Common Crypto Scams and Red Flags

In their consumer warning, the EU's supervisory authorities note that fraud and misleading offers are common in crypto and that lost funds are rarely recovered. The schemes look different on the surface but rely on the same basic mechanics: urgency, trust, and a payment that cannot be reversed.

Four recurring patterns

• Fake trading platforms that display a fabricated portfolio with rising value, but where withdrawals are always blocked by new fees.
• Romance and friendship scams where the relationship is built over weeks before the investment is proposed.
• Fake support and fake regulator contacts who ask for your seed phrase, remote access to your computer, or a 'verification' transfer.
• Recovery scams that target people who have already lost money and demand payment upfront.

Concrete red flags

• Promised, guaranteed or improbably high returns, often expressed per day or per week.
• Time pressure: the offer is only valid today, or your account will be closed if you don't act now.
• Contact initiated by a stranger via social media, a dating app or a messaging service.
• Requests to install remote-access software or hand over codes, passwords or your seed phrase.
• Company details that cannot be found with any authority, or a name resembling a known provider's.
• Withdrawals that work for small amounts but are blocked once the sum grows larger.

If you have already been affected

Stop making any further payments, save screenshots, transaction identifiers and all communication, contact your bank if payment was made from an account or card, and file a police report. Stay especially vigilant afterwards: details of victims circulate further, and that is when recovery scams typically appear.

A legitimate party will never ask for your seed phrase – not under any circumstance, for any reason.