This is a general question and answer on [ethereum.stackexchange.com](https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/) to all "I got scammed, please help" posts.

This applies to you if you think:
- You have been scammed
- You think something might be a scam

Popular scams include
- [Fake investment sites promising xx% returns](https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/protect-yourself-scams)
    - [including MEV bot scams](https://www.dlnews.com/articles/people-culture/crypto-users-fall-for-youtube-mev-trading-scams/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=), YouTube video scams and learn build your trading bot scams
- [Romance scams a.k.a. pig butchering scams](https://www.propublica.org/article/whats-a-pig-butchering-scam-heres-how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-one)
- [Token tax, honey pots and other scam tokens](https://tradingstrategy.ai/blog/transfer-fees-token-taxes-and-honeypots): tokens you can only buy, not sell or only sell for loss (note: Ethereum [does not have a mechanism to tell if a token is a honey pot or scam](https://twitter.com/i/bookmarks/all?post_id=1745861887101993301). Any services, like **DexTools**, **DexScreener**, **TokenSniffer**, saying they can detect scams is not accurate, and you should not rely on or trust these tools.
- [Airdrop scam tokens dropped to your wallet leading to phishing sites](https://twitter.com/Chad_Sesterce/status/1609472800364072963)
- [Reclaim crypto scams](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=recovery%20scam) that claim to get your scammed money back, after you have been scammed once
- [Password recovery and private key recovery scams](https://www.becu.org/blog/password-phishing-scams-how-to-avoid-them) that claim to restore the access to your account or wallet
- [Fake wallet applications in Google Play, Apple App Store and other platforms](https://twitter.com/moo9000/status/1384197164398616583)
     - An incident with [Apple App Store and Uniswap wallet](https://www.reddit.com/r/UniSwap/comments/1bf1lp5/psa_about_a_scam/)
- [Scam advertisement in Google Search, top of legit search results](https://cointelegraph.com/news/ms-drainer-scammers-used-google-ads-swipe-59-million-crypto-scam-sniffer)
- [Complete tasks](https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/comments/18l7zhh/ebay_shopping_cart_task_scam/) and get rewarded scams - also known as "shopping cart scam" where they give you real money first
- [Phishing links](https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing), including:
     - Fake airdrops
     - Fake NFT mints
     - Usually associated with a hacked, well-known social media account or Discord
These are so-called authorised transfer scams. As opposite to the hacks, the users voluntarily transfer away their money with their our authorisation.
- [Social media account takeover phishing](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/1997mf3/rocket_pool_saying_assets_arent_safe/) where a legit Twitter or Discord account gets taken over due to weak security settings by the owners and it starts to post phishing links
- [Duplicate trading pair ticker or token symbol scams](https://www.reddit.com/r/UniSwap/comments/1bz8d8g/beware_when_using_uniswap/) - when buying tokens on DEXes, only buy tokens directly linked from the official website, or tokens which address someone else has confirmed for you. Anyone can register any token symbol and popular tokens have scam duplicates. Only token address matters, not the symbol.

**Other malicious issues**

Outside scams, there exist other cybercrime that may cause you to lose your assets

- [Malware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware) esp. on Microsoft Windows desktop computers directly extracts the private key from the wallet
     - Your computer gets infected with a malware when you install pirated software or random EXE files from Internet
- [Transaction address stuffing](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/1935aw6/weird_transactions_mirroring_my_usdt_transactions/), also known as dust attack scams, to fool one to copy a wrong Ethereum address
- Leaking your private key by storing your private keys or seed phrases on Google Drive, [LastPass](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lastpass-breach-linked-to-theft-of-44-million-in-crypto/) or other non-reputable password manager, [Github](https://unchainedcrypto.com/lsdfi-protocol-unsheth-pauses-withdrawals-after-private-key-leak/), or other similar unsafe manner

*This is a generic question to address the flood of pleads of asking help for scams. Moderators are free to edit both the question and answer to add more information it.*