Fake exchange support: the scam hiding in a search ad
The fastest-growing crypto scam starts with a real problem and a search bar, not a stranger's message.
At a glance
- Scammers buy search ads and post fake numbers that outrank a real company's own support channels.
- The same tactic also arrives as an inbound call from someone posing as your bank's fraud department, not just an exchange.
- No legitimate support agent, at a bank or an exchange, will ever ask for your seed phrase, private key, or a transfer to “protect” your funds.
- Always navigate to support through the official app or bookmarked URL, never through a search result or a number the caller gives you.
This scam starts differently from most: the victim goes looking for help. A transaction is stuck, a withdrawal won't process, a login fails — and they search for the exchange's support number or live chat, exactly as they would for any other company.
What they find is often not the exchange at all. Scammers buy search ads, or seed forum posts and fake review sites, with phone numbers and chat links that outrank or sit beside the real company's own channels. The fake page frequently looks identical to the genuine one, down to the logo and layout.
A close variant doesn't wait for you to search at all: the call comes to you, from someone claiming to be your bank's fraud department. The story is usually that suspicious activity was flagged on your account, and the “solution” is to move your money somewhere “safe” while it's investigated — increasingly, that means being guided to buy crypto and send it to an address the caller controls, framed as protecting the funds rather than surrendering them. A real bank's fraud team can freeze a card or decline a transaction; it will never instruct you to buy crypto or transfer funds over the phone.
Once contact is made, either way, the request escalates naturally from the real problem: verify your identity by reading out your seed phrase, or send a small amount to a new wallet to unlock the stuck one. Every one of these is something no legitimate support agent, at any company, ever needs to ask for.
The reliable defence covers both versions. If you're the one looking for help, never search for a support channel — reach it only through the official app already installed on your device, or a URL you've bookmarked or typed from memory. If someone else initiates contact claiming to be your bank or exchange, hang up and call back using the number printed on your card or on the institution's official site, never a number the caller gave you.
Key terms
- Search ad fraud
- Paid advertisements impersonating a real company's support channel to intercept its customers.
- Typosquatting
- Registering a domain name nearly identical to a real one, relying on a misread or mistyped URL to intercept visitors.
- Vishing
- Voice phishing — a scam conducted over a phone call, commonly impersonating a bank's fraud department or an exchange's support line.
Frequently asked
How can I tell a real support page from a fake one before contacting it?
Navigate only through the app already on your device or a bookmarked address — the safest check is never needing to evaluate a page's authenticity in the first place.
Would a real bank or exchange ever call me first?
Both essentially never initiate unsolicited phone contact asking you to move money or verify sensitive details — an incoming call like that, regardless of who it claims to be from, is itself a strong warning sign.
Is live chat on an exchange's own app always safe?
Yes, that channel is legitimate — the risk is exclusively in reaching a support channel through a search result, ad, or unsolicited call or message instead.