Before you get scammed: the 7 steps to take before you send crypto
7 min read · Updated September 3, 2026
Crypto payments cannot be reversed. There is no bank to call and no chargeback. That means almost all of your protection happens before you press send. Work through these seven steps in order. If any one of them fails, stop — you have almost certainly avoided a scam.
Step 1: Pause for 24 hours
Every scam depends on speed. Bonus deadlines, 'the price is moving', 'the allocation closes tonight' — all of it exists to stop you thinking.
A genuine opportunity survives a day of waiting. A scam usually does not: the pressure escalates, and that escalation is itself the answer.
- Tell them you will decide tomorrow and watch how they react.
- Anger, guilt-tripping or a sudden 'last chance' offer means walk away.
Step 2: Work out who contacted who
If a stranger reached out to you first — a WhatsApp or Telegram message, a 'wrong number' text, a dating app match, an Instagram DM, a Facebook ad — treat it as a scam by default.
Legitimate firms do not recruit beginners through private messages, and they do not offer to teach you trading for free.
Step 3: Check the promise
Nobody can guarantee a return on crypto. Prices move, and no algorithm, signal group or 'coach' controls that.
Any fixed percentage — 1% a day, 10% a week, 'insured capital', 'risk free' — is a scam. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Step 4: Verify the company yourself, in a fresh tab
Close their app and chat window. Open a new browser tab and type the company name into a search engine yourself, along with the word 'scam' or 'review'. Never use a link they sent you.
Then check the regulator's own register in your country rather than any licence badge shown on their website — those images are trivially faked.
- No registration number, address or named directors: stop here.
- A domain registered in the last few months: high risk.
- Positive reviews only on their own site: not evidence.
Step 5: Search the name, domain and wallet address
Paste the website, company name, phone number or wallet address into our free check. It compares what you enter against official government and regulator warning lists as well as reports from other people.
A hit on a regulator list is a formal public warning and a very strong reason not to proceed. No hit does not mean safe — new fake platforms appear daily — so continue through the remaining steps either way.
Step 6: Make sure you control the money
On a legitimate platform you open the account in your own name, you hold the login, and you can withdraw at any time without asking permission.
If someone logs in for you, trades 'on your behalf', asks to share your screen, asks for your seed phrase or recovery words, or gives you a wallet address to send to, the money is gone the second you send it.
- Never share a seed phrase or recovery phrase with anyone, ever.
- Never install remote-access or screen-sharing software at someone's request.
- Never let anyone else place trades from your account.
Step 7: Tell one real person before you send
Say out loud, to someone you trust, exactly what you are about to do and why. Scams rely on secrecy — many scripts explicitly tell you not to mention it to family or your bank.
If you have been told to keep it quiet, that instruction is the clearest warning sign there is.
If you have already sent money
Stop sending immediately. Do not pay any 'tax', 'fee', 'commission' or 'account upgrade' to release a withdrawal — that balance on the screen is not real and the extra payment is a further loss.
Do not hire anyone who offers to recover your funds for a fee. Recovery services that contact you are a second scam aimed at the same victims.