Give Your Feedback

Avoiding Scams

25 guides · page 1 of 2

Spot red flags and dissect real scam schemes.

The trading app that is not an exchange

A slick app, a rising balance, support that answers in seconds - and no order book behind any of it. Every problem that arrives later follows from one fact nobody checked at the start: whether the venue exists as a venue. Here are the tests that answer it, in the order that costs least.

ChainRated Research11 min read

When a channel claims a partnership with your exchange

Two very different things hide under the word partner. One is a referral arrangement that any user can get and that pays out of your trading fees. The other is a claim to speak for the exchange, and that one is checkable in about a minute.

ChainRated Research8 min read

What happens when you report a channel to Telegram

After the money is gone, the first thing a group tells you is to report them. It is worth knowing exactly what that button does before you build a plan on it — and where your effort actually pays.

ChainRated Research10 min read

Paying for a signal channel with Telegram Stars

A paid channel that charges inside the app instead of asking for a wallet transfer has changed the payment rail, not the accountability. Here is what the platform's own terms and API documentation say about renewals, cancellation and refunds — and how that compares with a card and with a crypto transfer.

ChainRated Research10 min read

The next 100x gem call: the exit is the problem

A channel that posts majors all month suddenly names a coin nobody has heard of, with no stop and no target. The coin is not a discovery, it is a selection: the book is thin enough that a small amount of coordinated buying moves the chart, and thin books are exactly where your exit stops existing.

ChainRated Research10 min read

When a channel offers to trade your account for you

After a few weeks of calls, the offer changes shape: stop trading it yourself, send the funds and we will trade it for you. That is not a larger version of following a signal — it is a different arrangement, in which you are no longer the person who can close the position or move the money.

ChainRated Research11 min read

The channel name that reads like another

A channel can copy a trusted name closely enough to fool a fast reader without copying a single character of it — a swapped letter here, an emoji there. Here is how the lookalike trick works, why it is a different con from copying someone's trades, and the one check that settles it.

ChainRated Research10 min read

The admin who DMs you first

You post a complaint in a signal group, and minutes later an 'admin' with the same avatar and a near-identical username offers to help. It is not the admin — it is someone who watched you post. One rule defeats the whole script: verified support never messages first, and never asks for a secret.

ChainRated Research9 min read

Subscribing With Crypto vs Card: The Recourse You Keep or Give Up

A channel that only takes crypto has quietly made a decision for you — that if the room goes dark, you have nowhere to file. How you pay is a choice about leverage, made before you ever see a signal. Here is what each rail keeps and gives up.

ChainRated Research8 min read

Free Signal Channels: Where the Money Comes From

A channel that charges nothing is not run for charity. Trace the four ways a 'free' feed earns off you anyway, and you will read every join button differently.

ChainRated Research9 min read

Why a channel deletes a losing call

A losing call that quietly disappears takes the loss out of the record and leaves the win rate looking better than the feed you actually traded. But an 'edited' tag on a message is not the proof most people assume it is — the proof is a snapshot you take yourself.

ChainRated Research9 min read

Getting a refund from a signal channel

You paid for a month of signals, the channel went quiet, and now you want your money back. Whether that is even possible depends on how you paid — not on how fair your case is. Here is the mechanics of each rail.

ChainRated Research9 min read