Better Safe Than Sorry

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Scam literacy

Cryptocurrency Scam Patterns to Recognise

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Photo: Umbrella Street Camden Town by Celsoazevedo (CC BY 4.0), via Openverse

Cryptocurrency's relative newness and genuine technical complexity make it a favoured setting for scams of many kinds, since many ordinary people feel considerably less confident judging what counts as normal in this space compared with traditional banking, and scammers actively take advantage of that widespread uncertainty every day.

Common patterns include entirely unsolicited investment advice from brand new online contacts, platforms promising guaranteed daily returns that sound almost too good to refuse, and requests to send crypto to a specific address purely to "verify" a wallet before a much larger sum can supposedly be withdrawn or unlocked afterward.

Cryptocurrency transactions are generally irreversible once they have actually been sent, which is precisely why scammers strongly favour this particular payment method over traditional bank transfers, which can sometimes still be recalled or formally disputed through a proper financial institution well after the fact if something goes wrong.

Researching any platform independently before committing funds, checking whether it is properly registered with the relevant financial authorities in your country, and treating any request to send crypto first before receiving a promised larger return as a certain, unmistakable warning sign will protect most people from the vast majority of crypto scams out there.

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Printed from Better Safe Than Sorry. Sources for this article are listed at the end of the page.