The more years we spend using crypto, the more cautious we become about potential frauds. Now “classical” stuff in this field includes fake trading websites and ICOs, blackmail emails, Ponzi schemes, phishing, rug pulls, and so on. A lot of users have learned to recognize malicious projects, and scammers have noticed it. That’s why they’re developing new creative and even more technical ways to steal our coins.
From private seeds and romance platforms to AI tools and QR codes, we need to be aware of new types of complex crypto scams to be able to avoid them. Let’s check how they lure their unsuspecting victims.
Having the private seed, private keys, or secret recovery phrase from a crypto wallet (a string of twelve or more random words) ensures complete access and control to all funds stored in that wallet. That’s why the first thing you should learn in crypto is to protect your private seed. Considering this, now imagine that a stranger sends you a private message one day, sharing their private seed with you, and asking for help to exchange their funds.
They have handed you complete control over their funds, out of nowhere. You can now open that wallet from your side, and make all the transactions you want to with the coins inside. Or almost all the coins inside. Here’s a thing: to make transactions, you need to pay transaction fees in the native coin of that network.
However, after you send that ETH fraction, this one is transferred out of this wallet immediately. It’s so fast that you couldn’t have done a thing to stop it because it was done by what 's called a “sweeper bot”. This way, the scammer won’t let anyone transfer the internal tokens, while effectively stealing the native coins sent to the wallet.
It may not be that much per victim, but it’s there, as a sort of passive income for the fraudster(s). Avoid this trap! Nobody is gonna send their private seed to a stranger willingly.
At this point, we all likely know and hate romance scams. Someone messages you for months, pretends to be your friend or your date, and somehow ends up asking for money. Well, it seems like romance scammers also have a way to make the process quicker, but equally effective.
There are
Behind the screen, these profiles are all fake and handled by whole offices of underpaid (and illegal) workers, pretending to be the people in the photographs and urging the clients to spend as much money as possible on internal services, such as messaging. Even the people in the photographs work for the malicious company, so they don’t only sell their photos, but partake in the fraud through video when they’re asked to.
Payment methods
Discord could be a scam minefield even for experienced users, and moderators and admins of crypto communities on this platform aren’t immune. The scam starts when someone approaches the admin/mod, either through a direct message or in a public chat, offering opportunities to work as a freelance moderator or admin for crypto projects. They claim to be part of an agency that provides temporary moderation support to new ventures.
The approach is subtle and professional, with the scammer communicating clearly and not appearing aggressive. So far, this tactic has been seen in various languages like English, Italian, and German, indicating a broader reach. Once the offer is accepted, the target is invited to join the scammer's Discord server for more information. Upon entering, they are asked to verify their identity—something very common in larger communities.
However, this verification is actually
If a victim falls for this scam, they should try to regain control of their account by resetting their Discord password as quickly as possible. If the account recovery process fails, they need to contact Discord's support team to report the hack and request assistance in securing the account. Additionally, the victim should inform all relevant server admins where they’re moderators or members, alerting them that their account was compromised.
A lot of people would invest in a project if that project is endorsed by a celebrity. Or better yet, by an important political figure. Right now, in our slightly creepy era, it’s completely possible to “steal” a face online and make it talk in your favor, on video. It’s called a deepfake and it’s done with AI. See, for instance, this video of the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recommending a new crypto investment platform. If that sounds weird, it’s because the real Starmer didn’t do it, only his face on a deepfake.
The mentioned crypto platform is of course a scam, and the fraudsters made an investment of around $27,000 in Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) to reach over 891,000 people, according to the research firm
This is barely yet another incident, though. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Michael Saylor, and other well-known public figures
One bad moment you could be scanning a seemingly innocent QR code to make a small payment, and the next one you could discover that all the funds in your wallet are gone. This is the type of crypto scam described by the analysis firm Bitrace recently. It all starts when a scammer proposes an enticing peer-to-peer token exchange, bypassing traditional exchanges.
They lure in their target by offering better-than-market rates and a small upfront payment in Tether (USDT). To further win trust, the scammer promises long-term cooperation and additional fees in TRON (TRX). After this initial transaction, the scammer asks the user to participate in a “small repayment test,” which involves scanning a QR code to return the initial USDT. However, this QR code redirects the user to a third-party website that tricks them into confirming the transaction. **The moment they hit “confirm,” their wallet’s authorization to spend everything is stolen, allowing the scammer to drain their funds.
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Finally, you can check our guides about how to recognize legitimate
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