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What to Do If You Connected Your Wallet to a Suspicious Crypto Site

A wallet connection, token approval, signed transaction, and exposed recovery phrase each require a different response. Here’s how to secure your wallet and report the incident.
Length5 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Stop interacting with the site, then work out whether you only connected your wallet, approved or signed something, or revealed your recovery phrase or private key. Those actions carry different risks: a connection can expose your public address, an approval can authorize token transfers, and exposing the phrase or key means the wallet should be treated as compromised.

First, stop the interaction

  1. Close the suspicious page. Do not follow prompts to “verify,” “synchronize,” or “secure” the wallet, and do not reopen the site through the same link.
  2. Use an independent route. Open your wallet or exchange’s official app or help center yourself. Do not trust contact details or links sent by the suspicious site or an unexpected support message.
  3. Consider the device. If you think someone accessed or controlled the device, disconnect it from the internet and use a separate trusted device for account security and any asset transfer. Kraken gives this advice for suspected device access in its compromised-wallet guidance.

What happened when you connected?

Identify the action you took before deciding what to secure. A wallet connection is not the same as a token approval or disclosure of your recovery phrase.

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What you did What it can mean What to do
Connected only The site may learn your public wallet address and view associated balances and activity. This alone does not disclose your recovery phrase. Disconnect the site, then check for approvals and transactions you do not recognize.
Approved token spending or signed a permit A smart contract may have permission to interact with specified tokens. Some permit signatures can authorize a future transaction without an immediate transfer, so no immediate loss does not establish that the action was harmless. The Singapore Police Force advisory explains this risk. Inspect and revoke suspicious approvals on the relevant networks, and check wallet activity.
Signed a transaction The transaction may already have moved assets or changed permissions. Check wallet activity and the relevant blockchain explorer for transactions you did not intend.
Entered or shared your recovery phrase or private key Anyone who has it may control the wallet and its assets. Disconnecting the site cannot make the secret private again. Treat the wallet as compromised. Create a new wallet with a new phrase on a secure device and move remaining assets as safely and quickly as possible.
Used an embedded wallet Access may depend on an associated email, Apple, Google, or passkey account as well as wallet permissions. Secure that login identity and remove unknown sessions, following the wallet provider’s official instructions.

Disconnect the site, then check token approvals

Disconnecting a dapp stops its wallet connection, but does not by itself revoke onchain token approvals. Handle these as two separate checks.

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Disconnect the dapp in your wallet

Use the wallet’s connected-app or dapp-permissions settings to remove the suspicious site. For Coinbase Wallet, the current controls are documented under Manage dapp permissions and token approvals; labels and paths can change, so follow the official instructions for your wallet version.

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Coinbase says its in-app encrypted Dapp Browser automatically revokes access when a dapp is closed. That behavior is specific to that product and should not be assumed for other wallets.

Review approvals separately

Check token approvals on every network you use. The UK National Crime Agency’s Operation ATLANTIC page references Etherscan’s Token Approval Checker and Revoke.cash as tools for reviewing approvals. Reach any tool through verified official documentation rather than a link from the suspicious site or an unsolicited contact, and inspect the transaction carefully before signing a revocation.

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Revoking an approval is itself an onchain transaction: it requires a wallet signature and may require a network fee. Make sure you understand what the transaction changes before approving it. Coinbase warns that malicious contracts may exploit unlimited token allowances to withdraw the balance they can access.

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If you revealed your recovery phrase or private key

Do not keep using the exposed phrase, and do not enter it into a website, support chat, or approval tool. A new wallet must have a newly generated recovery phrase; moving assets to another address derived from the exposed phrase does not replace the compromised secret.

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  1. On a secure device, create a new wallet using the wallet provider’s official instructions and generate a new recovery phrase.
  2. Record the new phrase securely and do not share it. The Singapore Police Force’s 1 July 2026 advisory says: “Protect Your Seed Phrase: Do not enter your seed phrase on any website, application, or device that you do not fully trust.”
  3. Transfer remaining assets to the new wallet as soon as it is safe to do so. Follow the wallet provider’s official directions; a compromised wallet may still be under an attacker’s control.
  4. Disconnect unknown dapps and review or revoke suspicious approvals where possible, but do not mistake those steps for restoring secrecy to the old phrase.

Kraken’s guidance for seed-phrase wallets covers creating a new wallet, moving assets, and stopping use of the compromised phrase. For embedded wallets, it advises securing the linked email, Apple, Google, or passkey account, signing out unknown sessions, changing the password where applicable, and using official instructions to export keys if assets need to move.

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Contact providers and report the incident

Contact the wallet provider and any exchange or custodial platform through independently verified official channels. Ask whether it can secure the account or halt activity. A provider may be able to act on an account it controls, but that does not mean it can reverse an onchain transfer: Kraken states, “Onchain transactions cannot be reversed.” The European supervisory authorities’ 2025 consumer factsheet notes that a provider may still be able to freeze an account on its own platform or blacklist an address.

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Keep records that can help providers or investigators assess what happened:

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  • Transaction hashes and wallet addresses
  • Dates and times of the interaction and any transactions
  • Screenshots, the suspicious URL, and relevant messages

Report through the appropriate police, cybercrime, or consumer-protection channels for your location. Reporting routes vary by jurisdiction: Singapore’s police advisory gives Singapore-specific contacts, while the UK NCA page describes UK reporting and cross-border contacts. The NCA page is marked expired, so verify current contact details independently before using them.

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Watch for recovery scams

Stop communicating with the original scammer. Be skeptical of unexpected calls, direct messages, or emails from anyone claiming to be law enforcement, a regulator, wallet support, or a crypto-recovery specialist. The European supervisory authorities warn that “recovery-room” fraud targets people who have already lost money; the NCA says participants in Operation ATLANTIC do not offer recovery services.

Do not pay an upfront “unlock,” “tax,” or recovery fee, and never share your recovery phrase, private key, password, or verification code. A recovery promise is not proof that someone can retrieve an onchain transfer.

Reduce the chance of another compromise

  • Use a hardware wallet if it suits your needs and you can manage its recovery and backup procedures; the Singapore Police Force recommends hardware wallets where possible. It is not an emergency cure for an exposed phrase, and it does not make a malicious transaction safe to sign.
  • Read transaction and approval details before signing, especially when a site requests broad or unlimited token access.
  • Reach wallet support and permission-management tools through official channels you navigate to independently.

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