Tony has an exceptional ability to cut through noise and hype, explain complex concepts clearly, and provide considered, practical guidance tailored to my circumstances and risk profile.
— Dr Barry Smith, Chiropractor
Free guide
How you know when someone's trying to steal your crypto.
It's rarely a hacker. It's a helpful voice on the phone, a box you clicked to make it go away, an app that looked exactly right. What Crypto Fraud Actually Looks Like walks you through the seven shapes crypto theft usually takes, the ten-second tell for each, and ten rules that make you a hard target.
1,500+ coaching sessions
5+ years in the trenches
Process, not picks
The problem
Nobody is hacking your wallet.
When people picture crypto theft, they picture someone clever, somewhere else, breaking the maths. That isn't what happens.
The encryption is the one part of this that just works. The people who steal crypto for a living have had a good long look at it and decided to walk around the side. They don't attack your wallet. They attack the person holding it.
So your hardware wallet can work perfectly, your PIN can work perfectly, and the money still leaves. Because you sent it yourself, to someone who had spent twenty minutes being very helpful.
And being careful isn't a plan. Careful runs out on the afternoon you're tired, distracted or mid-house-move, and these operations are designed to arrive when it has. What works is knowing the shape before it turns up, and a few boring rules you follow without having to think.
What's inside
Seven shapes. Ten rules. One thing to do tonight.
- 01
The support call.
Calm, professional, knows your name and your exchange. Here to help you move your funds somewhere safe.
- 02
The approval you didn’t understand.
The box you signed to make it go away. The theft can come months later, which is why most people never work out what happened.
- 03
The SIM swap.
Someone talks your mobile provider into moving your number. Every security code meant for you now goes to them.
- 04
The fake app and the paid search result.
Four and a half stars, the right logo, a clean setup wizard. And a copy of your seed phrase sent to whoever built it.
- 05
The long game.
Weeks of friendly attention, then a platform that lets you withdraw a little. That small withdrawal is the con.
- 06
The synthetic layer.
A voice you’d know anywhere, from a number you know, needing money now. Cloning it takes less audio than a voicemail greeting.
- 07
The visit.
The rare one, and the one that changes what you’ve been told about storing your seed phrase.
Each shape comes with its ten-second tell. Then the ten rules, and the one thing to do tonight if you do nothing else. Over the following week, one email a day takes each shape apart properly.
“You are in a league of your own, sir. Nobody else could help us. For a whole year, it was a nightmare.”
LM
Leonardo M.
After Tony recovered $11,500 in stuck funds nobody else could resolve
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Who it's for
Who this is really for.
I've done well over 1,500 coaching calls in the last couple of years.
In that time I've seen a lot of things I can't unsee.
The pensioner who had spent years meticulously saving $10,000… only to give every cent of it up to a crypto phishing scam.
The business owner who had staked $30,000 in a DeFi protocol, went looking for help in their discord server… and trusted the wrong account. Gone.
The client who transferred $12,000 from Coinbase to his Metamask wallet… and watched it literally evaporate seconds later thanks to some very cleverly designed and distributed malware.
It's very easy to read that and think, “oh that will never happen to me” or “I wouldn't fall for that”… until you do, and it does.
I have friends and colleagues in the crypto space who have operated successfully for years. They know their way around. Also thought they were too smart to be caught by the armies of fraudsters and scammers out there. And then they let their guard down.
I've seen it happen too many times.
There is no worse feeling in crypto than staring at your phone going “wait, what just happened?” while the wallet you thought was secure drains in front of you.
Maybe you've had the ‘nearly’ moment as well (I know I have). The one where you clicked the link and then thought “wait, was that real?” and your stomach dropped while you checked. Maybe you got lucky. Maybe you didn't.
This guide is for those who don't want to have that feeling. Or have it again.
The crypto-skeptic media often makes it feel like opening Coinbase is the same as walking through a dodgy pub car park at 2am with your wallet hanging out of your back pocket. The truth is though that while there are plenty of scumbags out there who would love to relieve you of your money, just a little bit of knowledge and the discipline to use it is all you need to protect yourself from the vast majority of fuckery lying in wait for the unsuspecting and unprepared.
The knowledge is one free guide away. The discipline? Well, that's up to you.
Author
Tony Barrett: started from zero at age 47.
My crypto journey goes back to 2013, when I read the Bitcoin whitepaper on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. I decided right then and there to pick up a few of these "digital bitcoins". Just in case.
But by the time the flight landed there was some urgent "crisis" to deal with in my business (I can't even remember what it was, so it must've been important) and the Bitcoin experiment was relegated to a dusty shelf somewhere in the back of my mind.
It took me 8 years to come back to it.
When I finally sat down to figure it out in 2021, I discovered that Bitcoin had gone from ~$100 to ~$20,000 per coin. D'oh. From there I spent more than a year making every mistake you've read about and probably a few you haven't, including some painful lessons about exactly how creative the bad actors in this space can be. Every cent of it avoidable. Every cent of it instructive.
Those lessons are why I obsess about the boring stuff. Security. Infrastructure. The discipline of a defensive system that doesn't rely on you being clever or careful in the moment. This guide is a distilled version of that obsession, tested against 1,500+ coaching calls with people navigating the same risks you are.
Seven shapes. Ten rules. No filler. No hype. A starting point for keeping what's yours.
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Some kind words from clients.
A small selection from 1,500+ coaching sessions across the Crypto Decoded community.
Tony's depth of knowledge is invaluable. He explained the 'why, how, what, and when' of crypto with clarity and helped me build confidence while staying safe online.
— Daniel Jackson
Tony is the guiding light in my crypto journey. Best teacher and mentor.
— Mickey Patel
I'm not the best at computers and you made everything so easy for me. Your attitude and personality are just awesome.
— Bob DeHart
The best part was the way he walked and talked me through the whole process and lifted the anxiety away.
— Todd Mayne
Very patient and very knowledgeable, and aware of the risks to manage in this space. A pleasure to work with.
— Neil Gibb
You are a wonderful teacher. You really went out of your way to explain everything, and for that, I sincerely thank you.
— Nicole Lasecki
Tony was amazing — patient, calm and kind. He walked me through the process adeptly and stayed until the problem was completely resolved.
— Lori DiBenedetto
Get the guide.
Free. It lands in a couple of minutes, then one email a day for a week.
This guide and the emails that follow contain information that has helped me and my clients. I make no guarantee that following them will prevent you from being scammed, defrauded, or phished — using them well is on you. Scams also evolve, so keep your knowledge current. Treat the guide as a starting point, not an insurance policy.