Founder of Crypto University™️. Our goal is to collapse the amount of time it takes for people to learn, understand, and utilize blockchain & Ai technology.
SoloCorn
Joined September 2017
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Americans reported $11.4 billion in crypto losses to the FBI in 2025.
Most of it wasn't a hacker breaking in. It was someone getting talked into pressing send.
Here's where the money went, straight from the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, and the one move that beats each one:
1. Investment scams: $7.28 billion
A friendly stranger or "mentor" and a trading app showing huge gains. Deposits are easy. Withdrawals need one more "tax" or "fee."
Beat it: before you add a dollar more, try to withdraw a small amount. If you can't take money out, it was never there.
2. Fake tech or customer support: $1.23 billion
A pop-up, call or DM says your account is compromised and an agent will help you "secure" your funds.
Beat it: hang up. Open the app yourself and contact support from inside it. Real support never asks you to move coins or share your seed phrase.
3. Personal data breaches: $939 million
Your info leaks, then the follow-up messages know your name, your exchange and what you hold.
Beat it: authenticator app or security key on every exchange, a different password for each, and never trust a message just because it knows your details.
4. Romance: $395 million
Weeks of great conversation, then a "can't miss" opportunity.
Beat it: someone you've never met in person who brings up crypto is pitching you. Every time.
5. Fake jobs: $288 million
Easy remote "task" work that pays at first, then asks you to deposit crypto to reach the next level.
Beat it: a real job never makes you pay to get paid.
6. Government impersonation: $281 million
"This is the FBI. Pay in crypto or at this Bitcoin ATM to clear the warrant."
Beat it: no agency takes crypto or a QR code at a kiosk. Hang up and call the agency's real number.
For scale: complaints filed as SIM swaps with a crypto link came to about $4.4 million. The scary hack is real. The talk is what costs people.
Americans 60 and over reported $4.4 billion of these losses, the most of any age group.
Your best security tool is a 10 minute pause before you send anything to anyone.
Save this, and send it to the person in your family who just got into crypto.
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Source: FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report, crypto section: ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports… If it already happened to you, report it at ic3.gov and ignore anyone who DMs offering to "recover" your funds for a fee. The FBI logged 10,516 complaints about that too.
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For anyone who's been in crypto a few years: what's the one security habit you wish you'd started on day one?
New people are reading. Give them the shortcut.
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Quick math for any project promising "2% a day":
Compounded for a year, that's about 1,377x your money.
Nobody pays that. The only thing growing that fast is the line of people waiting on withdrawals.
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5 minute fix for today: if your exchange login still uses text message codes, switch it to an authenticator app or a security key.
A SIM swap moves your phone number to a scammer's phone, and every SMS code goes with it. An app code doesn't.
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Save these 7 free tools before you sign anything else in crypto.
None of them hold your coins. All of them make it harder for someone else to.
1. Revoke.cash
Shows every token approval you've handed out, on 70+ networks, and lets you revoke the ones you forgot about. Old approvals are doors you left open.
2. Etherscan Token Approval Checker
Same idea, straight from the block explorer. Paste your address to look. Connect your wallet only when you want to revoke. Revoking is an on-chain transaction, so it costs a little gas.
3. Rabby Wallet
Simulates the transaction before you sign and shows the real balance changes. If the site says "Claim" and the preview says "Transfer," you just saved yourself.
4. MetaMask Security Alerts
On by default. Check anyway: Settings > Transactions > Security alerts. If it says "Malicious," close the tab. Don't argue with it.
5. Scam Sniffer extension
Free Chrome extension that warns you before you open a known scam site or sign a malicious request.
6. Chainabuse
Search an address, URL or website before you send anything to it. Report the ones that got you so the next person gets warned.
7. Have I Been Pwned
Check whether your email showed up in a data breach. A leaked email is how the "your account is compromised, verify here" messages find you.
None of these replace the boring rule: never type your seed phrase into a website, a form or a DM. Not for support, not for an airdrop, not for anyone.
Tools warn you. You still have to read the warning.
Bookmark this and do a 10 minute approval cleanup this weekend.
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Links typed out so you can match them to the real domains: revoke.cash, etherscan.io/tokenapprovalch…, rabby.io, scamsniffer.io, chainabuse.com, haveibeenpwned.com. Use these or your own bookmarks, never a sponsored search result.
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What's the closest you've ever come to getting scammed in crypto?
And what made you stop before you clicked?
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Crypto rule I'd tattoo on every new holder: real support never DMs you first.
If someone "from the exchange" slides into your DMs right after you complained in public, that's not customer service. That's a guy who reads replies for a living.
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Habit: when a wallet pop-up says "approve" or "set approval for all," stop and read the spender and the amount.
An unlimited approval lets that contract move that token later without asking you again.
Check your old approvals this week and revoke what you no longer use.
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Most people ask AI "is this coin good?" and get a confident answer built on nothing.
Better move: make it do the boring homework a skeptic would do, and make it show its work. Here's the setup. Copy it.
(Not financial advice. This is a filter, not a buy signal.)
1. Gather the sources yourself.
Don't let the AI go "find info on the project." Paste in the official docs or whitepaper, the tokenomics or vesting page, the token's page on a block explorer (contract, holders tab), and any audit. Get the contract address from the project's own site, never from a reply or a DM.
2. Paste this prompt:
"You are a skeptical analyst. Use ONLY the text I pasted. For every claim, quote the exact sentence it comes from. If something isn't in the sources, write NOT FOUND. Do not guess.
1. What does this project do that actually needs a token?
2. Who holds the supply? Top 10 holders by %, and which are exchanges, team or contracts.
3. When do team and investor tokens vest and hit the market, and how many?
4. Who can change the contract? Owner, admin keys, upgradeable proxy, mint function.
5. Where does the money that pays holders come from?
6. List every red flag. Then list what would change your mind."
3. Read the NOT FOUNDs first.
Missing answers are the answer. A project that can't tell you who is able to mint more tokens is telling you something.
4. Check two quotes by hand.
Open the source and find the sentence. If it isn't there, the model made it up, and you throw out the whole report.
5. Then decide like an adult.
AI shortens the reading. It doesn't make the call, and it will happily describe a dog coin as "innovative tokenomics" if you let it.
Make it quote or make it quiet. Save this for the next shiny chart in your feed.
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A limit order controls price, not whether you get filled. A market order prioritizes execution, not your final price. Before a large crypto trade, compare the available depth with your order size. The last traded price is not a quote for your entire order.
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Same ticker does not mean same asset. Before moving Bitcoin onto another network, ask who holds the original BTC, how the token is redeemed, and which contracts or signers you now trust. A wrapped token adds a dependency. The Bitcoin name does not remove it.
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Before treating crypto trading volume as demand, ask what it measures: spot or derivatives, one exchange or the market, actual trades or open positions. High volume means activity. It does not tell you that new money is buying and holding.
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A wallet recovery plan needs more than a seed backup. Write down which wallet you use, the networks, whether a passphrase is required, and where your trusted instructions live. Keep the seed offline and separate. Never put the secret in the instruction sheet.
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A liquidation is not a normal sell order. It is a position being closed because collateral no longer meets the rules. Before using leverage, check maintenance margin, the liquidation price and how fees affect it. Your stop price and liquidation price are not the same thing.
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Before moving crypto to a new wallet, confirm the network, verify the full address on the receiving device, send a small amount, and confirm you can access it. Then move the rest. A successful transfer to the wrong address is still your loss.
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Before buying a stablecoin, I check five things: who owes the redemption, who can redeem, what backs it, when reserves were reported, and who can freeze it. A token trading at $1 does not answer any of those questions. The ticker is not the risk assessment.
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Never copy a crypto address from transaction history. Address poisoning puts lookalike addresses there on purpose. Get the address from a trusted source and compare the entire address on your wallet screen. Matching the first and last characters is not enough.
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