How to recognise a crypto scam
The common patterns, why they work, and the small number of rules that catch almost all of them before they cost anything.
Crypto scams are not clever, mostly. They work because transfers are irreversible and because they create a reason to hurry. Recognise the shape and the specifics stop mattering.
Guaranteed returns
Any promise of a fixed daily or weekly percentage is a scam. Nobody can guarantee a return on a volatile asset, and the numbers quoted are usually impossible arithmetic — a few percent a day compounds to more money than exists.
These pay early participants with later participants' deposits until the inflow stops. The early withdrawal that worked is the advertising.
Someone who contacted you
An unsolicited message about an investment opportunity is the opening move, whether it arrives as a wrong number, a dating match, a job offer or a friendly trading tip.
The long version builds a relationship over weeks before money is mentioned, and shows you a fake platform where your balance grows convincingly. The withdrawal is where it ends: a fee, then a tax, then a verification deposit, each one the last obstacle.
The rule that beats all of it: never send funds to a platform someone else introduced you to, however well you feel you know them.
Support that finds you
Real support does not message you first. Scammers watch public channels for people with problems and arrive offering help, then ask for a seed phrase, a screen share, or a transfer to a "recovery address".
No legitimate service ever needs your seed phrase, your password, or remote control of your screen. Not for verification, not for migration, not for anything.
Recovery scams
After a loss, someone appears claiming they can recover the funds for a fee. They cannot. Reversing a confirmed blockchain transaction is not difficult, it is impossible, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling a second loss.
This one is especially cruel because it targets people who have already been hurt and want to believe.
The short checklist
Did they contact me? Then be suspicious by default.
Is there urgency, or a limited window? Urgency exists to stop you checking.
Is a guaranteed return involved? Then it is a scam, with no exceptions.
Am I being asked for a seed phrase, a password or screen access? Stop immediately.
Would I still do this if I had to wait 24 hours? If the answer is no, the pressure was the product.