Our complete guide covers every scam type in depth. This playbook is for one moment: someone has offered you a crypto opportunity and you need to decide now. Run the 10 checks below in about 10 minutes. Any two red flags means walk away.
The 10-Point Vetting Checklist
| # | Check | What to look for | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who contacted you first? | If a stranger reached out to you, it’s a scam | 1 min |
| 2 | Is the domain legitimate? | Misspellings, odd TLDs, recently registered | 1 min |
| 3 | Is the team real? | Real names, LinkedIn, track record | 1 min |
| 4 | Is there a working product? | A site and whitepaper is not a product | 1 min |
| 5 | What does the blockchain say? | Contract, holders, liquidity, honeypot | 1 min |
| 6 | Does the math make sense? | Guaranteed returns are a lie | 1 min |
| 7 | What does a search say? | “project name + scam” | 1 min |
| 8 | What do real users say? | BitcoinTalk, Reddit, Trustpilot, forums | 1 min |
| 9 | Can you get money out? | Test a small withdrawal | 1 min |
| 10 | Can you explain it? | If you can’t, you don’t understand it | 1 min |
How to Run Each Check
1. Who contacted you first. If you were DM’d about an “opportunity”, stop — legitimate projects don’t cold-message strangers.
2. Check the domain. Run a Whois lookup — a domain registered last week for a project claiming years of history is a scam. Compare the URL carefully.
3. Verify the team. Real projects have real people with a professional history on LinkedIn. Anonymous teams, stock photos, founders who never appear on camera = hard pass.
4. Test for a product. Open the app or website and try it. A landing page plus a roadmap is not a product.
5. Read the blockchain. For a token, check DexScreener or RugCheck: holder concentration, locked liquidity, sellability.
6. Run the numbers. “10x in a month”, “500% guaranteed APY”, “double your deposit” — all lies. Nobody can guarantee returns.
7. Search for complaints. Search “[name] + scam” or “[name] + reddit” — warnings surface in seconds.
8. Read the community. BitcoinTalk’s Scam Accusations board and relevant subreddits expose paid-review farms. Identical 5-star reviews are a red flag.
9. Test the exit. On any exchange, deposit a small amount and withdraw it immediately. If withdrawals require “fees” or “verification”, the money is gone.
10. Explain it out loud. If you can’t explain the investment to a friend, you shouldn’t be sending it money.
Scoring Your Results
| Red flags | Verdict |
|---|---|
| 0 | Proceed with normal caution |
| 1–2 | Pause. Deep-dive before committing anything |
| 3+ | Walk away. Don’t feed the sunk-cost instinct |
Scammers don’t beat your knowledge — they beat your time pressure. The timer forces the check before the “limited offer” closes.
You’ve Been Scammed: The Action Plan
Step 1: Stop everything
Stop sending money and stop talking to the scammer. Every “fee” to “release your funds” is another theft.
Step 2: Document everything
You’ll need this for police and exchange reports:
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Wallet addresses | Yours and the one you sent to |
| Transaction hashes | From the block explorer |
| Messages | Screenshots of chats and emails |
| Amounts and dates | What went where and when |
| Platform details | Exchange, app, website, names used |
Step 3: Secure what’s left
Create a brand-new wallet (new seed phrase) on a trusted app and move any remaining balance there. Treat the old wallet as permanently compromised.
Step 4: Freeze your accounts
Contact your exchange’s support with your documentation and ask them to freeze the receiving account. Change passwords and reset 2FA on anything you logged into while being scammed.
Step 5: Report it
| Authority | Who it’s for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Action Fraud | UK | actionfraud.police.uk |
| FBI IC3 | US | ic3.gov |
| Exchange support | The platform you used | contact them |
| Local police | Everyone | file a report |
Step 6: Warn others
Post a report on BitcoinTalk’s Scam Accusations board and any group where the scammer is active — your warning may be the only one someone sees.
Step 7: Learn the lesson
Most crypto scams are unrecoverable. Treat it as an expensive lesson: never invest what you can’t afford to lose, never trust cold contacts, and protect what you hold with a seed phrase safety plan.
Bottom Line
Ten minutes of vetting separates the gambler from the investor. Run the 10 checks, trust the score, and walk away from anything with two red flags or more. If the worst has already happened: stop, document, secure, freeze, report, warn — and never pay a “recovery service” anything.