On the r/CryptoCurrency forum, user kooper1990 shared a painful story about losing $36,000. Ironically, the victim had long stored his cryptocurrency on a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet, which sat peacefully in a desk drawer. When he decided to withdraw some of the funds, he took out the device, but completing the transaction required a firmware update.

According to user kooper1990, he simply typed "Ledger Live" into a Google search and clicked the first link. Outwardly, the site looked absolutely legitimate. The user updated the firmware, moved on to the next step, and at the screen asking for the 24-word seed phrase forgot the main and most important rule of crypto security — he entered his secret words directly on the site. Within minutes, the money was stolen.

In the comments, a heated discussion broke out over who was responsible for what happened. According to user MrSnugs, it's simply incredible that Google allows such blatantly fraudulent links to sit at the top of search results. User jawanda picked up on this thought, adding that the corporation even profits from it by selling ad space to scammers. However, user HerrPotatis came to Google's defense, noting that tracking every site on the internet is a nearly impossible task, and ultimate responsibility still lies with users. Nevertheless, user Maxi_ribe checked this matter at the time of the post and reported that the phishing Ledger Live site was still hanging in the search results, even though he had already filed a complaint.

Commenter's attitudes toward the author were divided. User McD-Szechuan supported him, saying that making a stupid mistake doesn't make a person stupid, and advised him not to blame himself too much. At the same time, user djscoox was merciless: he called the act extremely ridiculous, since the whole point of a hardware wallet is precisely to never enter the seed phrase on a computer. User dugadugaboost advised always using ad blockers, since phishing sites fake even download interfaces. And user UpbeatFix7299 sarcastically remarked that for security in crypto you now literally need to sit in a Faraday cage and bury parts of your seed phrase in different places, which is hardly going to contribute to mass technology adoption.

This story serves as a painful but important lesson. As user Pericombobulator aptly put it, all it takes is a single moment of inattention to fall into scammer's clutches. Even if you're an experienced hodler, always double-check the domain and never enter your 24 words on any website.