What to do after a crypto liquidity pool scam
If you have lost funds to a fraudulent liquidity pool, stop interacting with the site, disconnect your wallet permissions, and preserve your transaction records. Report the theft to Action Fraud and your bank immediately so the movement of your assets across onchain ledgers can be formally investigated.
- These schemes usually masquerade as decentralised finance protocols or liquidity vouchers, promising high, guaranteed passive returns simply for holding funds in your private wallet while you unknowingly sign an approval that gives perpetrators full control over your tokens.
- Warning signs include unsolicited invitations from online acquaintances, instructions to open suspicious websites inside your wallet app browser, dynamic dashboards showing fictitious earnings, and sudden demands to deposit more capital before you can release accumulated rewards.
- Disconnect your wallet from the malicious platform immediately, revoke any outstanding smart contract allowances using a reputable permissions checker, and transfer any remaining untouched assets to an entirely fresh, uncompromised wallet address.
- Preserve comprehensive evidence before web pages or chat histories disappear, including the full website URL, contract addresses you interacted with, onchain transaction hashes, screenshots of the dashboard balance, and unedited conversation logs with the promoters.
- Report the incident promptly to Action Fraud to secure a police crime reference number, inform your UK bank if you purchased the initial crypto using fiat transfers, and alert the compliance departments of any recipient platforms involved.
- A professional onchain trace can map where stolen tokens flowed and identify the custodial deposit accounts where funds consolidated, but it cannot reveal the real-world identity behind an unhosted wallet or force an overseas service to return the money.
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Written by the Wallsec investigations team. General information only, not legal or financial advice.
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