Key takeaways
- Americans reported $11.366 billion lost across 181,565 crypto-related complaints to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025, an average of $62,604 each.
- Crypto investment fraud made up $7.228 billion of crypto losses reported to the FBI for 2025, and complainants aged 60 and over lost $2.76 billion of it.
- A platform that lets you withdraw a small sum early can still be a scam, because the FBI says early withdrawals are a common way to build trust.
- Under Ethereum's ERC-20 token standard, an approved spender can withdraw tokens from your wallet repeatedly up to the approved amount without asking you again.
- An IRS Chief Counsel memo released on 14 March 2025 found that some victims of profit-motivated scams could deduct a theft loss for 2024.
$11.366 billion. That is what Americans reported losing in 2025 across 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Report, published on 6 April 2026. Knowing how to spot a crypto scam starts with the request itself. A stranger who steers you toward sending crypto, or toward an investment app they picked, fits the pattern behind nearly two-thirds of that sum.
A scam can look legitimate at the start. The FBI describes fraudulent platforms that let victims withdraw small amounts early to build trust. Some fake investment apps sit in the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store, where people find them unprompted.
Once a crypto payment leaves your wallet, it usually stays gone.
How to Spot a Crypto Scam by the Way It Starts
You can identify most crypto scams by how the first contact reaches you and what it asks you to do next. Each type below has a tell you can check before money moves.
Fake apps and trading sites
- First contact: A link from someone you met online, or an app you found in an official store
- The tell: A domain registered weeks ago on a site claiming years of history
- Before you act: Check the operator's registration and domain age (steps below)
- Source: The FBI and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
Giveaways
- First contact: A post or video in which a famous name offers to multiply any crypto you send
- The tell: You must send funds first to receive more back
- Before you act: Send nothing to the address or QR code
- Source: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Romance and investment
- First contact: A dating match, a social media message, a "wrong number" text or an invitation to a WhatsApp or Telegram investing group
- The tell: The chat turns to investing and moves to a private messaging app
- Before you act: End the conversation once a new contact offers to coach your trades
- Source: The FBI and the FTC
Support and agency impersonation
- First contact: A call, text, email or pop-up claiming to be your bank, an exchange, a known company or a government agency
- The tell: An urgent request to move money into a "safe" wallet or through a crypto ATM
- Before you act: Hang up and call the number printed on your card
- Source: The FTC
Rug pulls
- First contact: A new token promoted through paid ads and a slick website
- The tell: A known company supposedly launching a coin, with nothing about it on that company's own channels
- Before you act: Read how a rug pull unfolds and confirm the launch at the source
- Source: The FTC
Approval draining
- First contact: An offer of free tokens, called an airdrop, that sends you to a site asking to connect your wallet
- The tell: A signature request granting spending rights over a token you never meant to trade
- Before you act: Reject any approval you cannot explain
- Source: FBI alerts dated 21 July 2022 and 3 June 2025
Why Do Scammers Want You to Pay in Crypto?
Scammers ask for crypto because a completed transfer is usually final. The FTC puts it bluntly in its consumer guidance: "Only scammers demand payment in cryptocurrency." Card payments carry dispute rights, while crypto usually comes back only if the recipient returns it. Scam platforms also avoid the banking system. The CFTC's guide to fraudulent trading sites says they walk you through buying crypto on a real exchange first, then ask you to transfer it. A genuine exchange account in your name tells you nothing about where the coins go next.
What Does a Wallet Approval Let Someone Take?
An approval lets a smart contract move a set amount of a token out of your wallet without asking you again. A wallet is the app or device holding the keys to your crypto. A smart contract is a program on a blockchain that runs by itself once its conditions are met.
Ethereum's ERC-20 standard defines the approve function plainly: it "Allows _spender to withdraw from your account multiple times, up to the _value amount." Think of a card on file at a gym. You authorize the charges once, and the billing continues until you cancel. In a 21 July 2022 alert, the FBI said victims who accepted a scam site's permissions would "unknowingly authorize scammers to pull an unlimited amount of funds out of their cryptocurrency wallets." The drain can come days after the signature.
Revoking an approval cancels it, and checkers such as Etherscan's token approval page list every one your wallet has granted.
How Much Do Crypto Scam Victims Lose?
The average crypto-related complaint to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) carried a $62,604 loss in 2025, according to the IC3 report of 6 April 2026. That is $11.366 billion divided by 181,565 complaints.
Crypto investment fraud drove the total, with $7.228 billion lost across 61,559 complaints. That works out to about $117,416 a complaint. Complainants aged 60 and over filed 13,685 of those reports and lost $2.76 billion, or roughly $201,967 each. That gives older investors more than a third of investment fraud losses from about a fifth of the complaints. Crypto ATM schemes added 13,460 complaints and $389 million, near $28,900 apiece.
The IC3 also counted 18,589 complainants who lost more than $100,000 each. These figures cover only people who filed.
How Do You Check a Crypto Platform Step by Step?
You check a platform by confirming who runs it, using public records you look up yourself. Work through the steps in order:
- Reach the platform by typing its address. The FBI warns that scam domains copy real exchanges with slightly misspelled URLs.
- Look up the domain's creation date at lookup.icann.org and compare it with the company's claimed history.
- Search the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) registry of money services businesses, which the CFTC says crypto trading platforms must join.
- Search the platform's name and web address alongside words like "scam" or "complaint," as the FBI recommends.
- Show the offer to someone you trust offline before you commit.
- Walk away if the platform ever demands a tax or fee to release your balance.
Then run a short checklist before you press send. A yes to any item means you stop.
- Did the contact begin with them reaching out to you?
- Is anyone promising a guaranteed return or payout?
- Are you being told to pay in crypto or at a crypto ATM?
- Has anyone coached you on what to tell your bank about the transfer?
What Changed in the 2025 and 2026 Scam Data
Both federal fraud datasets set records for 2025. The IC3 logged 1,008,597 complaints, up from 859,532 in 2024, and $20.877 billion in losses, according to the FBI's release and report of 6 April 2026. Crypto complaints rose 21% and crypto losses 22%. For the first time, the report included a section on artificial intelligence, covering 22,364 complaints and nearly $893 million lost.
The FTC reported on 15 June 2026 that consumers lost about $16 billion to fraud in 2025, the highest on record. That same day, the IC3 warned that crypto investment scammers were sending couriers to collect cash from victims, usually older adults, at their homes.
Legal and Tax Status of Crypto Scam Losses
US law offers crypto scam victims no automatic refund route, as of 2 October 2026. The FTC notes that crypto in accounts has no government insurance like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) cover on bank deposits. Its Impersonation Rule, finalized in 2024, lets the agency sue scammers posing as businesses or government bodies. A dozen cases under it had won over $70 million in redress, the FTC said on 15 June 2026.
Tax relief is narrower. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Chief Counsel memo 202511015 was dated 17 January 2025 and released on 14 March 2025. It found that three victims of profit-motivated scams, one of them a pig butchering scheme, could deduct a theft loss for 2024. Two victims with no profit motive could not, since personal casualty losses were disallowed for 2018 through 2025. Ask a tax professional how this applies to you. None of this is tax or financial advice.
What This Means Before Your Next Crypto Transfer
Once you know how to spot a crypto scam, one rule does most of the protecting: never move money because of a contact you did not start. Bookmark the exchange you use and open it only from that bookmark. Our guide to buying bitcoin safely covers storing most holdings in a wallet that never touches unfamiliar sites. If an older relative trades crypto, the age data above is worth raising with them. The Department of Justice runs an Elder Justice Hotline, 1-833-372-8311, for victims aged 60 and over who need help reporting.
What to Do If You Already Sent Crypto to a Scammer
Stop sending money, then report the loss with every transaction detail you have. The FBI asks for the receiving wallet addresses, the amount and type of crypto, the date and time, and the transaction ID, known as the hash. File at ic3.gov and report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Tell the exchange you sent from as well.
Expect a second approach. The FBI says almost all victims are later contacted by recovery scammers posing as law firms or police, and paying them returns nothing.
Before you close this page, open your wallet's list of token approvals and revoke any you do not recognize.
Frequently asked questions
Can a crypto exchange reverse a transaction sent to a scammer?
Usually not. Once a crypto transfer confirms on the blockchain, the exchange that sent it cannot pull it back, and the FTC notes that crypto payments typically return only if the recipient sends them back. Treat any transfer to an address you have not used before as permanent, and send a small test amount first when the recipient is someone you do not know well.
Are crypto ATMs safe to use?
The machines work as designed, but scammers rely on them heavily, especially against older adults. The FBI's IC3 recorded 6,188 crypto ATM complaints from people aged 60 and over in 2025, with $257 million lost. The FTC describes callers who stay on the phone and guide victims through each step at the machine, so anyone directing you to a crypto ATM during a call is running a scam.
Is a guaranteed crypto return ever legitimate?
No. The FTC says only scammers guarantee profits or big returns, since nobody can promise gains on an asset whose value can change by the hour. The CFTC warns that fraudulent trading sites advertise investment plans promising returns of 50% to 200% or more, often with upgrades that ask for larger deposits. A fixed, guaranteed figure on any crypto product is a reason to leave.
Would the FBI ever contact you about a crypto scam?
It can. Through Operation Level Up, the FBI has notified more than 8,000 victims of crypto investment fraud, and it may reach out by email or phone. The bureau states it will never ask for money, move a conversation to a private messaging app, request bank account details, or ask for personal identifying information. A caller doing any of those things is an impersonator.
Is a token you never bought in your wallet dangerous?
It can be bait. The FBI warned on 3 June 2025 that criminals were sending unsolicited NFT airdrops to Hedera network wallets, disguised as free rewards, to collect wallet details and then drain the funds. Leave unknown tokens untouched and never enter a seed phrase on a site that promises to release something you did not expect to receive.
