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Last updated 2026-11-05

Common Fraud Cases

Almost every crypto scam is one of five patterns wearing a new costume. This page sorts them into families, gives the method that works across all of them, and points to the page that explains each one.

Who this is for

Anyone who wants the map before the details. If you are already dealing with a loss, go straight to Theft Prevention.

The five families

1. Impersonation. A fake wallet, a cloned app, or a copy of a website borrows a name you trust. The goal is to reach the moment where you type a recovery phrase or approve a connection. Read Stay Away from Fake Wallet Scams and Phishing App Scam.

2. Destination manipulation. The payment looks correct except for the address. Either a person swaps it mid-conversation, or a lookalike address is planted in your history for you to copy later. Read Common Transfer Phishing Scams and How to Stay Safe and Be Aware of Phishing Addresses.

3. A lying interface. Your wallet shows what an RPC endpoint tells it. A malicious endpoint can inflate a balance, fake a confirmation, or hide a transaction. Read Fake RPC Nodes, Fake Balances.

4. Permission traps. Nothing is "sent" — you sign. An approval, a permit, or a multi-sig invitation gives a contract the right to move your tokens later. The screen shows a signature request, not a payment. Read DApp Approval Scam and Malicious Multi-Sig Scams.

5. Advance fees and fake services. A prize, a payout, a "recovery", or a marketplace withdrawal that requires a deposit or a fee first. The fee is the product; the payout does not exist.

The shared detection method

Three questions decide almost every case.

Who started the contact? A stranger who messages you first is selling something, including a story. Real providers do not open a conversation with a security warning and a link.

What am I being asked to do? Separate the three actions: send a payment, sign an approval, reveal a secret. A request for a recovery phrase or private key ends the conversation, whatever reason is offered.

Can I confirm this somewhere independent? Not in the same chat, and not in the same app that raised the question. Check the explorer at www.bitgold.live, the vendor's own domain that you typed yourself, or a second RPC endpoint.

If any answer is unclear, wait. Urgency is the ingredient every family needs, because pressure is what stops you from checking.

Warning signs

  • Contact you did not initiate, especially from an account with a new tone or a new wallet.
  • A deadline measured in minutes, and a reason you cannot verify.
  • A request to install, update, import, or "verify" something before a payment can proceed.
  • An address that exists only inside the conversation.
  • A wallet screen offering Approve or Permit when the deal was supposed to be a transfer.
  • Numbers you can only see in one place: one app, one node, one screenshot.

If it happens to you

  1. Stop the interaction. Do not send the second half of a payment, and do not "correct" a transfer with another one.
  2. If a phrase was exposed, create a new wallet on a clean device and move what remains.
  3. Revoke approvals the address still holds open.
  4. Report to your wallet provider and to the exchange or platform involved. A confirmed transaction cannot be reversed, and a service that promises otherwise is running a second scam.

Next steps

Self-check

  • Can you name which of the five families the last suspicious message you received belongs to?
  • Do you know what a signature request looks like in your wallet, compared with a transfer?
  • Have you checked one balance in two independent places in the last month?
  • Is there a person you could ask to review a request before you act?