The crypto scams I keep seeing and the habits I use to avoid them
(Jonluke Davis)
- Fake groups, fake support calls, fake airdrops and fake recovery services. Here are the scams I've run into since 2017 and the habits that can lower your risk.
Edited by Jenn Moon, Editor at Featured News · Nov 10, 2026
I've been trading crypto full time since 2017, and I've encountered many scams. I want to go over the scams I see the most so you can stay safe and know what to look for, because a lot of them look completely legit until it's too late.
Fake groups and fake DMsOne I've seen pop up a lot is scammers adding people to fake Telegram groups to trick them into sharing sensitive info or clicking on phishing links. These fake groups look legitimate, with similar names and profile pictures, and people get trapped and actually give up sensitive info. So go into your Telegram settings, into privacy and security, and change who can add you to groups and channels so random people can't add you without your consent.
The next one is direct messages (DMs) from people impersonating someone you trust. On Discord I've had people impersonate me by adding an extra T to my name or an underscore or a dot at the end. I will never DM you first. Be cautious of unsolicited DMs claiming to come from traders or influencers. If there is any doubt in your mind, take a screenshot, remove any sensitive information and post it in the actual group to ask if it's real. Anytime someone DMs you asking for money or offering to get you into their private group, assume it's a scam.
Same goes for DMs from people saying they're an editor at some well-known crypto publication and they want your feedback. They'll send you a form or a link to fill out. That can be a phishing page built to grab your passwords or a page that asks you to connect your wallet and sign something that gives them access to your funds. Anyone can fake a bio. Make sure it's an official account first.
This is getting more organized, too. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) warned in a December 2025 investor alert that investment group imposters add people to encrypted group chats with no prior contact, pose as real professionals and have used deepfake videos of well-known investment figures.
Emails, phone calls and linksYou'll get emails from MetaMask, from Coinbase, saying you need to change your wallet, or there's a free airdrop, or season 2 claim is live. Treat any email you didn't ask for that says verify your account, claim an airdrop or connect your wallet as fake. If you opened a support ticket yourself or signed up for a company's updates, you can get real email back, but a real company won't ask for your seed phrase. And when I set up MetaMask, I never gave it my email, so how are they going to email me? Click on the sender's name, and you'll usually see a random address that has nothing to do with the company. But even if it looked right, I would never click a link from an email, period. Go directly to the official website and check.
Phone calls are the same. I've gotten a call from a supposed Coinbase support person, and the weird thing was he had my name, my email, my phone number, everything. He said I had an unauthorized withdrawal of $2,000, and he was going to send me a text message to sign in and verify. I didn't even have $2,000 in my Coinbase account. I believe I had $5 in there. When I told him that, he yelled something profane and hung up. Scammers can get your info from places you wouldn't expect, like an old sale on eBay where you shipped something to a stranger. So never trust a call like that. Hang up, go to the official website yourself, log in and check.
And when you search for something on Google, like an airdrop claim page, don't click the ads at the top. Scammers pay to get their ads up there, and the site will look like the real one on the front end but it's fake on the back end. Once your wallet is connected, they'll ask you to sign something or approve access, and that's how they take your funds. And don't assume the first result under the ads is real either. Get the address from the project's official account or docs, type it in yourself and check the domain letter by letter before you connect a wallet. Fake accounts on X do this too, with check marks and a lot of followers, posting claim links.
Your walletIf random coins or nonfungible tokens (NFTs) show up in your wallet, leave them alone. The token sitting there can't take your funds by itself. MetaMask's airdrop guide says the phishing happens on the fake site the token points you to, where they ask you to approve access, sign something or hand over your seed phrase. And if anyone tells you to send them crypto and they'll send double back, it's a scam. That was going around back in 2017, and it's still going around now. You're never going to receive more back.
For anything you're holding long term, use a cold storage wallet, and always buy it from the official website or a reseller the maker lists as authorized. Ledger, for example, keeps a list of its official resellers. Never buy one used off eBay or from a random seller, because a device can be tampered with or preloaded with a seed phrase the seller already knows, potentially allowing them to steal your funds. If you think you've connected your wallet to a bad site, type revoke.cash in yourself (because there are fake revoke sites too), and revoke the approvals you no longer use. That only cancels permissions going forward. It can't bring back anything that was already sent, and it can't help if someone has your seed phrase. If your seed phrase is out, move whatever is left to a brand-new wallet right away.
If you already got hitBlockchain transactions can't be reversed, and that's exactly what the next wave of scammers counts on. After people lose crypto, fake recovery services and fake law firms reach out offering to get it back for a fee. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) said in a June 2024 public service announcement that between February 2023 and February 2024, victims further exploited by fictitious law firms reported losses of over $9.9 million, and that law enforcement does not charge victims a fee to investigate. Report it to the IC3 if you're in the U.S., and contact the exchange's support right away if the funds went to an exchange.
I can't cover every scam out there, and I'm sure I've missed some. Slow down, have a process before you connect your wallet to anything and always go to the official source first. This is general info, not legal or financial advice.
About the authorJonluke Davis is the founder of Data's Alpha Circle, a crypto trading community on Discord that started in September 2025. He has traded crypto full time since 2017, is a former U.S. Air Force Captain, and posts market breakdowns and trading lessons on YouTube as CryptoData. He is not a licensed financial advisor.
This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.
