Protect Yourself from Crypto Scams: A Beginner's Guide

Somebody patient and friendly shows you their crypto profits. The app shows yours growing too. Then you try to withdraw, and there is a fee. Then a tax. Then silence.

Americans reported losing $9.3 billion to cryptocurrency-related fraud in 2024 (FBI IC3), and about $5.8 billion of it was investment fraud. This beginner's guide explains, with no jargon, how the money actually moves from your bank to a scammer's wallet, and why, once it moves, it almost never comes back.

Inside:

- Crypto in 10 minutes: wallets, exchanges, and why transfers cannot be undone

- How the money actually moves in a scam, step by step: hook, on-ramp, send, gone

- The big traps: pig butchering, fake investment platforms, celebrity giveaway scams, crypto ATM scams, and romance-investment hybrids

- The second wave: fake recovery agents, fake law firms, and "refund departments"

- The red-flag master checklist, verification habits that work, and the first 24 hours if you already sent money

Learn the money trail before it reaches your wallet. Read it before you send anything.