What Are the Common Crypto Scam Patterns Called?
Why scammers like crypto payments
Before the glossary, one structural fact explains most of it. As the FTC's consumer guide explains, cryptocurrency payments do not come with the legal protections that credit and debit cards carry, and they are typically not reversible — once sent, funds generally come back only if the recipient chooses to return them. That irreversibility isn't an accident of crypto; it follows from the ledger design itself, which NIST IR 8202 describes as tamper-resistant by construction, with no administrator empowered to unwind entries. A payment method with no chargebacks and no central operator is, from a scammer's perspective, ideal.
In short: the same properties that make the ledger trustworthy make payments to a scammer unrecoverable — which is exactly why they insist on crypto.
The glossary
- Payment-demand scams. The oldest pattern in a new costume: an urgent demand — fake government agency, fake tech support, fake sweepstakes fee — payable only in cryptocurrency. The FTC states it flatly: only scammers demand payment in cryptocurrency. No legitimate business or government agency requires it.
- Guaranteed-return pitches. "Investment opportunities" promising big profits with zero risk, sometimes with fabricated dashboards showing your balance growing. The FTC's guide identifies promises of guaranteed returns as a hallmark of fraud — no one can guarantee an investment's outcome, in crypto or anywhere else.
- Impersonation scams. The scammer poses as a familiar institution — your bank, a government agency, a well-known company — claiming fraud on your account and instructing you to "protect" your money by buying cryptocurrency and transferring it. The money goes straight to them.
- Romance-investment scams. A contact from a dating app or social media builds a relationship over weeks, then introduces a can't-miss crypto opportunity and offers to "help you invest." The FTC's guide describes this blend of romance scam and investment fraud; the friendly coaching is the con.
- Fake job offers. Offers for jobs in crypto — or ordinary-sounding jobs — that require you to pay in cryptocurrency to start, or that involve receiving and forwarding funds. Per the FTC, a job that charges an entry fee in crypto is a scheme, and forwarding funds for strangers can make you a money mule.
- Giveaway scams. A celebrity or company supposedly multiplying whatever coins you send. Nothing comes back. The FTC lists celebrity-endorsement claims among the common lures.
The pattern behind the patterns
Strip the costumes and each entry above reduces to a short checklist of tells, drawn from the FTC's guidance:
- Crypto-only payment demanded for something unrelated to crypto.
- Guaranteed profits or "zero risk" claims.
- Urgency — act now, before you can check with anyone.
- Unsolicited contact that steers toward money, however slowly.
What this page is and isn't
This is a vocabulary page: knowing what these patterns are called makes them easier to recognize in the wild and easier to describe when reporting them. For the FTC's own guidance on avoidance and on where to report fraud, go directly to its consumer page — it is short, current, and written for exactly that purpose.
Bottom line
Crypto scams are old frauds routed through a payment rail with no undo button. The costumes rotate; the demand for irreversible payment is the constant.