A litre of chicken broth is mostly water. Roughly fifty-five moles of H₂O means on the order of 10²⁵ water molecules, plus smaller piles of salt, amino acids, fats and odds. The arithmetic is ordinary chemistry; the emotional effect is not. Huge exponents feel like proof that Someone Serious has measured the world.
Fraud pitches borrow the same texture. “Hashrate contracts”, “liquidity pools”, “quantum algorithms”, “AI order flow” — the words arrive with charts and scientific-looking units. The point is rarely to teach you chemistry or physics. It is to make doubt feel ignorant. If the number is too big to check at the kitchen table, many people nod along.
There is no crime in counting molecules in soup. There is a useful habit: when a sales page leads with awe instead of a verifiable claim (who holds the money, what licence, what on-chain transaction), treat the wow as decoration. Ask for a plain English mechanism you can test with a small, reversible step. If the answer is more jargon and a deposit button, you are not in a lab — you are in a funnel.
Curiosity about the physical world is healthy. Letting an impressive number stand in for due diligence is how ordinary people get talked past their own caution.
If a pitch already took money behind a wall of “technical” language, start at Get help. Recovery strangers who quote more jargon next are covered at 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.