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Service impersonation: how to verify who you are talking to
Trying to distinguish a fake message from a real one is a losing battle: they copy the name, the photo, the tone and even the writing style. The solution isn’t learning to spot them, it is not depending on spotting them.
The rule, and there is only one
You always start the contact, from the official website typed by hand in your browser. You never reply to a message that reaches you. Do that and it doesn’t matter how good the impostor is: the channel they wrote from leads to nobody real.
This rule beats any checklist of warning signs because it doesn’t depend on your judgement at a moment when you are anxious and rushed. It is mechanical: if you didn’t start it from the site, you don’t talk.
How someone gets impersonated
- Accounts with the same name and photo on social media or messaging apps.
- Domains with one letter changed, or a hyphen added.
- Search adverts above the real result.
- Forum replies signed with the service’s name, from new accounts.
- Emails with the right name but a different sender address.
- Messages quoting real details about you — your name, your device, your purchase — taken from old data leaks.
The last point fools a lot of people. Someone knowing your name, your postal address or which wallet you bought proves nothing: that data has been circulating in leaks for years. Knowing your details is not a credential.
How I apply it, so you can check
- I never message first privately, through any channel.
- The only entry point is the form on the official website.
- I never ask for the phrase or passwords at any point in the process.
- I charge nothing in advance.
- There is a written contract before anything is touched.
If you get a message claiming to be from me that breaks any of those five points, it isn’t me. And the way to check isn’t to ask me through that same channel: it is to go to the official site and write from there.
If you have already talked to someone and have doubts
- Don’t continue the conversation through that channel.
- Go to the official site by typing it by hand and write from there describing what happened.
- Give them nothing meanwhile: no phrase, no file, no money, no screen access.
- If you already gave a secret, treat your wallet as compromised and follow what to do if you think your phrase is compromised.