Crypto wallet drainers: how one signature empties a wallet
A wallet drainer does not need your password. It needs one signature. Once you approve it, the assets move and no bank can reverse it, so the only defence is checking before you sign.
The short version
- Nobody legitimate ever needs your seed phrase. Anyone who asks for it is stealing.
- Read what a signature request allows, not what the website says it does.
- Unlimited token approvals and blind signatures are the most dangerous requests.
- Revoke old approvals you no longer use.
How drainers find you
- Fake mints and airdrops: a claim page for free tokens or an NFT you supposedly qualified for.
- Hijacked or fake social accounts of real projects, posting "mint is live" links.
- Fake support: someone in your direct messages offering to fix a wallet problem, who sends you to a "validation" page.
- Search ads and lookalike domains of popular exchanges, bridges and wallets.
Before you sign anything
Never type your seed phrase into a website
Your recovery phrase is only ever entered into your own wallet app when restoring it. A website, a form or a support agent asking for it is always a theft attempt.
Check the site's address
Drainers copy real projects exactly. Open the project from a bookmark or its official account, and check the domain as in How to check a link before you click.
Read what the request allows
A request to approve spending, especially an unlimited amount, lets the other side move those tokens later without asking you again. A permit or blind signature can do the same without an on-chain approval. If you do not understand what you are signing, do not sign.
Use a separate wallet for new sites
Keep most of your assets in a wallet that never connects to new sites, and use a small separate wallet for mints and experiments.
Check the link or contract first
Paste the site into the scan box below. Dralvia's wallet risk checker and smart contract scanner check addresses and contracts before you interact with them.
If you already signed
- Move whatever is left to a new wallet with a new seed phrase, straight away.
- Revoke the approvals you gave, using your wallet's approvals view or a trusted token-approval tool.
- Report the site and addresses to the platform where you found the link, and to the police if the loss is significant.
- Ignore anyone who contacts you offering to recover the funds for a fee. That is a second scam.
Check a link now, free
Paste the link you are unsure about. It opens in an isolated browser on our side, never on your device, and you get a verdict with the evidence behind it. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- Does a hardware wallet protect me from drainers?
- It protects your keys, but it will still sign whatever you approve. It helps most when you read the request on its screen before confirming.
- Can stolen crypto be recovered?
- Rarely. Transfers cannot be reversed. Exchanges can sometimes freeze funds that reach them, so report quickly, but be very wary of paid recovery services.
More guides
Eight quick checks to tell a real link from a phishing link: see the real address, read the domain the right way, spot lookalikes, and scan it for free.
What the Dralvia risk score from 0 to 100 means, where the points come from, what Safe, Caution and Avoid ask you to do, and what a score cannot tell you.
Clicked a phishing link or typed your password into a fake page? The steps to take right now, depending on what happened, in the order that limits the damage.