Know ScamSafety Academy
A convincing double
Everything matches except the two things that matter: the domain and where the deposit goes.
Gives it away: Confirm the domain before anything else.
Read the breakdown →
A SimpleSwap education project
Know the Scam: The Sequence an Attack Follows
Know the Scam is the fraud documentation project SimpleSwap publishes. This page arranges its patterns by the sequence an attack follows: how it reaches you, how it builds a reason, and what it finally asks for.
Read that way, the twelve patterns stop being a list to memorise and become three moments to recognise.
Signals at every stage
Six markers that show up whichever point of the sequence you are at.
- 1Manufactured urgencyA deadline you did not set.
- 2Guaranteed returnsNothing on-chain provides one.
- 3A request for your seed phraseNo service needs it, ever.
- 4Contact you did not startThe approach arrived first.
- 5Pressure to move platformsInto a channel that keeps no record.
- 6A fee to release your fundsYour own money has no paywall.
Contact, persuasion, action
Each links to its full write-up in Know Scam on the SimpleSwap blog.
1 · Contact
How the attack reaches you.
Know ScamAug 31, 2026
Copies that pass the old tests
The warning signs people learned to look for stopped appearing years ago.
Gives it away: Go there yourself rather than following a link.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamSafety Academy
Groomed into an investment
Weeks of attention, then a platform where balances rise and withdrawals fail.
Gives it away: Test the withdrawal early, not late.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamAug 5, 2026
Synthesised authority
A fabricated clip of someone recognisable, promising to return twice what you send.
Gives it away: Legitimate offers never take payment first.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamSep 9, 2026
Impostor helpdesks
They watch public channels and answer before the real team can.
Gives it away: Genuine help does not arrive unrequested.
Read the breakdown →2 · Persuasion
Why you would act at all.
Know ScamAug 31, 2026
One-way tokens
The purchase clears. The sale is blocked or the pool is drained first.
Gives it away: Look for other people's completed sales.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamSep 1, 2026
Bonus offers that take
Scripts promising rewards while collecting what they need to drain you.
Gives it away: Rewards do not require pasting code anywhere.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamSep 10, 2026
Tokens as bait
An unexpected balance, a claim page, a signature, an empty wallet.
Gives it away: Do not touch what you did not request.
Read the breakdown →3 · Action
What it finally needs you to do.
Know ScamAug 12, 2026
A signature with a long tail
What reads as a routine confirmation authorises ongoing token movement.
Gives it away: Know what you are approving, then revoke it later.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamAug 25, 2026
Extraction around your trade
Pending orders are public; bots arrange themselves around yours.
Gives it away: Slippage limits are the available control.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamAug 25, 2026
Planted lookalikes
An address matching yours at both ends, waiting to be copied from history.
Gives it away: Verify the characters between the ends.
Read the breakdown →
Know ScamAug 31, 2026
Interception on your machine
The address changes between the copy and the paste, silently.
Gives it away: Read the pasted value back in full.
Read the breakdown →Settling whether a site is real
simpleswap.io only
Any other domain carrying the name is a copy, however exact the interface.
The address bar decides
Logos, colours and layout clone in minutes. The domain does not.
A padlock is not identity
HTTPS encrypts the connection. Phishing sites hold valid certificates too.
No wallet connection
Standard swaps never require one, and never a seed phrase.
Support starts where you did
An account that contacts you first did not come from SimpleSwap.
Transfers do not reverse
Once confirmed there is no chargeback, so the check belongs before you send.
The documented versions
These condense the SimpleSwap Safety Academy, where each pattern carries current examples.