Crypto Scams & How to Stay Safe

Learn to identify and avoid the most common cryptocurrency scams, from Ponzi schemes to rug pulls and pig butchering, and protect yourself and your assets.

6 lessons · 1 hr 54 min · beginner

1. 1Common Crypto Scams: Ponzi Schemes & ImpersonationUnderstand the largest and most damaging crypto scams in history — BitConnect, OneCoin, PlusToken — plus impersonation tactics like the July 2020 Twitter hack.13 min
2. 2DeFi Scams: Rug Pulls, Drainers & Major HacksUnderstand DeFi-specific scams — rug pulls like Frosties and Squid Game, wallet drainers, and the largest crypto heists in history including the February 2025 Bybit hack.13 min
3. 3Social Engineering & Pig ButcheringUnderstand the dominant model of individual crypto fraud — pig butchering scams (sha zhu pan), the trafficked compounds in Southeast Asia, and the psychological tactics used.12 min
4. 4Personal Security Checklist & ReportingBuild a practical operational-security framework, learn the proper reporting channels (IC3, FTC, SEC, ChainAbuse), and understand realistic recovery options.15 min
5. 5Recovering from a Scam: Tools, Tactics, and Realistic OutcomesHonest statistics on crypto recovery, the few notable exceptions, the immediate steps to take after being scammed, and how to avoid the second-stage recovery scams that target previous victims.34 min
6. 6How Scammers Find You: Targeting InfrastructureMove from victim-perspective to scammer-perspective. Learn how modern fraud operations actually identify, qualify, and approach targets — public wallet labeling, social-graph scraping, breach-data ingestion, AI scaling, and the trafficked-compound supply chain feeding it all.27 min

Educational only — not financial advice.