The Trusted-Helper Protocol
Grief attracts predators: fake "support agents", urgent "tax matters", recovery services that recover nothing. The protocol is simple — helpers are named in advance, verified before trusted, and nobody, ever, asks for seed words.
Name the helpers now
- The first call — the calm friend or relative who knew the plan exists. Their job: be there, slow things down, be a second pair of eyes.
- The technical helper — the one person (or vetted service) for anything crypto. Their job: guide recovery safely, never touch the keys alone.
- The professional — lawyer or notary for the legal path. Their job: the paperwork with deadlines.
Each helper should know two things while you're alive: that they're in the plan, and what their lane is. Lanes prevent both gaps and collisions.
Verify before you trust — the control question
For each helper, the plan stores a personal question only the real person can answer — "what did we grill at the lake house?", not their mother's maiden name. When someone calls claiming to be the helper, the heir asks it. A stranger fails; the real person laughs and answers.
The four rules that stop nearly everything
- Nobody legitimate asks for seed words, passwords, or PINs. Not helpers, not companies, not the police. The question itself IS the scam.
- Whoever contacts YOU first is a stranger — banks, exchanges, and registries don't cold-call the bereaved with urgent problems. Real helpers are the ones the plan named.
- Urgency is the tell. Anything that "must happen today" can wait a week. Legitimate deadlines come on paper, with letterheads, measured in months.
- Two people for anything irreversible. Moving crypto, signing over property, large transfers — the heir plus one named helper, in the same room. No exceptions, especially not "helpful" new acquaintances.
If something already went wrong
No shame, fast action: call the bank/exchange to freeze what can be frozen, file a police report the same day (insurers and platforms ask for it), tell the first-call helper, and change passwords from a different device. Scammers rely on embarrassment and delay — deny them both.