Attacks
Send one and get two back. Nobody has ever got two back. A post, a livestream or an advert from what looks like a well known person or company, promising to send back double whatever you send. They run during any big crypto news moment, they use hacked or lookalike accounts, and increasingly they use AI generated video of real people who never said any of it.
What it is
A post, a livestream or an advert from what looks like a well known person or company, promising to send back double whatever you send. They run during any big crypto news moment, they use hacked or lookalike accounts, and increasingly they use AI generated video of real people who never said any of it.
How it plays out
A trusted face appears
A verified looking account, a livestream on a hacked channel, or a deepfake of a founder or a celebrity.
The offer has a deadline
A limited pool, a countdown, a first come first served frame.
Fake proof scrolls past
Comments and transaction lists that are entirely fabricated.
You send to an address
And nothing comes back, because nothing was ever going to.
What gives it away
- Any offer to return more crypto than you send. This has no legitimate form.
- A countdown or a limited pool.
- A livestream with comments disabled, or comments that all look the same.
- An account handle with an extra character, or created recently.
How to not be caught by it
- Treat every doubling offer as a scam, without checking. There are no real ones.
- Never send crypto to receive crypto from a stranger.
- Check handles character by character rather than trusting an avatar.
If it already happened
- The transaction cannot be reversed. Nobody can recover it, whatever they promise.
- Report the account so the channel can be taken down faster.
- Block and ignore anybody who then offers to recover your funds for a fee.
Common questions
How common is giveaway and doubling scams?
Common enough that it has a name and a playbook. The specific numbers move constantly, so rather than quote a figure that will be wrong next quarter: assume you will meet this one, and set your wallet up so meeting it is survivable.
Can the money be recovered?
Once a blockchain transaction confirms, no. What reporting can occasionally do is get funds frozen at the exchange where a thief tries to cash out, which is why reporting quickly is worth doing even when it feels pointless.
Does a hardware wallet stop this?
It stops anything that needs your keys, because the keys never leave the device. It does not stop you approving a malicious transaction on the device itself, so read what the screen says before you press confirm.
Where to go next
Check your setup before you need to
An hour on a screen share, going through your wallets, your approvals, your backups and your recovery plan. You click everything and we never ask for keys.