Common crypto scams and how to avoid them

The most common crypto scams work by getting you to do one of three things: send coins to someone, reveal your seed phrase, or sign a transaction you did not understand. Because a blockchain transfer cannot be reversed, there is rarely a way back afterwards. In 2024 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded about $9.3 billion in reported losses involving cryptocurrency, most of it investment fraud.

Fake investment platforms

Someone you met online — on a dating app, in a group chat, through a wrong-number message — builds trust over weeks, then introduces a trading platform where they have done well. The site shows your deposit growing. When you try to withdraw, there are "taxes" or "fees" to pay first, and the money never comes out, because the platform was never real. The rule: if someone you have not met in person steers you to a platform, stop.

Fake support

You post a question about a stuck transaction and within minutes "support" messages you, or you search for an exchange's help line and find a fake number. They walk you through "verifying" your wallet, which means typing your seed phrase into their form or approving a transaction. The rule: real support never messages you first and never asks for a seed phrase.

Phishing sites and ads

A copy of a real exchange or wallet site, often reached through a search ad or an email, asks you to sign in or connect your wallet. The rule: bookmark the sites you use and go through the bookmark, and use a passkey or security key — they will not work on a fake domain (2FA and passkeys).

Giveaways and doubling

A video stream or a post from a famous name — often a hijacked account or a deepfake — promises to send back double whatever you send. The rule: nobody doubles your money. Anything that requires you to send first is a theft.

Address poisoning

A scammer sends you a tiny amount from an address that starts and ends with the same characters as one you use, so it appears in your history. Next time you copy an address from that history, you may copy theirs. The rule: never copy addresses from your transaction history; take them from your saved contacts or the recipient, and check more than the first and last few characters.

Drainer approvals

On networks like Ethereum, a transaction can give a contract permission to move your tokens later. A fake airdrop or mint page asks you to sign one, and the contract empties the wallet. The rule: read what you are signing; if the wallet says "approve" or "permit" for a site you do not fully trust, reject it. Keep savings in a wallet that never connects to applications.

Recovery scams

After a loss, victims are contacted by people offering to recover the money for a fee — sometimes posing as lawyers or police. They take the fee and vanish. The rule: nobody can reverse a blockchain transaction for a fee. Report losses to your police and your national fraud reporting service directly.

Five habits that stop most of them

• Never share or type your seed phrase anywhere except a wallet you are restoring.
• Treat every unsolicited message about crypto as hostile, however friendly.
• Reach exchanges and wallets only through your own bookmarks.
• Send a small test amount first to any new address, and confirm it arrived.
• Treat urgency, guaranteed returns and requests for secrecy as warning signs.

This guide explains how things work. It is not financial, investment or tax advice. Something wrong? Write to hi@perly.io and we will correct it.