After 9 years in the industry, I've witnessed the craziest surges and the harshest crashes in the crypto world. I've become immune to scenes where clients shake with their phones in hand. But the only thing that scares me is the phone vibrating in the early morning; that noise is like a death warrant, as it's highly likely that someone has stepped into a pit of 'can avoid but insists on jumping.'
At 3:17 AM the day before yesterday, the notifications from the private group exploded the screen. Old Zhang's voice messages kept piling up; in the first two, he was still holding on, saying, 'Old Chen, help me take a look.' In the third message, he couldn't hold back his tears: 'It's over! The 3 million I saved for the kid is gone! My wife followed the tutorial I sent and just clicked 'confirm'...'
I rushed barefoot to the computer, didn't bother to comfort him, and immediately asked, 'Did you send the mnemonic phrase via WeChat, or take a screenshot on your phone?' There was silence on the other end for a full 12 seconds. Those 12 seconds were more painful than any complaint. I understood all too well the luck behind that silence: 'Just sent it in the family group, what could go wrong?' But they forgot that hackers are eyeing such 'self-proclaimed safe' family groups.
Don't be silly! 'What comes from home' is the deadliest pit.
After dawn, Lao Zhang rushed into my office with two dark circles under his eyes, smoking a whole pack of cigarettes before he could explain the sequence of events. Last week, he was on a business trip and worried that his wife, who stays at home full-time, wouldn’t know how to operate digital assets, so he specifically stored the 12-word mnemonic phrase in his phone's memo, sent a screenshot to the family group, and even recorded a 20-second short video of 'copying → pasting → confirming'.
The day before yesterday afternoon, his wife followed the operation, the screen suddenly froze for two seconds, and after returning to normal, the money in the account had already been transferred in 5 transactions, the fastest one took only 6 seconds—by the time she called me crying, the balance was already a glaring 0. When seeking feedback from the platform, the reply was exactly the same as 90% of the cases I've seen: 'After investigation, this belongs to user-initiated operation, cannot pursue traceability'—in plain terms, this 3 million is basically a meat bun hitting a dog, with no place to recover.
I really can't blame his wife; the problem lies in Lao Zhang's 'blind spot of security awareness': he's using an old Android phone that hasn't been updated for four years, with dozens of prompts to update piled up; the home WiFi password is 'community name + house number', which can even be found by the milk tea shop downstairs; he has three 'free leverage data checking' plugins installed on his phone, and the original image cache of WeChat is still set for cloud synchronization. For hackers, this is not leaving vulnerabilities; it's like hanging the house keys, safe passwords, and ID cards at the door with a note saying 'welcome to take them'.
What's even worse is that my team dismantled a hacker tool last year and found that their servers clear operation logs every 18 hours—much faster than the 72 hours everyone thinks. By the time you realize the money is gone, even the clues of 'who stole it' are completely erased, leaving you with nowhere to cry.
9 years of blood and tears summary: 3 'life-saving rules' for survival in the crypto circle.
Having been in this circle for a long time, I've seen too many people who 'made 5 times profit but fell due to a small mistake': some clients made 3.8 million by trading, but stored their mnemonic phrase in cloud notes, resulting in their email being hacked and losing everything overnight; some brothers made money playing NFT, but used the public WiFi of a café to transfer assets, and were subject to traffic hijacking, losing all the floor price collectibles they just received.
Today we won't discuss the market or recommend any targets, just share the 3 'life-saving rules' that I and my core clients are using—each of which has helped me avoid pitfalls and has helped many people protect their hard-earned money.
1. Mnemonic phrase: do not touch it with electronic devices, write it by hand on something 'that can be passed down'.
Mnemonic phrases are not 'a string of garbled characters'; they are your digital asset's 'ID card + safe key + withdrawal password' all in one. I've seen the most regrettable client, Xiao Zhou, store their mnemonic phrase in the phone memo, and after losing the phone, the finder transferred away 2.1 million; there's also Sister Wang, who stored it in a certain cloud note, and after her cloud account was hacked, the mnemonic phrase directly became the hacker's 'withdrawal password'.
My own approach is: I found two ceramic plates (more durable than titanium, waterproof and drop-resistant, can last a lifetime), and used a laser engraver to engrave the mnemonic phrase, one hidden in the deepest part of the safe in my family's wardrobe, and the other entrusted to my brother. Don’t think it’s troublesome; the risks of electronic storage are far more than just 'being stolen': if the phone gets wet and breaks, if the cloud service shuts down, if the software crashes, it can all make you 'unable to retrieve your own money'.
A piece of data from a certain security agency that I remember until now: 70% of the cases of digital asset loss are rooted in the electronic storage of mnemonic phrases. Don't let 'this second be convenient' turn into 'a lifetime of regret'—after all, no one will pay the price for your luck.
2. Operating equipment: leave a 'clean machine', do not install anything except the official wallet
I often tell clients: 'You don't need to buy the latest phone, but you must have a dedicated 'operating machine'.' I use a 2019 iPhone XR, battle-scarred but more precious than my life—only 3 official wallet apps are installed, WeChat, browser, and short video apps have all been uninstalled, even the input method is the phone's built-in one, afraid that third-party software will steal permissions.
Especially avoid those tools that say 'get free benefits' or 'one-click view leverage data'. Last year we dismantled a seemingly legitimate 'market plugin' and found it would secretly request 'read clipboard' permissions; the moment you copy the mnemonic phrase, the information is already sent to the hacker's server. This is not a plugin; it's clearly a hacker's 'listening device'.
And about public WiFi, even if I'm working on a plan at Starbucks, I never use the store's network to operate assets. Hackers use 'traffic hijacking' to steal data, which is simpler than you think: as long as you're on the same WiFi, your operation records might be lying on someone else's screen, just like watching a movie.
3. Family operations: if they haven't learned the 'three must-checks', they absolutely cannot touch it.
Many people think 'operating digital assets is simple, just teach a few sentences', but in this industry, a shaky hand can lead to 'catastrophic errors': clicking the wrong link during authorization, missing one digit when transferring money, and the money may end up in someone else's pocket, and it can't be recovered.
I taught my wife how to operate it, and set a strict rule: we must open the video for real-time guidance, and every step must go through the 'three must-checks':
Check address length: the address lengths of different chains vary; for example, a certain public chain address is 42 characters long, while another public chain is 43 characters long; one character short or one character long must not be clicked;
Check the first and last characters: verify that the first 2 characters and the last 4 characters of the address match exactly with what the recipient provided before proceeding to the next step.
Check official verification: use the wallet app to scan and verify the address; do not manually input the letter O and the number 0, or the letter l and the number 1, as they are indistinguishable to the naked eye. Hackers are focused on these 'visual traps'.
