Digital asset frauds, such as involving bitcoin, ether, etc., come in many flavors; each promise too good to be true returns. Regardless of whether the profits come from frauds involving financial grooming, trading platforms, pump-and-dumps, or Ponzi schemes, you can side-step these frauds by making sure you understand the underlying asset and how the supposed profits are to be made.

Most digital asset frauds originate on social media. Criminals create or hack profiles and use them to tout their investing know-how, trading platform, investment plans offering guaranteed returns, or the latest digital token or decentralized finance project.

Maybe you’ll see a post or video from a “crypto millionaire” flaunting sports cars, private jets, yachts, lavish vacations, or successful trading charts. You might see a recommendation in the comments, or the altruistic “millionaire” just wants to share his or her secrets and help make everyone rich! You might also receive a random “wrong number” text. If you respond, the sender wants to chat and be friends.

One of the first tip-offs to fraud is the scammers pushing you to move off the main social platform to another messaging application. This is to avoid detection by platform algorithms that search for fraudulent posts. The messaging apps also allow the scammers to control the environment, and kick out anyone who raises doubts or fact-checks.

If you paid a scammer with a credit or debit card, you may be able to stop the transaction. Contact your credit card company or bank right away. Tell them what happened and ask for a “chargeback” to reverse the charges.

If you paid a scammer using a money transfer app, contact the company behind the app. If the app is linked to a credit card or debit card, contact your credit card company or bank first.