Stellar | Protect Yourself from Scammers | Stellar (2025)

🚩Phishing scams

In these scams, malicious entities set up dummy websites and collateral material to induce you to enter your secret key. If you enter your secret key into their dummy website, they can capture it and use it to drain your account.

Be Alert: Always verify the domain and email addresses where the communication is coming from. Anything but an ‘/’ right after stellar.org should be a dead giveaway that it is not the correct domain. In addition, check the website certification. Always double check any place you are entering your secret key.

In addition to verifying the correct sender email address, read through the email or web copy for some clues. Scammers are often inconsistent with grammar and brand guidelines – if something doesn’t sound like it’s been proofread, pay attention. If in doubt, follow the steps listed in the blog’s first section to contact SDF directly.

🚩Support scams

In these scams, malicious actors pose as the representative of a legit organization, ask for your secret key to resolve an issue, and, once they have it, drain your account of funds.

Be alert: Never give away your secret key. The SDF team will never ask you for your secret keys and will never contact you through DMs to provide support (we doubt any other legitimate organization would ever ask for your private key either, so be cautious of anyone asking for your private key). SDF support conversations always happen in a public forum and never involve requests for private keys.

🚩Look-a-like scams

In these scams, malicious actors issue bogus assets that mimic legit assets, and sell them as if they are the real thing. These sales of bogus assets may happen after the real asset is announced, but before it is actually available.

Be alert: You are responsible for conducting your own diligence on assets, products, or services on the Stellar network and we encourage everyone to exercise caution before deciding to engage with them. Here are a few suggestions for getting started - but this is not an exhaustive list.

Always check to make sure that the domain tied to the asset is correct. How to check depends on what you’re using to interface with the Stellar Decentralized Exchange (Stellar DEX or SDEX). For instance, if you’re using the LOBSTR wallet, you could check to see which domain is tied to the asset in order to make sure the one you’re engaging with is the correct one. To verify the correct domain for whoever is issuing the token, you might:

  • Compare the domain tied to the asset to the domain listed on the issuer’s verified social media accounts. Does their Twitter account have 1) the correct username and 2) the same domain as the one listed on the asset? Bonus points if the account has a blue checkmark.
  • Google “[issuer name]” + “token” to see what, if any, assets have been issued under that name. Compare the top search result (not sponsored) against the domain tied to the asset in question – are they the same? If not, the asset you’re looking at is probably not legitimate.

Red flags for assets include: domains that redirect to stellar.org; domains that don’t have a web page setup; assets with very few funded trustlines; and assets that were sent to you in tiny amounts through a claimable balance.

🚩False claim scams

In these scams, malicious actors issue and sell assets falsely claiming that the asset represents something that it does not, in fact, represent.

Be alert: If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not true. Always verify that tokenized assets are actually backed by real assets. For example, if someone is offering to sell you a U.S. dollar stablecoin for only thirty cents per dollar, it’s probably a scam. If someone wants to sell you a tokenized precious metal and they have no proof that the metal is really backing it, it probably doesn’t exist. If someone is offering to sell tokenized stocks far below the market price, it’s probably a scam. Again, conduct your own research to satisfy yourself that claims are true before engaging.

🚩Faucet scams

According to CoinMarketCap, “a crypto faucet is an app or a website that distributes small amounts of cryptocurrencies as a reward for completing easy tasks.” Faucets give dust (very small amounts of assets) out on a daily basis for little-to-nothing, such as watching a video, filling out CAPTCHAs, and clicking a link. Per CoinMarketCap, “Some websites may infect your device with phishing malware, ransomware and spyware.”

Be alert: While legitimate “learn and earn” programs, which can be classified as “crypto faucets,” do exist, there are many faucets that only serve to scam. We recommend that you conduct your own research and only interact with learn and earn programs offered by trusted entities.

🚩Partnership scams

In these scams, malicious actors impersonate an SDF team member on social media to reach out to ecosystem partners, and attempt to induce the recipient to send crypto in exchange for a larger value in another token, or provide their secret keys or other sensitive info.

Be alert: Once again, SDF team members will never ask you for your secret keys nor ask you to send or deposit funds to any wallet address, especially through private channels on social media. If you receive this sort of outreach and are unsure about its veracity, If in doubt, follow the steps listed in the blog’s first section to contact SDF directly.

Stellar | Protect Yourself from Scammers | Stellar (2025)

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