When you hear about $246 million losses, a staggering sum stolen from crypto users through coordinated fraud schemes, it’s not just numbers—it’s real people who lost savings, retirement funds, or hard-earned crypto. These aren’t random hacks. They’re targeted, engineered traps: fake airdrops pretending to be from CoinMarketCap, tokens like CDONK that vanish overnight, and phishing sites that copy real apps down to the logo. This isn’t theory. It’s happening right now, and the same patterns repeat across every major loss.
Most of these scams rely on crypto airdrop fraud, fake giveaways that trick users into connecting wallets or paying gas fees. The CDONK scam didn’t just fool users—it made them sign away control of their wallets. The SecretSky.finance airdrop looked legit until the token dropped to zero. Even the Swash and TopGoal airdrops, which were real, got flooded with copycats using the same branding. Scammers don’t need to be clever—they just need to be fast and exploit trust in big names like CoinMarketCap. And when you lose funds, crypto recovery, the process of trying to get stolen funds back is often impossible. Agencies like the FBI IC3 and FinCEN can help, but blockchain is irreversible. No one can undo a transaction once it’s on-chain.
What ties all these $246 million losses together? Trust. Scammers bank on you believing something is official because it has a familiar name, a polished website, or a viral tweet. They don’t need to invent new tech—they just reuse old tricks with new labels. The Swash airdrop is real. The CDONK one isn’t. The difference? One has verified token contracts and active community channels. The other has zero liquidity and a website that disappears after you send crypto. You don’t need to be a developer to spot the difference. Check the contract address. Look for official announcements on the real project’s Twitter. If it asks you to pay to claim, it’s a scam. If it’s not listed on CoinGecko or Dune Analytics, be skeptical. This isn’t about being paranoid. It’s about being careful.
Below, you’ll find real cases of these scams, how they worked, and exactly what to look for next time. No fluff. No theory. Just the facts from people who lost money—and how they learned to stop it from happening again.
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