# Crypto Scam Watchdog > How crypto money actually gets stolen Crypto Scam Watchdog covers onramp, offramp, swap, corporate wallet, custody, acquiring, stablecoin payments, bitcoin payments, otc, licensing, cards, industries, exchange and nothing else. Every article is written by Priya Raman. Takes apart crypto losses, her own included, so other people do not repeat them. The intended reader is people who already hold funds and are worried about losing them. No price predictions, no investment advice and no paid placements: articles explain how something works so the reader can decide for themselves. Where a number matters, the article states where it came from and when it was measured. 45 articles, published 2026-05-03 to 2026-10-27. Every article is also served as plain Markdown: replace the trailing slash with `.md` — https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/marketplace-payout-fraud.md ## Industries - [Payout Fraud on Marketplaces: When a Seller Account Is Taken Over](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/marketplace-payout-fraud/): Platforms paying many recipients face attacks on the recipient side. How payout destinations get changed and what detects it. - [Property Deposit Fraud and the Crypto Variant](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/conveyancing-and-property-fraud/): The most reliably lucrative fraud in conveyancing, adapted to crypto settlement, and the confirmations that stop it. - [Impersonation Fraud Against Funds and Family Offices](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fund-and-family-office-fraud/): Large infrequent transfers with several approvers attract a specific attack. How instructions are forged and what verification defeats it. - [Crypto Orders and Fulfilment Fraud in Online Retail](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/ecommerce-payment-fraud-crypto/): Irreversible payment protects the money and not the goods. The order patterns worth flagging and the screening that still applies. - [When Your Platform Is Used to Move Someone Else's Money](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fintech-platform-abuse/): Financial technology companies inherit the compliance exposure of their users. The abuse patterns and the controls that detect them. - [Which Industries Get Targeted, and With What](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/industry-specific-payment-fraud/): Fraud patterns cluster by sector because the money moves differently in each. What to expect in yours. ## Acquiring - [When Your Payment Provider Fails While Holding Your Money](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/acquiring-provider-failures/): Providers hold merchant funds between payment and settlement. What happens if they fail, and how to limit what is exposed. - [The Compliance Failures That Close Merchant Accounts](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/crypto-payment-compliance-failures/): What gets a merchant terminated by a crypto payment provider, why the notice is short, and how to avoid being in that position. - [When the Attacker Changes Your Settlement Address](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/merchant-account-takeover/): A merchant account compromise redirects settlements rather than stealing a balance. Why it goes unnoticed and what detects it. - [The Overpayment Refund Scam Against Merchants](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/overpayment-refund-scam/): A customer pays too much and asks for the difference back. Why the original payment is not what it appears, and the policy that prevents it. - [No Chargebacks Does Not Mean No Fraud](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/chargeback-free-does-not-mean-fraud-free/): What irreversible payments actually protect a merchant from, which fraud they do not touch, and the screening that still applies. - [The Fake Payment Gateway: Defrauding the Merchant Instead of the Customer](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-payment-gateway-merchant-fraud/): A cloned gateway that takes customer payments and never settles. How merchants are recruited and what verification prevents it. ## Otc - [Checking an OTC Counterparty Before the First Trade](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/otc-counterparty-checks/): The verification that takes an hour and the specific answers that should end the conversation. - [How a Bad Quote Hides in a Good Relationship](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/otc-price-manipulation/): Not fraud, just a spread you never measured. How to check whether your desk is pricing you fairly, and what to do when it is not. - [Fake OTC Desks: How the Large Trade Is Set Up](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-otc-desks/): The approach, the credentials, the paperwork and the point at which the money moves. What verification takes an hour and saves everything. - [Who Sends First: Settlement Risk in Private Crypto Trades](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/otc-settlement-risk/): The structural problem in every bilateral trade, the arrangements that solve it, and the ones that only appear to. ## Exchange - [Choosing an Exchange: The Checks That Actually Predict Failure](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/choosing-an-exchange-safely/): Not fees or interface. The specific things that distinguished platforms that survived from those that did not. ## Cards - [Crypto Card Fraud: What Happens After the Details Leak](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/crypto-card-fraud-patterns/): Cards funded by a crypto balance have weaker recourse than bank cards. The common patterns and the configuration that limits damage. ## Licensing - [Checking a MiCA Compliance Claim in Five Minutes](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/mica-compliance-claims/): Every European platform now claims MiCA compliance. What the claim means, which permission actually matters, and how to verify it. - [Offshore Structures: Reading Where a Platform Actually Sits](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/regulatory-arbitrage-warning-signs/): The entity, the jurisdiction and the terms of service matter more than the website. How to find out what you are contracting with. - [The Licence That Is Not a Licence](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/unlicensed-platforms/): Registrations, memberships and offshore authorisations presented as regulatory approval. How to tell what a claim is actually worth. ## Bitcoin payments - [The Bitcoin Payment Pretexts Used Against Businesses](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/bitcoin-payment-social-engineering/): Fake suppliers, urgent director requests and refund manipulation. The specific scripts, and why finance teams act on them. - [Accepting Bitcoin Too Quickly: What Zero Confirmations Actually Risks](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/bitcoin-payment-double-spend-risk/): A broadcast transaction is not a settled one. When accepting at zero confirmations is reasonable and when it is not. ## Stablecoin payments - [Interception: Changing the Address Between Invoice and Payment](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/stablecoin-payment-interception/): How an attacker substitutes a payment address in transit, why both parties see what they expect, and the confirmation that stops it. - [Stablecoin Yield: Where the Return Actually Comes From](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/stablecoin-yield-traps/): A yield on a dollar-pegged asset is generated by an activity with risk. What the common sources are and which failures follow. - [Frozen Stablecoin: When the Issuer Blocks an Address](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/stablecoin-freeze-risk/): Stablecoin issuers can freeze balances at any address. Why it happens, who it happens to, and how to avoid receiving tainted funds. - [Fake USDT: Tokens That Look Right and Are Worthless](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-usdt-tokens/): Anyone can create a token called USDT. How the counterfeit reaches a merchant, and the single check that distinguishes it. ## Custody - [Custody Diligence: The Answers That Should End the Conversation](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/custody-due-diligence-red-flags/): Specific responses from a custody provider that indicate you should stop, and why each one matters more than it sounds. - [What Custody Insurance Actually Covers, and What It Does Not](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/custody-insurance-reality/): Policy limits are aggregate, exclusions are broad, and the most likely loss is usually not covered. How to read the claim properly. - [Fake Custody: Platforms That Show a Balance and Hold Nothing](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-custody-providers/): How to distinguish a custodian holding your assets from a website displaying a number, using checks that cost nothing. ## Corporate wallet - [How Multi-Signature Setups Actually Fail](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/multisig-failures/): Not broken cryptography. Lost keys, untested recovery, and thresholds that made sense until someone left. - [Nobody Legitimate Asks for a Recovery Phrase. Here Is Who Does.](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/seed-phrase-social-engineering/): The specific pretexts used to extract a recovery phrase, why they work on careful people, and the rule that has no exceptions. - [The Employee With Access: Insider Loss and How It Actually Happens](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/insider-risk-company-crypto/): Most insider crypto losses are not dramatic thefts. They are unrevoked access, shared credentials and a departure nobody processed. - [The Fake Invoice: How Companies Lose Crypto to a Changed Address](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/business-email-compromise-crypto/): An attacker in a mailbox changes one line on an invoice. Why finance teams pay it, and the control that makes it fail. ## Swap - [Sending on the Wrong Network: The Mistake With No Recovery](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/bridge-and-network-mistakes/): Why the same asset on a different network is unreachable, which situations are recoverable, and the habits that prevent it entirely. - [Fake Swap Services: The Quote That Is Never Honoured](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-swap-aggregators/): How a fraudulent swap takes the deposit and stalls, the pattern of the follow-up demands, and the checks that take one minute. - [Token Approvals: The Permission That Empties a Wallet Later](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/swap-approval-exploits/): How an unlimited approval works, why the damage arrives weeks after the signature, and how to audit what you have already granted. ## Offramp - [Third Party Payment Fraud: When Someone Offers to Cash Out for You](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/offramp-third-party-payment-fraud/): The informal exchange offer that converts a legitimate holder into a money laundering participant, and why the consequences fall on you. - [Why Your Bank Closed the Account After a Crypto Payment](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/offramp-bank-account-closures/): What triggers a bank to exit a customer, why they cannot explain, and how to handle crypto proceeds so it does not happen. - [When an Exchange Stops Your Withdrawal: Ordinary Causes and Warning Signs](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/offramp-frozen-withdrawals/): Most frozen withdrawals are routine compliance. Some are the first sign of a failing platform. How to tell which one you are looking at. - [The Recovery Scam: Fake Off-Ramps That Target People Already Defrauded](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-offramp-recovery-scam/): How operators find victims of earlier frauds and charge them again, why the pitch is convincing, and the one rule that defeats it. ## Onramp - [The On-Ramp Fee Tricks That Are Legal and Still Cost You](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/onramp-fee-tricks/): Hidden spread, the cash advance charge, fixed network fees and the rate that expires. What to look at instead of the advertised percentage. - [When an On-Ramp Freezes Your Purchase and Asks Questions](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/source-of-funds-traps/): Why a completed purchase gets held, which answers resolve it, and the mistakes that turn a two-day review into a two-month one. - [Account Takeover at the On-Ramp: The Sequence That Works](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/onramp-account-takeover/): How an attacker gets from an email address to a drained exchange balance, and which single control breaks the chain. - [Fake On-Ramp Sites: How the Cloned Checkout Works](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/fake-onramp-sites/): A cloned exchange front end takes the payment and never delivers. How the clones are distributed, what they get right, and the checks that catch them. ## About this site - [About](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/about/): what the site covers, who writes it and how articles are checked. - [Author](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/author/): Priya Raman. Takes apart crypto losses, her own included, so other people do not repeat them. - [Contact](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/contact/): corrections and questions. - [Privacy](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/privacy/): what the site does and does not collect. ## Machine-readable - [https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/llms-full.txt](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/llms-full.txt): full text of every article in one file. - [https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/sitemap-index.xml](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/sitemap-index.xml): every indexable URL. - [https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/rss.xml](https://cryptoscamwatchdog.com/rss.xml): feed of new articles.