Someone is selling hardware wallets that are not as offline as advertised.
Scammers are selling hardware wallets that come pre-loaded with a hidden eSIM chip, according to a new report. The chip isn't part of the device's advertised spec sheet, and there's no obvious way for a buyer to know it's there. A hardware wallet's entire pitch is that it keeps private keys offline, signing transactions locally instead of trusting a phone or browser app. An undisclosed cellular radio undermines that pitch from the inside.
This is a quieter version of a familiar scam: sellers have long resold wallets with a seed phrase already generated, draining funds the moment a buyer deposits crypto. A hidden eSIM skips that step and instead gives the device its own always-on link to a network the owner never agreed to. In both cases, the resale market for cold-storage devices is where the real risk lives, not the chip itself.
Cold storage is a security claim buyers take largely on faith, which is exactly why it still pays to buy a wallet from the manufacturer rather than a marketplace listing promising a discount.