Day 4 — The 5 scam patterns you must recognise on sight
If you can spot these five patterns, you are immune to the vast majority of all crypto fraud.
Spotting a scam takes seconds if you have seen the pattern. Falling for one takes everything you have. Today is about pattern recognition for the five most common shapes of crypto fraud.
1) Pig butchering / romance investment scam. Someone you do not know strikes up a friendly conversation on a dating app, WhatsApp, or random DM. Over weeks they build rapport. Eventually they mention an 'amazing' trading platform their uncle / family friend / mentor uses. You see fake profits on a screen that looks like a real exchange. You can never withdraw. The FBI's IC3 reports put US losses to this single pattern in the multi-billions per year.
2) Wallet drainer / malicious approval. You click a 'connect wallet' button on what looks like an airdrop site, NFT mint, or game. You sign a transaction that you do not fully read. The signature is actually a token approval that lets the drainer empty everything you own from that wallet, sometimes seconds later, sometimes weeks later.
3) Impersonation. A 'support agent', 'verified' Twitter account, or YouTube live-stream pretending to be Elon Musk / Vitalik / a major exchange offers to 'double your crypto.' Real support never DMs you first. No one doubles your crypto. Ever.
4) Fake recovery service. You have already been scammed once. A 'recovery specialist' or 'crypto-savvy lawyer' contacts you and promises to get your money back for an upfront fee. They are a second scam targeting victims of the first.
5) Rug pull. A new token launches with hype. Insiders hold most of the supply and the liquidity. Once enough outsiders buy in, the team withdraws the liquidity (or sells their allocation) and the price collapses to near zero. Sometimes it happens in minutes; sometimes it takes months while marketing maintains the illusion.
Example
The FBI IC3 2024 Internet Crime Report (released April 2025, covering 2024 data) documented $12.5 billion in total US cryptocurrency-related fraud losses in 2024. Pig butchering, wallet drainers, and impersonation together accounted for the majority of that figure. Reported losses are widely believed to understate reality because many victims never report.
Common mistakes
- Assuming you would 'never fall for it.' Many victims are professionals — lawyers, doctors, engineers. These scripts are professional and patient.
- Trusting 'verified' social media accounts. Verification badges are bought and stolen, and impersonation accounts are extremely common.
- Clicking the first Google result for 'revoke crypto approval' or '<exchange> support.' Fake support sites pay for the top ad slot every day. Bookmark official sites and use the bookmark.
- Believing a 'friend' or 'family member' messaging from an unusual number or social account. Sim-swap and account takeover are common.
- Letting urgency drive you. Every scam manufactures time pressure. Legitimate financial decisions almost never require you to act in five minutes.
Safety warning
If you think you are being scammed, stop sending money or signing transactions immediately, do not pay any 'recovery' service, and preserve every screenshot, email, transaction hash, and wallet address you can. Our /post-scam page walks through the first 24 hours step by step.
Check your understanding
Someone messages you on Telegram claiming to be from a major exchange's support team. They ask for your seed phrase to 'verify' your account. What is the correct response?
Key terms covered
Sources & further reading
- PrimaryFBI IC3 — 2024 Internet Crime Report
Authoritative US crypto-fraud loss statistics (April 2025 release, covers 2024 data).
- SecondaryChainalysis — 2025 Crypto Crime Report
Global breakdowns of scam-type prevalence and dollar volumes.
We prioritise primary sources. Where a topic moves quickly (regulation, security incidents), we re-check sources on the cadence shown by the page's "Next review" date.