But that’s a scam. They’ll say the company is entering the crypto world by issuing their own coin or token. Scammers impersonate new or established businesses offering fraudulent crypto coins or tokens. They might create social media ads, news articles or a slick website to back it all up and trick people into buying. If you click the link in any message, answer the call, or call back the number on the pop-up, you’ll be connected to a scammer. But these crypto coins and tokens are a scam that ends up stealing money from the people who buy them.

If something happens to your wallet or your cryptocurrency funds – like your online exchange platform goes out of business, you send cryptocurrency to the wrong person, you lose the password to your digital wallet, or your digital wallet is stolen or compromised – you’re likely to find that no one can step in to help you recover your funds. Because cryptocurrency exists only online, there are important differences between cryptocurrency and traditional currency, like U.S. How is cryptocurrency different from U.S. Cryptocurrency accounts are not backed by a government. Cryptocurrency held in accounts is not insured by a government like U.S.

Cryptocurrencies tend to be more volatile than more traditional investments, such as stocks and bonds. An investment that’s worth thousands of dollars today might be worth only hundreds tomorrow. And, if the value goes down, there’s no guarantee it will go up again. Credit cards and debit cards have legal protections if something goes wrong. Cryptocurrency payments do not come with legal protections. There are many ways that paying with cryptocurrency is different from paying with a credit card or other traditional payment methods.

If you log in to your “investment account,” you won’t be able to withdraw your money at all, or only if you pay high fees. It’s a scammer. And if you click on an unexpected link they send or send cryptocurrency to a so-called celebrity’s QR code, that money will go straight to a scammer and it’ll be gone. But celebrities aren’t contacting you through social media. A scammer pretends to be a celebrity who can multiply any cryptocurrency you send them. An online “love interest” wants you to send money or cryptocurrency to help you invest.

Honest investment managers or advisors want to share that information and will back it up with details. In a business, government, or job impersonator scam, the scammer pretends to be someone you trust to convince you to send them money by buying and sending cryptocurrency. And read more about other common investment scams. Before you invest in crypto, search online for the name of the company or person and the cryptocurrency name, plus words like “review,” “scam,” or “complaint.” See what others are saying.