It starts innocently enough. You’re scrolling through crypto-related posts when a comment catches your eye. A confused “newbie” is asking for help. They say they’re locked out of their wallet, unsure how to transfer their tokens, or overwhelmed by the process. And then, right there in the middle of the message, they post their seed phrase.
Twelve or twenty-four words, all in plain sight.
It’s the kind of mistake no one should make. Anyone with even a passing interest in crypto knows that sharing a seed phrase is like giving away your house keys and then posting your address online. So you pause. What kind of person would be this careless?
But it turns out, they’re not being careless. They’re baiting you.
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It’s a Setup
In crypto, “never share your seed phrase” is rule number one. Even people brand-new to the space are warned constantly about it. So when someone posts theirs in public without anyone even asking for it, something feels off.
This isn’t some naive beginner making a dumb mistake. It’s a scam that only works on people who think they know better. It’s aimed at people who are just knowledgeable enough to think they’re spotting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
How the Trap Works
If you actually use the seed phrase to access the wallet, it opens just like it should. And inside, you’ll usually find real tokens. The wallet might have a few hundred dollars worth, sometimes even more.
But the funds are in the form of non-native assets – for example, USDT or USDC on Ethereum. That means you can’t move them unless you first pay the gas fee, which in this case is ETH. And, conveniently, the wallet doesn’t have enough ETH to cover it.
At first glance, it probably still looks like a good deal. Just send a few dollars worth of ETH to cover gas, and then withdraw the stablecoins.
But as soon as you send the ETH, it vanishes. In most cases, a bot automatically sweeps the funds the moment they arrive. Your money disappears, and those stablecoins never move. In some setups, it’s not a bot at all – the wallet is actually multisig, which means that even with the seed phrase, you don’t have enough signatures to send anything out.
The tokens were never meant to be claimed. They were bait.
Read also: What Are the Best Ways to Store Your Seed Phrases?
From Greedy to Scammed
The psychology here is what makes it work. No one is promising to double your crypto. No one’s sending you phishing links or impersonating support. You’re not being threatened or tricked into clicking anything.
You’re just quietly trying to take what you believe someone else has carelessly left behind.
That’s what makes this scam so tricky. If you fall for it, you probably won’t report it. What are you going to say? “I found a wallet in the comments and tried to steal from it, but I lost my ETH”?
The second you act, you’re no longer the innocent bystander – you’re part of the setup. And that’s why these scams keep working – because they rely on people being a little greedy, a little curious, and just confident enough to think they won’t be the ones who get burned.
So What Should You Do?
These seed phrase traps are showing up everywhere – under YouTube videos, on Reddit, in Telegram groups. Some scammers post dozens of fake seed phrases a day.
The best thing you can do is ignore them completely. Don’t interact. Don’t try to “just check” the wallet. Don’t DM the poster or ask for more details. The entire thing is a setup, and there’s nothing to gain from engaging with it.
Read also: What Are Dusting Attacks? How to Handle Random Crypto Drops in Your Wallet
