How to spot and avoid cryptocurrency scams

Cryptocurrency scams were the most costly transaction type involved in fraud cases in the U.S. in 2025, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report. And crypto investors are twice as likely to report being targeted by scammers and incurring losses compared to non-cryptocurrency investors.

But cryptocurrency is more than just an investment. It’s a digital currency that operates independently of traditional financial institutions like banks. That means individuals can send and receive crypto without revealing their real identity. And once a transaction is made, it can’t be undone.

This has made crypto a favorite currency of scammers, even for fraud that doesn’t involve investing. Today, cybercriminals are also incorporating AI into their crypto scams and getting away with more money than ever.

In general, cryptocurrency is a legitimate asset, and transacting in it isn't inherently unsafe. But crypto transactions are largely irreversible and harder to trace than a credit card charge. So if someone unexpectedly asks you to pay them in crypto, treat that as a red flag worth investigating before you proceed.

Keep reading to learn about common cryptocurrency scams and how to protect yourself from cryptocurrency fraud.

1. Investment scams

According to the FBI, cryptocurrency investment fraud was responsible for the highest monetary losses for Americans in 2025, with over $7 billion in losses reported.

These scams often begin with an unsolicited offer, promising massive returns on a cryptocurrency investment — a common social engineering trick. The attacker may then ask for money directly, or lure you to click a phishing link to “learn more about the opportunity.” Instead, the scammer’s ultimate goal is collecting your personal information or money.

Once you “invest,” the scam can play out in a number of ways:

• Fake investment scams: Once you complete your transaction, the scammer disappears. The offer never comes to fruition, and you don’t see your money again.
• Fake exchanges: Fraudsters create phishing websites that look like reputable exchanges, stealing credentials and deposited funds, which are immediately moved to private wallets.
• Pig butchering: Your investment appears to grow, when in reality you’re looking at a fake account balance. This encourages you to continue investing more and more. At some point, you’re unable to withdraw your money freely, and the scammer disappears with all your invested cash.
• Rug pull scams: You invest in a real crypto project, but its creators suddenly withdraw all the money, leaving investors with nothing.
• Fake recovery services: After a scam, fraudsters often pose as "recovery experts," tricking victims a second time by requesting fees to retrieve lost funds.

A recent example of a crypto investment scam targeted a Connecticut man who lost over $220,000 after a professional-sounding investment pitch (really, it was a sophisticated scam message) promised to deliver a tenfold return. In the end, the scammers walked away with everything, and local authorities confirmed that recovery of the funds was unlikely.

Cryptocurrency investment scams borrow elements from multi-level marketing schemes and Ponzi schemes, but they can be much more dangerous due to their global reach, rapid execution, and anonymity of the scammers.

2. Romance scams

In romance scams, cybercriminals play the part of an online love interest and gain a victim’s trust before asking them to send money. Once the victim does, the cybercriminal pockets the funds and runs.

According to a recent Norton Insights report on romance scams, 36% of current online daters report having been pressured to send money to someone they met online. And the unregulated nature of crypto makes payments very difficult to trace, leaving victims and law enforcement with little recourse if you decide to pay up.

Many modern romance scams also incorporate investment fraud; in these cases, the attacker convinces the victim to invest in a crypto project instead of asking for money directly.

Social media and dating apps are common hunting grounds for romance scammers. A study found that two-thirds of dating app users in the UK have confirmed or strongly suspected that they’ve matched with profiles run by bots, scammers, or catfishers.

3. Government impersonation scams

A government impersonation scam is when a cybercriminal poses as a trusted source from the government, such as the FBI, to convince victims to complete a cryptocurrency transaction. Scammers often use intimidation to manipulate victims into acting urgently or without thinking.

They may claim they are from the IRS and threaten penalties for tax irregularities. Another popular government impersonation scam involves text messages demanding payment for unpaid E-ZPass tolls, or you lose your license.

In some cases, even jail time is threatened. For example, in February 2026, an Indiana man was scammed out of $7,600 in Bitcoin when he received a call from someone impersonating a sheriff’s deputy, who claimed there was a warrant for his arrest. 

4. Employment scams

Employment scams involving cryptocurrency often begin with an unsolicited job offer that lures victims to a fraudulent website to learn more about the opportunity. 

Sometimes, these job scams demand cryptocurrency payments to gain access to the full job board or application, complete required training, or buy necessary equipment up front with the promise of being reimbursed later. But once you make the payment, the scammer cuts off all contact, having pocketed the money.

LinkedIn scams are a common way for these employment scams to begin. In the first half of 2025 alone, over 117 million instances of spam or scam activity were detected and removed on the platform, and there are still some that make it through the cracks.

According to the FBI, crypto scams on LinkedIn pose a “significant threat” to professionals, due in large part to the fact that LinkedIn is a legitimate platform where professionals across the globe network and post job opportunities every day.

While it’s not uncommon to pay a fee to access certain job boards, it can be a red flag if a company is demanding payment only in cryptocurrency, and especially if they insist you pay fees up front for things that are mandatory for the job, such as training or equipment. 

5. Crypto mining scams

In a Bitcoin mining scam, attackers attempt to use you or your devices to help them mine crypto (a complex and costly process that mints new Bitcoin).

Common crypto mining scams include:

• Cloud cryptocurrency mining: Someone offers to rent you computing power to mine cryptocurrency. They’ll say that the amount you earn from mining will pay for the rental several times over. Often, the rental service doesn’t exist. Or, the criminal will use it to mine cryptocurrency for themselves.
• Cryptojacking: In cryptojacking scams, fraudsters hijack your device’s computing power to help them mine Bitcoin. They often accomplish this by infecting your device with malware.

6. Cryptocurrency wallet scams

Cryptocurrency wallet scams are attempts to break into victims’ digital crypto wallets (where crypto assets are stored). If a scammer cracks your wallet, they can drain your funds irreversibly. Some of the most common wallet scams include seed phrase scams, airdrop scams, and fake wallet scams.

Crypto wallet scams can be especially destructive when combined with phishing tactics. Data breaches and other security incidents affecting hardware-wallet companies have exposed customer contact info in the past, which is how scammers get access to customer info and send convincing impersonation messages.

For example, an incident involving a major crypto wallet, Trezor, and their third-party support portal may have exposed names and emails of over 60,000 users in 2024. A 2020 Ledger breach exposed around 1 million customer email addresses.

While neither of these breaches compromised users’ private wallet keys or funds, both incidents increased the risk of more targeted and convincing phishing attempts — a common way that scammers aim to get access to private accounts.

Here are some other common ways crypto wallet scams can take shape:

• Seed phrase scams: Wallets are locked with a seed phrase (like a password) of 12-24 random words. Scammers use phishing tactics to manipulate victims into revealing this secret phrase. They pretend to be customer service reps from wallet providers or use fake websites to capture seed phrases. Malware, such as keyloggers, can also be used to steal seed phrases.
• Airdrop scams: Airdrops are offers for free crypto. Scammers can lure you into approving a transaction disguised as a legit airdrop that actually gives them access to your funds.
• Fake wallet scams: These are fake apps that pretend to be secure crypto wallets. In reality, you’re just giving your crypto directly to a scammer.

How to avoid a crypto scam

Most cryptocurrency scams are completely avoidable as long as you know what to look for and take a few safety measures. Before engaging in the world of cryptocurrency, learn to recognize the warning signs, protect your devices, and do your due diligence regarding any investment opportunities. 

Learn to recognize the warning signs

If you know how to spot a cryptocurrency scam, you can stop a cryptocurrency scam. Here are the main cryptocurrency scam red flags to look out for:

• Payment requested only in cryptocurrency: This is the #1 red flag. Businesses and government agencies don’t ask for payment in crypto, and if you’re asked to pay for a legitimate service, crypto being the only payment option is a red flag.
• Too-good-to-be-true offers: These offers are easy to understand, involve little to no risk, and promise huge, guaranteed returns that seem way too easy.
• Urgency and threats: The payment request is urgent and/or includes threatening messages. These messages often impersonate trustworthy sources, like your bank or the government.
• Overenthusiastic reviews: Reviews can be faked to present a better image of a company.
• Unsolicited offers: This could include job offers that require crypto payments for onboarding or offers of favors if you let someone use your cryptocurrency account.

 Research and verify crypto investment opportunities

Cryptocurrency opportunities and scams evolve quickly. Make sure to vet cryptocurrency exchanges, tokens, wallets, and influencers before jumping in with your money. This means:

• Researching exchanges you haven’t heard of before: Review their privacy and insurance policies, and check how transparent they are about their liquidity and ICO rules. Also, look at customer reviews. To be safe, stick to well-known exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
• Doing your due diligence before investing in alt coins or ICOs: Just as you would when investing in stocks, look up who’s behind the crypto project, its financials, and its long-term goals. Legit tokens are transparent and often tied to real utility, such as powering a platform or enabling smart contracts.
• Researching past scams or data breaches: Find out whether an exchange, wallet, or crypto app has any skeletons in its closet. Remember that crypto investments generally aren’t covered by deposit insurance. If weak security leads to losses, it’s very likely you won’t be reimbursed.
• Verify official websites and apps: Scammers often create imposter websites and apps to steal your login data or seed phrase. To be sure you’re visiting the real site, search for it on Google or type it into the URL box in your browser. Don’t visit sites via links in emails or messages.
• Double-checking whether celebrity or politician endorsements are legit: A quick Google search can usually tell you if the endorsement is real or an impersonation or deepfake.

Take security measures

Adding extra security to your devices and accounts can greatly reduce your chances of becoming a victim.

Here are the most important security measures to take:

• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA): 2FA, also known as multi-factor authentication (MFA), requires an additional form of verification to access your accounts (such as a code sent to your phone or a biometric scan).
• Use a hardware wallet: Storing your crypto on a hardware wallet keeps your crypto offline, where digital threats can’t reach it.
• Install antivirus software: Robust antivirus software scans your devices for malware that could be used for cryptojacking, stealing your seed phrase, or copying your login details. Advanced software, such as Norton 360, uses AI-powered scam detection to flag phishing messages and malicious links.  
• Regularly monitor your accounts and wallets: Keep an eye on your accounts for any suspicious activity.
• Never store your seed phrase digitally: Write your seed phrase on a physical piece of paper and store it somewhere safe. 
• Whitelist withdrawal addresses on exchanges: If your exchange allows it, whitelist withdrawal addresses you trust. The exchange will not allow funds to move to unapproved addresses.
• Don’t transact on public Wi-Fi: Hackers can intercept data when you’re on public Wi-Fi. Wait until you’re at home or use a VPN before trading or logging into your crypto accounts.

How to report a crypto scam

If you think you’re being targeted by a cryptocurrency scam, reporting it can help keep cryptocurrency exchanges safer for all users. There are a few places you can report scams:

• Your cryptocurrency exchange: This is the first place you should report the scam (if it happened on an exchange). Contact the exchange and provide transaction IDs (TXIDs), wallet addresses, and any relevant screenshots or messages.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Visit the FTC site and click Report Now. Select the scam category (e.g., investment), and fill in the details of what happened.
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): Visit the CFTC site, scroll down to Complaint Form, then click File a Complaint Form. Fill in the requested information and submit.
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): Visit the SEC site and click TCR system and complaint form.
• Internet Crime Complaint Center: On the IC3 home page, click File a Complaint. Accept the terms in the pop-up screen, and fill out the form.
• Your local law enforcement: If you’re unsure how to proceed or if you’ve lost a great deal of money, contact your local law enforcement. They may be able to help, especially if they have a cybercrime unit.

Keep your crypto safe with Norton

Crypto scams move fast, but a few smart precautions can help you stay ahead. Staying informed, checking opportunities carefully, and using security software like Norton 360 can help you spot suspicious activity before it turns into a costly mistake.

Norton 360 helps protect your devices from cryptojacking malware and spyware, while AI-powered Scam Protection can help flag suspicious investment texts and messages. Get Norton 360 today and add a powerful layer of defense against crypto scams.

FAQs

How is cryptocurrency different from the U.S. dollar?

Cryptocurrency differs from the U.S. dollar in that crypto is not issued by a government or central bank. Crypto can also be volatile in value and uses blockchain technology and cryptography to record transactions instead of a standard bank statement.

Can I recover money stolen in a cryptocurrency scam?

Recovering stolen cryptocurrency is difficult due to the irreversible nature of blockchain transactions, but acting fast can help. Report the scam to the FTC and contact the exchange or wallet provider you used immediately — some can flag or freeze funds if reported quickly.

Can cryptocurrency scams happen at ATMs?

Yes, cryptocurrency ATM scams are growing. But they don’t affect ATMs used exclusively for U.S. dollars and other fiat currencies. Cryptocurrency ATMs allow you to insert U.S. dollars and convert them to cryptocurrency, which is then sent to a crypto wallet. Some scammers convince their victims to deposit cash into these ATMs.

Is Amazon making crypto?

Amazon does not currently have its own cryptocurrency for consumer purchases, and it does not accept crypto payments directly at checkout. There have been persistent rumors and reports that Amazon is exploring a dollar-pegged stablecoin to cut credit card processing fees, though nothing has launched publicly as of 2026.

Since Amazon has no official coin or crypto checkout, be wary of Amazon scams involving fraudsters who convince victims to pay in cryptocurrency, often by impersonating Amazon support or claiming a refund requires crypto payment.