3 November 2026

What to do after a crypto giveaway scam

If you sent cryptocurrency to a giveaway promising to double your funds, cease all contact immediately and preserve every transaction record. Genuine promotions never require you to send funds first, and reporting the destination addresses quickly helps trace the movement of the stolen assets.

• Crypto giveaway fraud involves criminals posing as prominent figures, tech founders or platforms on social media and video streams, promising to double or multiply any digital assets you deposit into their advertised promotion address.
• Key warning signs include artificial urgency like ticking countdown timers, claims of guaranteed instant returns, requests to send funds first to verify your wallet, and disabled comments or artificially inflated audience numbers on the streaming page.
• Stop sending any further assets immediately, disconnect your wallet from any promotional websites or external software you accessed during the incident, and alert the customer support team of the platform where you first acquired the transferred funds.
• Preserve clear records of the interaction, including screenshots of the stream or social media post, the exact website address, promotional transaction links, the destination wallet address, and the original deposit receipts from your own exchange account.
• Report the incident promptly to Action Fraud to obtain a police crime reference number, notify your bank if you used debit or credit cards to fund the purchase, and report the offending broadcast or social media account to the host platform.
• An onchain forensic analysis can map the subsequent movement of your assets through intermediary wallets and identify if they reach a compliant exchange, but it cannot reverse confirmed transfers or force an overseas recipient to return the missing funds.

Written by the Wallsec investigations team. General information only, not legal or financial advice.