❓ Before you trade

Fake support, fake admins and cloned groups: the messages that are always a scam

Support that writes first, an admin offering a deal in DM, a group that looks exactly like the official one. Real support does not do any of that, and never gives you an address.

Three messages account for most of the losses that are not a trade scam: "support" writing to you first about a problem with your account, an "admin" of a group offering you an OTC deal in private, and an invitation to a group that is a pixel-perfect copy of the official one. They work because they arrive while you are already thinking about a deal. The rule that defeats all three is the same: real support never writes first, never gives you an address, and never does deals.

The three scripts

"Support" in your DMs
"We detected a problem, move your coins to this safe / custody address to fix it." No support team of any platform does this. The address is the scammer’s. iEscrow support never contacts you first and never gives you an address.
The admin with a deal
You post in a group; an "admin" DMs you with a better price, an OTC deal, a guarantor. Admins of real groups do not trade in DMs. The username is one character away from the real one.
The cloned group
Same name, same photo, same pinned message, a few hundred members, and a "support" that answers fast. Check the official list before you trust any group; iEscrow’s is in Official channels.

What to do with each

  • Do not answer. Do not click. Block and report. A reply confirms you are real and keeps you on the list.
  • Go to the site you typed yourself and check your account there. If there were a problem, it would be visible in the platform, not in a chat.
  • Never move funds "to be safe". Funds are safe where they are; moving them is the theft.
  • If someone in a chat claiming to be support tells you to release, cancel or confirm a trade: the trade does not know that person exists. Look at the trade, not the chat.
The only places iEscrow speaks are listed in Official channels. Everything else that uses the name is not us, and we have no way to help with money sent to it.
Was this article helpful?

Related articles

I paid and the seller won't release my crypto. What now?
What you can do when you already sent the money and the other side went quiet, is asking you to cancel, or says the payment never arrived.
The buyer sent a screenshot but the money isn't in my account. Do I release?
No. The only payment that counts is money you can see in your own account, for the exact amount, from the person you are trading with.
Which payment methods can be reversed after you sell crypto (and why PayPal and Venmo aren't on iEscrow)
Crypto leaves and does not come back. The danger for a seller is a fiat payment that can be pulled back weeks later. Here is which rails can do that.
Buying USDT from someone on Telegram or WhatsApp without getting scammed
The problem is not the chat app. The problem is paying a stranger first. Here is how to take that same deal somewhere the crypto is locked before you pay.
Still have questions?
The support team is here to help.
Contact support