading is legitimate and only from the wallet developer's website.

5. asks strange permissions
There is no reason why a Bitcoin wallet would need access to your contacts, camera (other than forQR scanning), microphone, etc. If the wallet  require permissions that its not supposed to have then uninstall it immediately

8.It was found in an advertisement.
Scammers often run ads on the top of their search results, ahead of the ads that are being properly displayed. In place of clicking on these links, go to the wallet's actual website and download from there

7. Data on the developers is not available.
Reputable wallets are likely to possess:

* An official website

* Public documentation

*Identified developers, or open source code,
Public discussion and support forum
If all of these qualities are not easily found, proceed with caution


How to stay safe?
Download wallet from the official website only.
Make sure that the address you type is correct.
Don't share your seed phrase with anyone.
Keep your wallet printed on paper or written down and store it in a physical place, off the internet.
Always check with trusted bitcoin communities before adding new wallet

 Newbies are easy targets which is why scammers are continuously creating fake Bitcoin wallets. Just a few minutes taken to authenticate a wallet can save you from losing all of your bitcoins. Remember: A legitimate wallet keeps your bitcoins safe, it isn't expecting you to have full faith in it

Have you ever seen a fake Bitcoin wallet or phishing website pretending to be a Bitcoin wallet? What were some of the red flags and what advice would you give to a new person so they don't make the same mistake?

[Merit.s]

Downloading the wallet from its official site is not enough, you should verify its authenticity through the GPG signature.

There are a lot of clone wallets out their that scammers created to steal people funds. Self custody is a responsibility that you need to take seriously to avoid future loss.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Have you ever seen a fake Bitcoin wallet or phishing website pretending to be a Bitcoin wallet? What were some of the red flags and what advice would you give to a new person so they don't make the same mistake?

Some of the early red flags of a fake Bitcoin wallet is that it ask for your mnemonic phrase or seed or private key. Or maybe the fake websites has wrong spelling as the scammers might be in a haste to put up that site.

So you really have to check everything, verify the checksums or signature. Also verify if you are in the official website before you download it. And when it doubt, it's better to check this community first for the review of the wallet itself. If you can't find one, then I will suggest not to download it.

[EL MOHA]

3. It is not downloaded and has rare reviews.
When downloading a Bitcoin wallet, it is always best to check on its track record first... if it has  few downloads, if all  its reviews were done at the same time, its press releases are clichés, or the majority of its reviews point to a loss in coins or that money has simply disappeared, you should be cautious.

My submission will be on this, I will say again that no matter the pattern of reviews or anything never ever trust any wallets review, scams have different means to actually make reviews look convincing. They could even go on to copy reviews from the original wallet review. If you’re downloading from the original source I don’t think you need to even go for reviews because verifying authenticity of the wallet is all you need.

One simple advice against fake wallet is stay away from newly created wallets, stick to old reputable wallets because they usually updates their wallet too so you don’t need much from all this new wallet. New wallet are usually the most common wallet where you get fake wallets.

[Hypnotizer]

One thing about saving yourself from downloading a fake wallet is that you need due diligence whenever you’re trying to download a wallet and you must not rush things.

2. It guarantees profits and income
Your Bitcoin wallet stores and manages your digital assets, but it doesn't earn you any money.
Any Bitcoin wallet that guarantees profits, guaranteed daily income or anything with ‘AI trading' built in is a scam.

I doubt if anyone that have the least knowledge about digital currencies and crypto can fall for something like dis, the bitcoin wallet wouldn’t give you profit for just storing your coins there… it’s not a bank.

Although there are some wallet  that offers a rewards for staking some cryptos but Bitcoin doesn’t use POS, so any bitcoin wallet that promise profits or returns/rewards is obviously a scam.

8.It was found in an advertisement.
Scammers often run ads on the top of their search results, ahead of the ads that are being properly displayed. In place of clicking on these links, go to the wallet's actual website and download from there

It’s not good to download any wallet you find on an advertisement on social media or even the wallets that usually pop up when you search of a particular wallet in Google. You should confirm your source carefully and download only from the official website just as you said..

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

They can find wallets from
https://coinmarketcap.com/view/wallet/
https://walletscrutiny.com/ Also there are reviews about wallets.
https://www.cryptowisser.com/wallets/

They can search, find links to wallets but should never rely on search result from one website, they must cross check information before starting to download a wallet.
Find an official website, and download the wallet from there, then "don't trust, verify".

For example, there are guides to verify Bitcoin Core and Electrum wallets.
[GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum.
Download and verify Bitcoin Core wallet.
How To Verify the Downloaded Version of Ledger Live.

[KiaKia]

It's no more complicated to find a wallet that you can rely on, it all depends on you using official link, even bitcoin dot com will lead you to the right bitcoin wallet links, and also we have this forum, if anyone can't find official links on their own they can ask on here.

The most common places for fake bitcoin wallets is app stores, it doesn't matter if it's the most popular Playstore or others, fake wallets have their ways of passing requirements and these app stores aren't  working harder to crosscheck very well.

A open source hardware wallet will safe you automatically from 80% of these problems, leaving the rest on users errors and mistakes, every beginner must develop an habit of asking questions or doing their own research before making any financial decisions.

[SPIDERMAN008]

Many people have been scammed by fake wallets. And these wallets are designed in such a way that there is no difference in the interface from the real wallet. As a result, many experienced people are also becoming victims of scams. In particular, their most dangerous way of fraud is clipboard hijacking. That is, you copy a BTC address but paste it to another address. It becomes automatic and it becomes even easier for scammers to do it through fake wallets. Many users download the wallet in a hurry and start transacting through that wallet, in which case there is a high chance of such mistakes. So after pasting the address, you should manually compare the last letter numbers and make the transaction. This should be observed carefully during the transaction. And if we are careful and think with common sense, it is possible to understand which is fake or scam or real . Because one thing all bitcoin holders should know is that once you lose your bitcoin, you will not be able to recover it in any way.

[Obim34]

For an app download wallet, from the Google Play Store on Android or the App Store on iOS, always check for reviews, there is every possibility you are not the first to come across the application, which is a quick signal to refuse to download a fake crypto wallet.

When a scammer creates a fake wallet to scam, newbies are not just the target, anyone, including those who already have good knowledge, can still fall victim, either by mistake or carelessness, if they cannot properly identify or get the wallet from a right source.

Many people have been scammed by fake wallets. And these wallets are designed in such a way that there is no difference in the interface from the real wallet.

There is always a difference, but some don't notice it before turning the bait.

[Israelgogo]

It isn't about sending the incorrect amount to an incorrect address; it is about downloading a fake wallet. Once you have funds in an evil wallet you might have your money stolen before you can realize that there is something amiss, and bitcoins cannot be recovered once lost. This is why it is important to know how to recognize a fake bitcoin wallet as well as how to use it.

What is a fake bitcoin wallet?
Fake Bitcoin wallet is fake software, a mobile or desktop application, website or hardware that is disguised to be a genuine Bitcoin wallet but it has been created with the aim of stealing Bitcoin, seed phrase, private keys or personal data. Some are simple scams, but there are others that are clones of the popular Bitcoin wallets, except the name or logo is slightly altered.

What are some of the common signs of a fake Bitcoin wallet?

1.It requires the seed phrase since the beginning.
If you have created a new wallet, then it should have a new seed phrase; if you're restoring an old wallet, then you should enter the old seed phrase.
When you are creating a new wallet and are prompted to enter your seed recovery phrase even when you will not be using the wallet to restore a previous wallet, it is a red flag.

2. It guarantees profits and income
Your Bitcoin wallet stores and manages your digital assets, but it doesn't earn you any money.
Any Bitcoin wallet that guarantees profits, guaranteed daily income or anything with ‘AI trading' built in is a scam.

3. It is not downloaded and has rare reviews.
When downloading a Bitcoin wallet, it is always best to check on its track record first... if it has  few downloads, if all  its reviews were done at the same time, its press releases are clichés, or the majority of its reviews point to a loss in coins or that money has simply disappeared, you should be cautious.

4. The name looks very similar to a widely-used wallet.
Most times the scam wallet's name or logo will be similar but not identical to a popular wallet. The  wallets may be undetected until the user eventually learns he or she has been the scam's victim.
It's always a good idea to make sure the application you're downloading is legitimate and only from the wallet developer's website.

5. asks strange permissions
There is no reason why a Bitcoin wallet would need access to your contacts, camera (other than forQR scanning), microphone, etc. If the wallet  require permissions that its not supposed to have then uninstall it immediately

8.It was found in an advertisement.
Scammers often run ads on the top of their search results, ahead of the ads that are being properly displayed. In place of clicking on these links, go to the wallet's actual website and download from there

7. Data on the developers is not available.
Reputable wallets are likely to possess:

* An official website

* Public documentation

*Identified developers, or open source code,
Public discussion and support forum
If all of these qualities are not easily found, proceed with caution


How to stay safe?
Download wallet from the official website only.
Make sure that the address you type is correct.
Don't share your seed phrase with anyone.
Keep your wallet printed on paper or written down and store it in a physical place, off the internet.
Always check with trusted bitcoin communities before adding new wallet

 Newbies are easy targets which is why scammers are continuously creating fake Bitcoin wallets. Just a few minutes taken to authenticate a wallet can save you from losing all of your bitcoins. Remember: A legitimate wallet keeps your bitcoins safe, it isn't expecting you to have full faith in it

Have you ever seen a fake Bitcoin wallet or phishing website pretending to be a Bitcoin wallet? What were some of the red flags and what advice would you give to a new person so they don't make the same mistake?

Sincerely I have fall victim before because I was desperate to have bitcoin when bitcoin became hot cake, most people has no knowledge of what these wallet looks like or how you should be able to differentiate the original and fake wallets, even up to this moment people still victim of this posters who claims to have bitcoin plugs, the worst thing that can happen to anybody is ignorant, claiming to know what you clearly have no ideas. From the points you made there clearly stated the common mistake we make especially point two where you said it guarantees one making money and profits, the moment people with low knowledge of bitcoin sees that, they're quick to buy the idea but at the end you will loss your money, and that's what happens to inability to learn or ask questions

[Moreno233]

All you have listed here as clue are good but not enough so I will just consume the information as academic exercise. When I want to get to rwal business, I will head to the section of the forum called Wallet softwares where all the relevant wallets are extensively discussed. Any wallet that does not have the support of other notable members of the community will definitely be a pass for me because I can't afford learning from experience.

[Nwada001]

1.It requires the seed phrase since the beginning.
If you have created a new wallet, then it should have a new seed phrase; if you're restoring an old wallet, then you should enter the old seed phrase.
When you are creating a new wallet and are prompted to enter your seed recovery phrase even when you will not be using the wallet to restore a previous wallet, it is a red flag.

How about a situation where both the option to either import your old wallet and create a new wallet appear? Unless there is no sign or option to create a new wallet and import is the only option, then I don’t think this is enough of a red flag, not ignoring other signs.

Most of the scam wallets I see out there always create already existing and popularly used wallet clones, so it is better to be much more careful and focused on downloading wallets from official sources only; that is my most trusted option.

[ImGenius]

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Mostly I use playstore to download and update a wallet am i safe?  though I only use mobile wallet for small transections and testing..
Isn't storing fund in online device is as risky as downloading from wrong source?

Some of the early red flags of a fake Bitcoin wallet is that it ask for your mnemonic phrase or seed or private key. Or maybe the fake websites has wrong spelling as the scammers might be in a haste to put up that site.

Actually some infected wallet can also generate seed phrase and sent it back to scammers