Scam Training Lab

You see a tweet from an account called @SoIanaFoundation (with a capital I instead of lowercase L) announcing a surprise 5,000 SOL airdrop. It has 3,200 likes and dozens of comments saying "Just claimed mine!" The link takes you to a professional-looking site that asks you to connect your wallet to "verify eligibility."

After posting a question about a failed transaction in a DeFi project's Discord, you immediately receive a DM from "MetaMask_Support_Official" with the MetaMask fox logo as their avatar. They say they've "detected a synchronization error" on your wallet and ask you to visit a support portal where you need to enter your recovery phrase to "resync your wallet."

You receive a Telegram message from "Vitalik Buterin" (blue checkmark, real profile photo) about an exclusive Ethereum staking program offering 25% APY. He says it's a private beta only for community members he personally selects. The message includes a link to a professional website with ETH deposit addresses. He urges you to act fast as "only 50 spots remain."

You've been chatting with someone you met on a dating app for three weeks. They're attractive, attentive, and share your interests. The conversation has been entirely about normal life topics until today, when they casually mention they've been making incredible profits with a "special crypto trading platform" their uncle runs. They offer to show you how and share a link to what looks like a polished exchange with real-time charts.

You're on a well-known DEX (the URL checks out) and want to swap tokens. After the first swap, a popup asks you to approve "unlimited spending" for the token contract to save on future gas fees. The UI explains this is a common optimization. Your wallet shows a transaction requesting approval for MAX_UINT256 (unlimited) token spending by the contract.

You receive an urgent email from "security@c0inbase.com" (note the zero instead of 'o') warning that suspicious activity was detected on your account. It says your account will be frozen in 24 hours unless you verify your identity immediately. The email includes the Coinbase logo, professional formatting, and a blue "Verify Now" button linking to coinbase-security-verify.com.