Avoiding Crypto Scams

At a Glance

Phishing, rug pulls, Ponzi schemes, fake giveaways target crypto users daily. Learn the red flags and protections.

PhishingRug PullsPonziFake Giveaways

Who Is This For?

•All crypto participants, regardless of experience
•Community mods and support volunteers

Learning Objectives

01Identify common scam types and warning signs
02Use research checklist before committing funds
03Respond correctly if targeted or compromised

Section 1

Scam Patterns

Scam Encyclopedia

🎣

Phishing

CriticalExtremely Common

Fake websites, emails, DMs that impersonate legitimate services to steal credentials or trick you into signing malicious transactions.

How It Works:

1.Attacker creates a replica of a real site

2.Distributes link via Google ads, Discord DMs, fake Twitter accounts

3.Victim connects wallet on fake site

4.Site steals seed phrase or prompts a drainer approval

🚩 Red Flags

•Unsolicited DMs with links

•URLs with subtle misspellings

•Urgency / countdown timers

•Requests for seed phrase

🛡️ Protection

•Bookmark all crypto sites

•Never enter seed on any website

•Verify URLs character by character

•Use hardware wallet

Red Flag Detector

Evaluating a project? Check any red flags you observe:

"Send crypto first to receive more"critical

Asking for your seed phrase or private keycritical

"Guaranteed returns" or "risk-free profits"critical

Extreme urgency: "Only 5 minutes left!"high

Anonymous team with no verifiable historyhigh

Unsolicited DM with investment opportunityhigh

APY too good to be true (100%+)medium

Must pay fees to unlock withdrawalscritical

Section 2

Protection Playbook

DYOR Research Checklist

Before committing funds, verify each item:

Team identities verifiedTeam

Smart contracts auditedTechnical

Working product existsProduct

Organic community (not botted)Social

Fair token distributionToken

Liquidity locked (6+ months)Token

Research Confidence0%

Scam Message Analyzer

Discord DMCryptoAdmin_Support

“Your wallet was flagged. Verify at secure-wallet-verify.io within 24 hours or funds at risk.”

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Section 3

If Things Go Wrong

Incident Response Guide

🔑Seed Exposed

CRITICAL

1

STOP interacting immediately

2

Create NEW wallet on clean device

3

Transfer ALL assets to new wallet

4

Revoke approvals on old wallet

5

NEVER use compromised wallet again

🚨 BEWARE Recovery Scammers: Nobody can reverse blockchain transactions. Any recovery service asking for money is a SECOND scam.

Watch Out

Common Mistakes & Gotchas

⏰

Only 10 minutes to claim my airdrop, so I rushed

Urgency is the scammer's weapon. Legitimate opportunities don't evaporate in minutes.

🤳

My favorite influencer posted about this token

Influencers are often paid to promote—sometimes they dump after posting. Always DYOR.

🎁

The giveaway said send 1 ETH to get 10 back

NOBODY will send you more crypto than you send. If you send first, it's a scam. Period.

🔍

Project was audited with $50M TVL, so I went all in

Audits check code, not intentions. TVL can be inflated. These are data points, not guarantees.

🛡️ Golden Rule: If someone needs you to act RIGHT NOW, that's the moment to stop. Urgency is the scammer's greatest tool.

Test Yourself