One tidy story keeps reappearing around beginners who want a quick crypto edge: buy on a familiar venue, then sell through a “better rate” exchanger someone recommended in chat. The first hop can be real. The second is where the money disappears.
Fake exchangers are cheap to spin up. A Telegram bot, a short domain, a few screenshots of completed deals, and a manager who replies fast are enough theatre for a deposit. Names mutate — recent examples floating in complaints include bots styled like BitCash24 and similar “cash” desks — so memorising yesterday’s blacklist is less useful than recognising the pattern. If the rate looks too good, if settlement only happens after you send coins first, and if the brand exists mainly as a bot handle, treat it as an untrusted counterparty, not as infrastructure.
How to check: open only services you typed yourself from a source you already trust; never follow a stranger’s second-leg link “to lock the arbitrage”; verify support channels on the firm’s official site, not in a forwarded message; and keep trades small enough that a total loss is survivable. P2P between strangers is not a side hustle until both sides are independently verifiable.
If coins already left your wallet, use Get help for reporting routes. A follow-up pitch that promises to “recover the bot transfer for a fee” is usually the next scam — see Fake recovery.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.