The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says in its 2025 annual report that cryptocurrency investment fraud was the largest source of financial losses to Americans in 2025, with USD 7.2 billion reported lost; complaints involving cryptocurrency totalled 181,565, with about USD 11.37 billion in losses. The report describes the usual pattern: first contact through social media, text messages or ads, then a move to a messaging app and an "investment group" run by self-described insiders offering trading guidance, and finally a request to send crypto to a fake platform (IC3 2025 annual report, checked 2026-10-23). Paid signal groups, influencer (KOL) trade calls, account-management offers and "guaranteed profit" pitches are mostly versions of that same flow.
Below: five common schemes, 8 red flags, the official lists regulators publish, and what to do if you have been scammed. Legitimate copy trading and fee rebates do exist, and neither ever asks you to hand over your account, password or API keys. That one test sorts out most scams.
Quick answer
- Biggest category: in IC3's 2025 report, crypto investment fraud losses reached USD 7.2 billion, the highest of any category.
- Usual entry point: a stranger adds you to a Telegram or WhatsApp group with a "mentor", trade calls, profit screenshots and a "cooperative trading project".
- Usual ending: a fake platform shows profits, and when you try to withdraw you are told to pay taxes, fees or a deposit first.
- Check before you pay: Hong Kong's SFC, the UK FCA, the US SEC and CFTC, Singapore's MAS and Indonesia's OJK publish warning or lookup lists, and exchanges have official tools to check whether a website, account or support agent is genuine.
- If you've been scammed: stop paying, keep the evidence, alert the exchange through its official channels and report it. Anyone offering to recover your money for a fee is often running a second scam.
Five common schemes
1. Paid signal groups and "VIP" groups
A public channel posts a few free calls and profit screenshots, then charges a monthly or yearly fee for the "VIP group". Screenshots can be selected or faked, and the host's real results can't be checked. The scam groups IC3 describes are exactly this: groups presenting themselves as knowledgeable insiders offering guidance on trading, which end by steering people to fake investment platforms or apps.
2. Account management and fake copy trading
The pitch is usually "let me trade your account and we split the profit" or "send USDT to our copy-trading account". Once the account is handed over, the other side can change the password and move the assets; money sent to a so-called copy-trading account often goes straight to their wallet. The copy-trading feature built into an exchange is a different thing, explained in the next section.
3. Pump-and-dump calls
A customer advisory from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) explains how these work: organisers count down to a "pump" in chat rooms or messaging apps, name the coin and the exchange, add false news to create urgency, and sell into the spike while followers buy the top (CFTC pump-and-dump advisory). On 2024-10-09 the US Department of Justice announced charges in Massachusetts against 18 individuals and companies, alleging they used wash trading to fake volume, pushed token prices up and then sold; more than USD 25 million in crypto was seized, and the FBI created its own token for the undercover investigation (DOJ press release). Charges are allegations; guilt is for the courts to decide.
4. "Guaranteed profit" and "zero risk"
A CFTC advisory of 2024-10-31 describes scammers adding random phone numbers to WhatsApp and Telegram groups to promote "cooperative trading projects", with messages promising "300% or 1,000% returns with zero risk" (CFTC release 9005-24). Another CFTC advisory puts it plainly: there is no such thing as a guaranteed investment or trading strategy.
5. Impersonating exchanges and influencers
Fake support agents message you about an "account problem", fake admins post "official event" links in groups, and accounts posing as well-known influencers pull you into groups. Binance's official announcement of 2026-06-24 states that Binance will never contact you by phone and will never ask for passwords, 2FA codes or private keys (Binance announcement). OKX's help page also says official admins never send direct messages and never ask for account details or for you to move assets (how to identify OKX official accounts).
8 red flags
- Guaranteed profit or zero risk: any offer promising sure wins, protected capital or "30% a month".
- A stranger reaches out first: you are added to a group you don't know, or a "mentor" or "assistant" messages you on social media or a dating app.
- You're told to use their platform or wallet: not an account you opened yourself on the exchange's official site or app.
- They ask for your login, password, code or API key: to "manage" your account, set up copy trading or claim a rebate.
- Screenshots only, no verifiable record: profits exist only as images, with no public track record on an exchange page.
- Pressure to act now: countdowns, "limited places", "last chance".
- You must pay to withdraw: taxes, unlocking fees or a deposit before money can come out.
- No licence, or a regulator warning: the company name or website appears on one of the official lists below, or has no registration anywhere.
If someone asks for your password, codes or API keys, or wants your money moved somewhere outside the exchange, stop there. Neither happens in legitimate copy trading or with a fee rebate.
"30% a month" in numbers
Our own calculation: 1,000 USDT compounding at 30% a month grows to 1,000 × 1.312 ≈ 23,298 USDT after 12 months, about 23 times the starting amount in a year. Someone who could really do that would have no need to charge strangers a monthly fee.
Even when a signal group isn't a scam, following it closely costs money. Say you copy 40 trades a month at 5,000 USDT notional each, opening and closing as a taker. At the regular Binance USDⓈ-M taker rate of 0.05% (Binance futures fee FAQ), the month's fees are 40 × 5,000 × 0.05% × 2 = 200 USDT, before the group fee or any losses. With Fee Otter's 40% Binance rebate (20% automatic + 20% extra), 80 USDT comes back and the net fee is 120 USDT. For how fees are calculated, see how crypto trading fees are calculated.
What legitimate copy trading looks like
Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, BingX and MEXC offer copy trading inside the exchange: you pick a lead trader and set an amount in your own account, the money stays in your exchange account, and you can stop copying at any time. The lead trader never sees your password and cannot move your assets. Rules, minimums and profit shares differ by exchange; see Binance copy trading, OKX copy trading, Bybit copy trading, Bitget copy trading, BingX copy trading, MEXC copy trading and the copy trading platform comparison.
You can still lose money copying trades on an exchange, and a lead trader's past results don't predict future ones. The difference from "give me your account" is that the trades run inside the exchange's system and the assets stay in your account.
Fee rebates work the same way. Binding a rebate needs only your UID: no password, no API key, no withdrawal permission and no transfer to anyone (are crypto fee rebates safe). If someone asks for your account or API key to "set up a higher rebate", refuse.
Official lists: check before you pay
| Region | Authority | What you can check | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) | Alert list of unlicensed entities, suspicious websites, suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, fake regulators and phishing sites; the SFC says the list is not comprehensive | SFC alert list, suspicious VATPs |
| UK | Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) | Warning list of unauthorised and clone firms, including clones claiming to recover lost crypto | FCA warning list |
| US | Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | PAUSE list of unregistered soliciting entities and impersonators of genuine firms | SEC PAUSE list |
| US | Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) | RED list of foreign entities that appear to need CFTC registration but are not registered; registration lookup | CFTC RED list, CFTC registration check |
| Singapore | Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) | Investor alert list of persons who may be wrongly perceived as regulated by MAS; MAS says the list is not exhaustive | MAS investor alert list |
| Indonesia | Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Satgas PASTI | Checks and reports on illegal investment and financial activity: OJK line 157, WhatsApp 081 157 157 157; scam victims can report to the Indonesia Anti-Scam Centre (IASC) | OJK Satgas PASTI notice, IASC |
Checked 2026-10-23. The FCA and SEC sites would not open from our environment that day, so those rows follow the two regulators' list pages and notices as published on their websites. A clean search does not mean a firm is safe: the SFC and MAS both say their lists are incomplete.
For exchange licences by country, see crypto exchange licences by country; for EU MiCA authorisations, see MiCA-licensed crypto exchanges.
Exchanges' official verification tools
When a message, email, website or Telegram account claims to be from an exchange, paste it into the official verification page first:
| Exchange | Tool | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Binance | Binance Verify | Websites, emails, phone numbers, Telegram and other social accounts |
| OKX | OKX channel verification | Group links, usernames, websites |
| Bybit | Bybit Authenticity Check | Phone numbers, emails, URLs, social accounts; the page also takes stolen-funds reports |
| Bitget | Bitget official verification | Domains, emails, phone numbers, Telegram, WeChat |
| BingX | BingX Verify | Websites, emails, phone numbers, social accounts |
| MEXC | MEXC Verify | Websites, emails, phone numbers, social accounts |
Bybit warns that email and text-message senders can be forged, so an "official" result does not prove a message really came from Bybit (Bybit anti-scam guide). The safest habit is to log in yourself through the official site or app and never click links in messages; where an exchange offers an anti-phishing code, set it up.
What to do if you've been scammed
Stop paying
don't pay any "tax", "unlocking fee" or "deposit". The IC3 report says a demand for taxes and fees before withdrawal is the scammers' final move before they vanish with the money.Secure your account
if you gave out a password or API key, change the password through the official site, delete the API key, reset 2FA and check your withdrawal whitelist.Keep the evidence
chat logs, the other side's accounts, receiving addresses, transaction hashes (TxIDs), times and amounts; screenshot or export all of it.Tell the exchange
report through the support channel on the official site or app, with addresses and TxIDs; Bybit's verification page also has a stolen-funds report form.Report it
file a police report where you live; in the US, report to IC3, and the CFTC also takes tips; in Indonesia, report to IASC or call OJK on 157; in Hong Kong, complain to the SFC about unlicensed firms.Watch for a second scam
the IC3 report notes that victims are also targeted by people claiming they can recover lost funds, and the FCA warning list includes clone firms of this kind. Don't trust any recovery service that wants payment first.
Blockchain transfers can't be reversed. The sooner you alert the exchange and report it, the better the chance that funds still on an exchange can be frozen, but no one can promise you'll get them back.
Service regions
Each regulator covers only firms and solicitation in its own jurisdiction. An offshore firm with no registration where you live is already a warning sign. For exchanges' service regions and restricted countries, see restricted countries of the big four exchanges.
Risks
Even legitimate copy trading inside an exchange can lose your whole stake through a lead trader's losses, leverage or sharp market moves. Don't trade because of screenshots or calls in a group, and only trade with money you can afford to lose. This article summarises public information from regulators and exchanges and is not investment or legal advice.
FAQ
Are paid crypto signal groups always scams?
Not always, but their results are almost impossible to verify. Before paying, ask for a public record you can check, such as a lead trader's history on an exchange copy-trading page. Skip any group that offers only screenshots and promises profit.
What's the difference between account management and exchange copy trading?
Account management means handing over your account or sending money to someone, so the assets leave your control. Exchange copy trading runs inside your own account, you can stop it at any time, and the other person never gets your password.
How do I know a message is really from exchange support?
Paste the account, email or website into the exchange's official verification page, and contact support again through the official site or app. Binance's announcement says it never phones users and never asks for passwords or codes.
Is it legal to follow an influencer's trade calls?
Acting on someone's shared views is your own risk. Buying first, urging others to buy and selling into the rise is what the CFTC treats as market manipulation in pump-and-dump schemes, and followers who buy on the call usually end up buying the top.
Does binding a rebate need my API key or password?
No. Fee Otter binds a rebate with your UID only; any request for a password, code or API key is not legitimate.
Can I get scammed money back?
There is no guarantee. If the funds are still on an exchange, reporting quickly to the exchange and the police gives the best chance of a freeze. Anyone who says they can recover your money for a fee is most likely running a second scam.
Getting started
If you trade yourself and want lower fees, sign up on the exchange's official site with a referral code and bind your UID on the Fee Otter rebate platform (sign up on BingX with code FEEOTTER and the 45% rebate is paid automatically by BingX, with no binding needed). The exchange's automatic rebate goes straight back into your exchange account. Fee Otter's extra rebate is settled daily after the 16:00 (UTC+8) update and paid on request as on-chain USDT over BEP20, with a minimum of 1 USDT per request and a 0.015 USDT network fee paid by the user.
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