5 Most Common Crypto Scams in 2026 and How to Protect Yourself

The FBI reported in its 2025 annual report that crypto scams caused $5.6 billion in losses to American citizens, and that is only the reported portion. The number of actual victims is many times higher. Serbia is no exception: the NBS has registered hundreds of reports related to crypto scams, and many victims have lost years of savings.

Here are the five most common methods scammers use, and concrete steps to protect yourself.

1. Phishing, Fake Websites That Steal Wallets

Phishing is by far the most common crypto scam. Scammers create perfect copies of popular platforms, such as MetaMask, Coinbase, Uniswap, and even local exchanges, with addresses that differ by one letter. You click a link from an email or an ad banner, enter your seed phrase or private key, and the money disappears within seconds.

How to protect yourself:

• Always type the URL of a popular platform manually into your browser, never click links from emails.
• Use bookmarks for sites you visit frequently.
• Install MetaMask or a similar wallet only from the official site (metamask.io), never from a Google search that may show ads with fake sites.
• The seed phrase is NEVER entered on websites. If a site asks for your seed phrase, it is a scam, 100%.

2. Rug Pull, a Project That Disappears with Your Money

A rug pull is when the creators of a DeFi project or NFT collection collect investments and then “pull the rug,” withdrawing all liquidity and disappearing. The token drops to zero, and you are left with worthless tokens.

The most famous example is the Squid Game token from 2021: the value rose by 45,000% in a week, and then the creators pulled ~$3.3M and deactivated community channels. Investors could not sell their tokens (the code contained a one-way mechanism).

How to protect yourself:

• Check whether the project’s smart contract code is publicly available and audited by third parties.
• Check rug.check tools such as Honeypot.is or Token Sniffer.
• Be skeptical of projects with anonymous teams, no track record, and promises of extreme returns.
• Never invest more than you are willing to lose in new, unproven projects.

3. Pump-and-Dump, Organized Price Manipulation

Groups on Telegram and Discord coordinate the purchase of a small, illiquid cryptocurrency, which artificially drives up the price. When enough naive investors “jump in” attracted by the growth, the organizers sell at a high price and leave the rest with devalued tokens.

In 2025, the SEC prosecuted 23 cases of crypto pump-and-dump schemes, many of which used influencers on Instagram and TikTok who promoted tokens without disclosing that they were paid.

How to protect yourself:

• Ignore “investment advice” on social media, especially from influencers promoting unknown tokens.
• Check the trading volume history, a sudden spike without a fundamental reason is a warning sign.
• Check CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko to see when the token was launched and what its market capitalization is.

4. Fake Support, Fake Customer Support

Post on a public forum or Discord server that you have a problem with your wallet, and within a minute you will get a DM from “official customer support.” Scammers scan public channels and look for victims who have already identified a problem.

The goal is always the same: to get you to “verify” your account by entering your seed phrase on a fake site, or to install a “diagnostic tool” that is actually malware for stealing keys.

How to protect yourself:

• Official customer support never contacts you first via DM.
• All communication with platforms should take place exclusively through the official support ticket system.
• Never install software recommended by someone from a forum or Discord DM.

5. Romance Scams (Pig Butchering)

This is the most devastating scam in terms of loss amounts. Scammers, most often organized criminal groups from Asia, spend months building fake romantic or friendly relationships with victims. Once they gain trust, they present an “exclusive crypto investment platform” and persuade the victim to invest.

Initial returns look great (because the scammers control them), and the victim invests more and more. When they try to withdraw money, a “tax” or “fee” is requested, and in the end, the platform simply disappears. The average victim loses $120,000 per incident.

How to protect yourself:

• Be extremely cautious of people you meet online who quickly bring up the topic of crypto investments.
• Never invest on platforms recommended by someone you met online.
• Check the regulatory status of any platform on the NBS website or the relevant regulator.

What to Do If You Are a Victim?

Crypto transactions are irreversible, money sent to a scammer’s address cannot be recovered directly. But:

• Report the incident to the police (especially the Department for Combating High-Tech Crime).
• Report to the NBS if it involves an unregulated platform.
• Contact the exchange if you sent money from a centralized platform, they may be able to freeze suspicious addresses.
• Keep all evidence: screenshots, transaction hash, addresses.

Crypto scammers rely on a combination of greed, urgency, and ignorance. Understanding their methods is your first line of defense.