Don’t Let Crypto Slip Through Your Fingers: My Painful Lessons & Your Safety Plan

Hey — this is Michael. If you’ve ever lost something small because you weren’t careful — a wallet, a phone, a key — then you’ll understand what I did wrong with my crypto. I want to share so you don’t make the same mistake.

My “I thought I was safe” moment

Back in mid-2017, crypto was just picking up. I bought a wallet, generated a seed phrase, wrote it down on a scrap of paper, put it in a drawer. Plenty of confidence that “one day I'll transfer it properly.” Time passed, I moved apartments, got busy at work. That seed-paper got folded, tucked in a box, never revisited. Then my laptop crashed. The hot wallet was gone—no seed, no restore. What was maybe $100 then became hundreds lost, but more than money, it stung. I still think about it when I write this.

Stories from people I talked to (so this isn’t just me)

Jess — SIM swap nightmare

Jess was a teacher, careful with her passwords. One weekend she noticed her phone lost signal, texts stopped. By the time she got it sorted — her number was ported by attackers. They reset her email, then her exchange account. Her funds were drained before she even knew what “support call” meant. Jess had to spend months reclaiming identity, changing every login, learning to use authenticator apps. She now carries her phone number like it's a treasure: locked, PIN’d, guarded.

Tom — a browser extension gone rogue

Tom installed a “browser helper” to find good deals. Weeks later, strange logins showed up. The extension had auto-updated, pulling in malicious code. It captured session cookies, saw his wallet session, then siphoned crypto. Tom lost 0.5 ETH, then another wallet after trying to clean his browser. Now he has one clean browser for crypto, nothing else. He removes extensions monthly and runs with zero trust.

Aunt Linda — losing the seed cost forever

Aunt Linda wrote down her seed phrase, but also took a photo “just in case.” Her phone broke a year later and photo lost. Paper backup was in her safe — but she forgot the passphrase needed to open it. No access. The wallet that once held what would have been her retirement pot is now silent. She tells everyone in family chat: “Don’t trust memory. Don’t trust digital backups without redundancy.”

Real cases that shake you

James Howells from Wales threw away a hard drive thinking it was trash. It had 7,500 Bitcoin private keys inside. The drive ended up in a landfill. As of 2025, that loss is worth hundreds of millions.

Michael Terpin, a PR exec, lost over **20 million USD** after SIM-swappers hijacked his phone number and emptied wallets tied to that number. A story about how even high profile people are not immune.

I’m launching this newsletter because …

Because I’ve seen too many good people make avoidable mistakes. Because money lost is heartbreak, risk, and lessons that cost. I want you to have tools, knowledge, checklists — without tech jargon, without feeling stupid. Every email will be about safety: choosing wallets, backing up seed, spotting scams, securing your accounts. Stuff you can do.

What you’ll learn & how it actually helps

• Wallets picked for ease: you’ll see what to use (and what to avoid).
• Seed phrase safety: how to write it, store it, and test that it works (note: backup matters).
• Prevent leaks: phishing, fake apps, sketchy browser extensions — you’ll know how to smell them.
• Account hygiene: TOTP instead of SMS, password managers, separating email for crypto.
• “Emergency envelope”: so if something happens, someone trusted can access what needs to be accessed without risk.

Starter checklist (first email)

• Picking a trustworthy mobile wallet app for beginners.
• Creating your first wallet step by step: write the seed phrase on paper by hand. No photos, no screenshots, no cloud storage.
• Easy browser cleanup steps you can do tonight.