Risks, trends, and using behavioraldetection to stop fraudsters The State of Crypto Scams 2025Executive summaryScams have rapidly emerged as one of the leading and most lucrative forms of crime globally, bothwithin and beyond the cryptoasset ecosystem. This has implications for the continued worldwideadoption of blockchain technologies, the maintenance of trust in our rapidly maturing industry and anti-money laundering/consumer protection obligations for virtual asset compliance professionals.Recent crypto scam data and findings by Elliptic note that:•In major economies that release granular statistics, between 20-56% of all fraud losses originate incrypto. This figure is highest in the United States, where $9.3 billion of $16.6 billion in 2024 fraud losseswere crypto-based according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation•The last year saw a rise in sextortion, pig butchering, memecoin-based rug-pulls and deepfakeincentive scams. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including chatbots, deepfake software and fake IDgenerators, are enabling the automation and scaling up of many of these scam types•Some scams can pose significant secondary risks for virtual asset services. Phishing, for example, is aknown tactic used by North Korean cyberhackers to gain access into internal systems and facilitatehacks of crypto exchanges. Donation scams may be used as a front by terrorist or sanctioned entities.•The facilitation of fraud has become a leading source of revenue for illicit online marketplaces. Elliptic haspublicly exposed two marketplace networks called Haowang Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee, which soldfraud-related goods and services to organized scam rings. Together, these markets processed over $30billion worth of purchases, far exceeding the volumes of traditional drug-based dark web markets•Recent regulatory and global enforcement actions suggest that countering organized scam ringsis a growing transnational priority, underscoring the need for compliance professionals to maintaincapabilities to effectively detect and mitigate themThis report analyzes 11 major scam trends observed throughout 2024 and the first half of 2025. In addition,this report explores key capabilities provided by Elliptic to upscale the compliance and consumer protectioncapabilities of virtual asset services, including:•Behavioral detectionand flagging in our tools of 15 scam types through the automatic identificationof on-chain suspicious patterns•Red flag indicators and best practicesfor virtual asset services to protect their consumers andthemselves from these risks•Deep research and labellingof the facilitators of scams, such as Guarantee marketplaces or deepfakegenerators, allowing virtual asset services to trace and prevent crypto transfers to and from these entitiesThis report intends to be an actionable guide and resource for crypto compliance professionals intendingto stay ahead of the curve, manage the latest risks and upscale their capabilities in light of the evolvingregulatory and consumer protection landscape. 2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .04The challenge for compliance professionalsRecent developments and enforcement actionsUsing Elliptic to fight crypto scams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .08Monitoring transactionsDeeper investigations and behavioral detectionThe top crypto scam trends of 2024-25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121Address poisoning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132ATM scams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153Deepfake authorization scams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174Donation scams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195Incentive-based scams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236Phishing and ice phishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287Pig butchering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .328Ponzi schemes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389Recovery scams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3910Rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .