Lost your crypto access code? Be wary, there‘s a scam for that too

It’s lucrative enough for criminals to set up fake websites to lure panicking crypto investors desperate to recover their data. Photograph: Igor Stevanovic/Alamy

After holding them for a few years, you have decided it is time to cash in your cryptocurrency holdings. The problem is, it is so long since you set up the digital wallet which manages them on your laptop, you have forgotten the lengthy access code.

Stressed at the thought of losing thousands of pounds, you search and download a program which promises to recover the 24-word “seed phrase” which gives you access to your cypto assets.