How to Spot a Crypto Scam: The Question That Stops Every Pitch

Last week, someone I know sent me a text. It pitched an “ecosystem of fintech products” with an AI trading bot averaging 17% monthly returns for over three years. To most people, that pitch reads like an exciting opportunity. To me, it read like a scam I’ve seen a thousand times — and there’s one question that exposes almost every pitch like this before it costs you a dollar.

The Pitch I Got Last Week

This is a screenshot of the actual message I received. I’ve blacked out the specific names and labels because this isn’t about one particular scheme — it’s about a pattern that’s running through thousands of text messages right now.

(Pitch screenshot attached as featured image — names and labels redacted to keep the focus on the pattern, not the specific scheme.)

Look at what’s in 70 words: a promise of 17% monthly returns — sustained for over three years. An impressive-sounding executive title at a major crypto company. A council seat at a respected publication. A “legitimate passive investment opportunity.” A friend who learned about it from another friend who’s “done very well with it.” And then the ask: would you check it out if I sent you some info?

Notice the stray quotation mark at the end. That stray quote is evidence the pitch was copy-pasted from a script someone else gave the sender. The opening quotation mark was supposed to be deleted too — but it wasn’t. So this isn’t a friend telling me about something he discovered and likes. It’s a recruitment script that’s been passed down a chain, probably going out to dozens of other people in his contacts. You’re looking at the evidence right there.

If you want to know how to spot a crypto scam, this 70-word message is your textbook example. There are at least six red flags hiding in those seventy words — most of them in a single sentence. I caught them because of one question I asked. A question anyone can ask. No financial expertise required.

Who Built the Bot?

That’s the question. Who actually built it? Who wrote the trading algorithm? Who is the technical lead? Where can I find them on LinkedIn? What’s their academic background? What other projects have they worked on?

It sounds basic. It is basic. And it’s the single most powerful filter you can run any investment opportunity through — because the answer tells you almost everything you need to know.

Real Technology Has Technologists

Here’s the principle, and it never fails: real technology has technologists. Every legitimate fintech company on earth is built by specific, named human beings. There’s an engineer. There’s a technical team. There’s a lead architect. They have names. They have degrees. They have work histories you can verify on LinkedIn. They’ve spoken at conferences. They’ve published papers. They have a footprint.

When the people who built the technology can’t actually be found anywhere — by name, with verifiable credentials — there is no technology. There’s marketing about technology. Those are two completely different things, and once you see the difference, you can’t unsee it.

Real Firms Name Their Builders. Schemes Don’t.

Look at the proof, both directions. Renaissance Technologies was built by Jim Simons, mathematics PhD from Berkeley. Two Sigma was built by David Siegel, computer science PhD from MIT. D.E. Shaw was founded by David Shaw, a former Columbia computer science professor. Citadel has Ken Griffin with thirty years of public record. AQR has Cliff Asness, with published academic work going back decades.

These firms employ hundreds of named PhDs. Their key people are on LinkedIn. Their research is published in journals you can read.

Now look at the other side. OneCoin: four billion dollars stolen, founder Ruja Ignatova indicted, on the FBI’s most wanted list. BitConnect: founder indicted by the Department of Justice. NovaTech: charged by the SEC in 2024. HyperVerse: the CEO they put on stage literally never existed — it was an actor.

Billions of dollars stolen across these schemes, and not a single one of them had a named engineer who built the actual technology. That contrast is the whole story.

Watch Who They Put Forward

Here’s the specific tell, and once you see it you can’t unsee it. In these schemes, everything is about the CEO. His vision. His interviews. The councils he sits on. The conferences he’s spoken at. The Forbes membership.

Forbes membership is worth a separate look, because most people don’t realize what it actually is. Forbes Business Council, Forbes Finance Council, Forbes Technology Council — these are paid memberships. Any company owner with a moderately interesting business can join for roughly $2,000 to $3,000 per year. It is, functionally, an advertising product that the schemes market as a credential. When you see “Forbes Council Member” on a CEO’s bio, that’s not an honor. That’s a receipt.

All of this CEO-focused content sounds impressive — until you ask what the man actually is. No PhD. No programming background. Never wrote a line of the trading bot he claims to have built. He’s a spokesman. He’s a salesman.

Ask This — Then Listen

Here is exactly what to do. Ask the person pitching you: who built it, and what is their name?

Then stop talking and listen.

A real company answers that in one sentence. The chief technology officer is right there on the homepage. The engineers have public LinkedIn profiles. Done.

A scheme will give you one of four dodges:

• “It’s proprietary.”
• “The team is anonymous for security.”
• “Our developers are private.”
• A long, meandering answer that never produces an actual name.

Every single one of those answers IS the answer. They’re telling you. If they can’t name a builder, there is no builder.

And here’s a related tell that proved everything about the pitch I received: when I told the friend pitching me that I was going to do some research, including running it past AI to help me check it out, he told me not to use AI to verify it. Don’t use AI to check on an AI. The moment someone tells you not to verify something — that’s your answer. They just told you the truth. They might not have meant to, but they did.

The Bottom Line

One question — who built it, and what’s their name — would have stopped this pitch by itself. It’s one of several red flags in the full breakdown I did on my channel (linked above), but it’s the one that does the most work on its own. If you can’t get a named, verifiable, technically credentialed answer to that question, the technology doesn’t exist. Whatever returns the operators are showing you are coming from somewhere else — usually from new investors paying out the earlier ones, until the music stops.

I want to be clear about something: identifying scams isn’t my profession. But when I come across something this important — something that could cost a real person real money — I like to call it out. This was one of those.

My profession is helping pre-retirees figure out the big decisions: finding clarity in Medicare choices, when to take Social Security, life insurance and final expense planning. I’ve been doing this since 2006. The big decisions in retirement deserve real thought, made with someone who is licensed and accountable — not based on a pitch someone copy-pasted from a script.

Your situation is unique. Personal strategy matters.