Fake Crypto Exchange: How to Spot Scams and Avoid Losing Your Crypto

When you hear fake crypto exchange, a fraudulent platform pretending to be a legitimate place to buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrency. Also known as sham exchange, it tricks users into depositing funds that vanish the moment they’re sent. These aren’t just shady websites—they’re organized scams designed to look real, with fake customer support, cloned logos, and even fake reviews. And they’re getting smarter.

Most crypto scams, deceptive schemes targeting users through fake platforms, airdrops, or phishing links start with a lure: ‘Low fees!’ ‘Exclusive airdrop!’ ‘Unlimited leverage!’ But if a platform asks you to send crypto to a wallet they control, or doesn’t let you withdraw, it’s already a scam. Look at the posts below—MochiSwap, Libre Swap, Arbidex—they all started as ‘decentralized’ platforms with no team, no audits, and zero real trading. They weren’t exchanges. They were traps.

Crypto fraud, the illegal act of stealing funds through deception in cryptocurrency transactions or platforms doesn’t always come from unknown sites. Sometimes it’s a fake version of Binance or Coinbase, hosted on a slightly misspelled domain. North Korean hacking groups have even used fake crypto exchanges to launder stolen funds, as seen in the $2.1 billion OFAC takedown. If a platform isn’t registered with a financial authority like FIU-IND in India or the FCA in the UK, assume it’s unsafe. Real exchanges publish their licenses. Fake ones hide them.

And it’s not just about the platform. Fake airdrops, like KCAKE or CSS, are often used to harvest your wallet keys. One click on a fake ‘claim your tokens’ button, and your entire balance can be drained. These scams rely on urgency and greed. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. The people behind these fake crypto exchange operations don’t care about your gains—they only care about your keys.

What you’ll find below are real cases of platforms that looked real but weren’t. You’ll see how Juicebox collapsed, how FTX Turkey vanished, and how LifeTime’s website disappeared overnight. These aren’t hypotheticals. These are lessons written in lost funds. Read them before you click ‘Deposit’ on the next shiny new exchange. Your crypto is only as safe as the platform you trust it to.