Crypto Scam: How to Spot, Avoid, and Recover from Crypto Fraud

When you hear crypto scam, a deceptive scheme designed to steal cryptocurrency by exploiting trust, ignorance, or urgency. Also known as crypto fraud, it’s not just about hacked wallets—it’s about manipulated minds. Every year, people lose billions because they trusted a fake airdrop, clicked a link that looked real, or followed a ‘guru’ who vanished with their funds. These aren’t rare mistakes. They’re predictable traps, repeated over and over because the scammers keep changing their tactics—but the human behavior they target never does.

One common fake airdrop, a fraudulent claim that you can get free tokens just by connecting your wallet tricks users into signing malicious approvals that drain their entire balance. You don’t even need to send crypto—just clicking "Approve" on a fake site gives thieves access. Then there’s phishing scam, a fake website or email that looks identical to a real exchange or wallet, designed to steal your seed phrase. North Korea’s Lazarus Group isn’t the only threat—small-time scammers use Telegram bots and TikTok ads to target beginners who don’t know the difference between a real project and a rug pull. Even legitimate tools like crypto mixers, services meant to obscure transaction trails for privacy have been twisted into scams, where users send funds expecting anonymity but never get anything back.

Scammers don’t need to be smart. They just need to be faster than your caution. They use urgency: "Limited time!" "Only 10 spots left!" "Your wallet will be frozen!" They mimic logos, copy website designs, and hire actors to pretend to be developers on YouTube. And when you lose money, most platforms won’t help you—blockchain is irreversible by design. The only real defense is skepticism. Never connect your wallet unless you’re 100% sure of the site. Never click links from DMs or random tweets. Always check official channels. And if something sounds too good to be true—like free tokens from a project you’ve never heard of—it is.

Below, you’ll find real cases of failed tokens, ghost exchanges, and stolen funds—each one a lesson in disguise. Some posts show you how projects like Franklin (FLY) and BSClaunch (BSL) vanished overnight. Others expose fake airdrops like the one pretending to be from Pera Finance. There’s even a breakdown of how North Korea stole $3 billion using these exact methods. You won’t find fluff here. Just facts, patterns, and the exact red flags you need to spot before it’s too late.