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Bitcoin scams — the 2026 honest guide
Bitcoin scams cost victims billions every year. GACS is a free, public-safety scanner that checks any suspicious BTC site, wallet or social account against a live, community-updated blacklist — in seconds, with no signup.
Check a suspicious Bitcoin site
Paste any URL — instant cross-check against thousands of reported BTC scam domains.
Scan a URLLook up a Bitcoin wallet
See if an address has already been reported for theft, draining or pig-butchering.
Check a walletThe 6 most common bitcoin scams
- Pig-butchering — fake romance plus a fake trading app that 'shows profits' then blocks withdrawals.
- Fake exchanges and AI trading bots promising guaranteed BTC returns.
- Celebrity / Elon-Musk-style giveaway scams: 'send 1 BTC, get 2 back'.
- Recovery scams that re-victimise people who already lost BTC.
- Wallet-drainer dApps that empty your wallet on approval.
- Seed-phrase phishing from fake 'support' accounts on Telegram and X.
If you've already been scammed
Don't pay anyone who guarantees recovery. Preserve evidence, report to the right authority, and warn others — every report makes the global blacklist sharper.
FAQ
What is a bitcoin scam?
Any fraud that uses Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency to extract money — fake exchanges, 'guaranteed return' bots, romance/pig-butchering, fake giveaways, sextortion, and recovery scams that re-target existing victims. Once BTC leaves your wallet, it is functionally irreversible.
How do I know if a Bitcoin website is a scam?
Run the URL through the GACS scam scanner. It cross-checks against a live community blacklist of reported fake exchanges, fake AI bots, and impersonation sites, and flags new domains with high-risk patterns.
Can stolen Bitcoin be recovered?
Almost never directly. Anyone promising guaranteed recovery for an upfront fee is itself a scam. Real steps are to preserve evidence, report to your national cybercrime unit, and notify the receiving exchange — see our recovery guide.
How are most people scammed out of Bitcoin?
Pig-butchering (long-form romance plus a fake trading app) accounts for the largest dollar losses, followed by fake investment platforms, impersonation of celebrities and exchanges on social media, and 'support' phishing for seed phrases.
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Bitcoin fraud rarely travels alone — these patterns overlap.
- Pig butchering scams
Long-con romance + fake investment platforms draining $4B+ a year.
- Recovery scams
Second-stage fraud targeting people who've already been scammed.
- Romance scams
Dating-app and DM relationships engineered to extract money or crypto.
- Recovery red flags
Five tells that a 'fund recovery' agent is the second scam.
- Telegram scams
Fake admins, airdrops, support bots, and group impersonation.
- WhatsApp scams
Wrong-number openers, investment groups, and impersonated contacts.
- Bitcoin scams
Doubler sites, fake mining apps, and wallet-drainer phishing.
- Is crypto a scam?
How to tell legitimate crypto from the fraud surrounding it.
- Spot a crypto scam
A checklist for vetting any token, exchange, or wallet link.
- AI scam detection
How GACS uses LLM + heuristic scoring to flag fresh fraud.
- Report a scam website
Step-by-step: who to report a fraudulent site to and what to include.
- Report pig butchering
FBI IC3, FTC, exchanges, and the GACS public registry.
By scam type
Authoritative sources
Independent primary sources used to check and corroborate the guidance on this page.
- US Commodity Futures Trading Commission — Customer Advisories
Regulator advisories on crypto investment and romance-investment fraud.
- US Securities and Exchange Commission — Investor.gov Alerts
Investment fraud warnings and firm/registration lookups.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
Report crypto-investment losses and read the annual IC3 report.
- Chainalysis Crypto Crime Reports
Independent on-chain research on illicit crypto flows.
