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Be skeptical of crypto offers that promise high returns with little risk, arrive through an unsolicited message, or require another payment before you can withdraw. Scammers may build trust, show a convincing but fake account balance, and use a small early withdrawal to persuade you to deposit more. Verify the person, firm, platform, and asset independently before sending anything.
How crypto investment and DeFi scams typically work
Many schemes follow a progression: someone makes contact, establishes credibility, points you to an investment, then uses apparent profits or urgency to encourage larger transfers. The details vary, but a familiar dashboard or a friendly relationship is not proof that funds are invested or that returns are real.
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| How it begins | What the opportunity looks like | How pressure is applied | What may happen when you withdraw |
|---|---|---|---|
| A social-media message, text, dating-app contact, or supposedly accidental message develops into a friendship or romance. | The contact claims special trading knowledge and directs you to a convincing but fake site or app. Its dashboard may display rapid gains. | You are encouraged to move the conversation to a private messaging app and make increasingly large deposits. A small withdrawal may be allowed to build confidence. | The operator may invent a tax, fee, insurance charge, or account-release cost, or stop responding. |
| Promoters hype a token, trading platform, or DeFi project in social posts or messaging groups. | Exciting claims and group enthusiasm create demand for an asset, sometimes without clear, independently verifiable information about how it works. | Urgency, secrecy, or fear of missing out can discourage careful checks. In a pump-and-dump, promoters sell after hype has pushed the price up. | The price may fall rapidly after promoters sell, leaving later buyers exposed to losses. |
| An investment offer is promoted as a way to earn steady or unusually high returns. | A Ponzi-style scheme may use money from new participants to create the appearance of returns to earlier ones. | Reported gains or testimonials may be used to attract more deposits and participants. | Withdrawals may be blocked or delayed when the operator cannot or will not pay. |
These patterns can overlap. A displayed balance is only a claim made by the platform; it does not establish that the money exists or that the service is legitimate.
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Returns are guaranteed or described as nearly risk-free
Promises of high profits with little or no risk are a major warning sign. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) puts it plainly: “But, there is no such thing as a risk-free transaction or a guaranteed money-making opportunity.” Treat a guarantee as a reason to stop and verify, not as evidence of a special opportunity.
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A new online contact turns personal conversation into investment advice
Be cautious if a person you have just met online, including a romantic interest or someone claiming to have messaged by accident, begins urging you to invest. A request to move to a private messaging app or keep the opportunity secret adds reason for concern. Trust built through conversation does not validate an investment.
You are pushed to act, keep quiet, or accept explanations you cannot check
Pressure to act immediately, instructions not to tell others, or complicated claims that cannot be independently verified make it harder to assess the offer. Before considering any investment, you should be able to understand what the asset is and how the claimed profits are supposed to be made.
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The website, app, or promoter has not been independently verified
Check the exact web address and the identity of the firm or person using contact information and sources you find independently. The FBI warns that fraudulent sites can imitate financial institutions with misspelled URLs, and that suspicious investing apps may be part of a scam. Do not rely on a link supplied by the person pitching the investment.
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Posts, anonymous accounts, group-chat enthusiasm, screenshots, testimonials, or celebrity endorsements do not establish that a token or DeFi project is sound. Hype can be part of a pump-and-dump, in which promoters sell into demand they helped create.
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You must pay more to access supposed profits
A demand for a new tax, fee, insurance payment, or release charge before a suspicious platform will let you withdraw is a recurring fraud tactic described by federal agencies. Do not treat the demand as proof that the displayed balance is real.
Registration is treated as a guarantee
For an offer involving securities, you can use the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor.gov tools to check the seller. A registration check is not an endorsement: registration alone does not prove an offer is safe, and the CFTC cautions that fraud can still occur.
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How to check an offer before sending money
- Pause before acting. Do not let a countdown, a personal relationship, or fear of missing out set your deadline.
- Research the person and company independently. Search their names with terms such as “review,” “scam,” “fraud,” or “complaint.” Look for information beyond the site or messages provided by the promoter.
- Verify the web address yourself. Type a known address you have independently confirmed rather than following a link from the person promoting the offer. Check spelling carefully.
- Understand the asset and the claimed source of returns. If you cannot explain what you would be buying or how the profits are said to arise, do not proceed on the strength of someone else’s assurance.
- Do not use apparent profits as validation. A screenshot, a displayed gain, or a small successful withdrawal can be part of a scheme designed to encourage a larger deposit.
- Check relevant records without treating them as a safety seal. For securities offers, consult Investor.gov’s tools to check the seller, while remembering that registration by itself does not make an investment safe.
What to do if you suspect a scam or have already sent funds
- Stop communicating and do not send more money. In particular, do not pay a supposed withdrawal charge to unlock a balance shown by a suspicious platform.
- Preserve the details. Save messages, usernames, phone numbers, email addresses, website addresses, transaction dates and amounts, wallet addresses, and the names of receiving exchanges, platforms, or financial institutions. Keep copies of relevant screenshots and records.
- Contact the exchange or financial institution involved promptly. Provide the transaction information and explain that you suspect fraud.
- Report the suspected fraud. Submit a report to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Include contact and transaction details; the FBI/IC3 asks victims to provide information of this kind.
- Be wary of recovery offers. Someone who promises to retrieve crypto for an upfront fee, or asks for wallet credentials, may be targeting you again. Recovery can be difficult, and a promise to recover funds is not evidence that the person can do so.
What the reported loss figures do—and do not—tell you
In a May 2021 consumer alert, the FTC said it had received nearly 7,000 reports of losses to bogus cryptocurrency investments since October 2020, totaling more than $80 million. The same alert said people in their 20s and 30s reported $35 million in cryptocurrency losses among investment-scam losses. These are historical figures reported in 2021, not current totals or estimates of present-day losses.
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What this guidance cannot verify about a DeFi project
General scam checks can help you assess the people, promotion, and claims around an offer, but they do not establish that a DeFi protocol or smart contract is technically safe. The federal guidance cited here does not provide a reliable method for reviewing wallet permissions, smart-contract code, audit quality, or transaction-simulation results. Do not interpret the absence of an obvious warning sign as a technical approval of a project.
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