Consumers beware: With bitcoin trading solidly over $90,000 this month and closing in on the $100,000 level, cybercriminals will be circling the wagons.

“This is going to create a lot of FOMO and a lot of urgency around investing in bitcoin and paying with bitcoin,” said Eva Velasquez, president and chief executive of the Identity Theft Resource Center. Scammers “love, love, love to leverage external events, create confusion, create that sense of urgency and steal your hard-earned money.”

The issue is compounded by the fact that legitimate strategies to make money with bitcoin are being discussed publicly by reputable sources. That, coupled with the technological advances of AI, makes scams seem more real, even for more sophisticated investors, industry professionals said. 

The stakes are particularly high given that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 69,000 complaints last year related to cryptocurrency fraud, with estimated losses topping more than $5.6 billion. The losses associated with these complaints accounted for nearly half of the total fraud losses reported.

With this in mind, here’s how to recognize and avoid the latest crypto scams:

‘Elon Musk is not going to double your money’ 

Prevalent scams today include fake bonuses in exchange for an initial investment, bogus coin promotions, phishing emails or texts that appear to come from reputable crypto companies or exchanges, Ponzi and pyramid schemes, or “Pig butchering” scams that involve fraudsters building trust over time, often posing as friends or romantic partners, before convincing victims to invest in fake crypto platforms. 

Schemes also commonly invoke well-known names like crypto enthusiast and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Scammers have been broadcasting fake video of Elon Musk including fake livestreams, making it seem as if he were speaking about specific cryptocurrency opportunities. In one such scam, the thieves tried to lure investors to scan a QR code before the “livestream” ended. Investors were promised double the amount of cryptocurrency they deposited, according to a report by Engadget. 

“Elon Musk is not going to double your money if you send him crypto,” said Merrick Theobald, vice president of marketing at BitPay, a cryptocurrency payment service. 

These types of scams are likely to proliferate with Musk, who is always in the headlines, figuring even more prominently in President-elect Trump’s orbit and picked to co-lead the proposed Department of Government Efficiency. The Trump administration is also expected to serve as tailwind for crypto with pro-crypto legislation expected to be one of the first legislative efforts taken up in a new Congress.

Coinbase warns scammers will prey on your fear

Fraudsters also use fear to ensnare victims.

Coinbase is seeing several scams in which cyber thieves send a text claiming a crypto owner’s account has been compromised. If the user responds to the text, scammers try to pry additional information such as the crypto owner’s seed phrase, which allows the thieves to empty the account, said Jeff Lunglhofer, chief information security officer of Coinbase. People fall for this because it all seems plausible and the scammers convince them their assets are at risk, he added.

If you get a text or an email claiming there’s a problem with your crypto account, don’t respond or click on any links. Instead, go directly to your provider’s website or call the phone number you know is attached to the provider to inquire about your account, Theobald said. 

Be skeptical of one-time promotional offers

Scammers sometimes send emails or place ads on social media, offering one-time promotions for investing in crypto. These ads often look like legitimate offers from reputable companies that people may be familiar with, or have done business with in the past, said Howard Greenberg, president of The American Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Association, a non-profit trade association. 

But there might be a letter missing in the URL and if you click on it, you’ll see something that looks very much like the homepage of the reputable site, confusing people more, Greenberg said. In reality, crypto owners are plugging in their credentials on a fraudulent site. “Before you realize you’ve signed on to a fake site, your money is gone,” Greenberg said. “There’s no way to do a dispute like you can with a credit card.”

To avoid this problem, he recommends people bookmark the websites of the legitimate providers they use. This way, investors can go there directly to purchase crypto and they don’t accidentally fall for a scam by clicking on someone else’s link. In addition, he recommends people only buy crypto on reputable exchanges, which include Coinbase and Gemini. “You don’t want to be using a fly-by-night exchange out of Liechtenstein,” Greenberg said.

How families get defrauded

There’s the adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” but when it comes to crypto scams, people still take the bait. Sometimes it’s because they don’t recognize the warning signs. These include offers that seem too good to be true, pressure tactics or unrealistic promises for returns. A little homework can save a lot of money and headaches, industry professionals said.

Yaya Fanusie, director of policy for anti-money laundering and cyber risk at the Crypto Council for Innovation, had a family member recently defrauded by a crypto scammer. The company, supposedly founded by a well-known mathematician, advertised a guaranteed investment return of 150%. Fanusie did some digging on the relative’s behalf and found the supposedly famous mathematician had only a few dozen followers on LinkedIn. Fanusie was also suspicious due to the lofty investment guarantee and because his relative was being asked to communicate with the company on What’sApp, which is end-to-end encrypted and offers scammers extra protection.

Another red flag is if an organization asking for money claims crypto is the only payment option, Velasquez said. “I would be very, very leery about any transaction where the only way you can pay is through cryptocurrency.”

Do detailed research on new tokens and cryptocurrency companies

Fanusie recommends that prospective investors search the internet for background on any company they are considering doing business with, including where it was registered and when. He also urges would-be investors to check Fincen’s website to determine whether the provider they’re considering is regulated as a money service business. If a company claims to be an investment company, it’s worth checking with the SEC to see if it is registered, he said.

“You can’t take what they say on faith,” he said.

Prospective investors should also take the time to ensure any digital coin they are considering buying is legitimate. If the token isn’t listed on a mainstream site, it might not be legitimate or it might be obscure and thus riskier. One way to verify a token’s legitimacy is by looking it up on price-tracking sites such as CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap.

“Often if you do a little bit of verification … you find out that things aren’t always what they seem to be,” Fanusie said.

Bitcoin on Wednesday climbed back above $95,000, recovering slightly from a pullback this week that knocked it from record levels.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 5% at $95,886.00, according to Coin Metrics, while ether jumped more than 7% to $3,555.82. The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, gained 5%.

Although bitcoin is widely viewed as a store of value and a digital alternative to gold, the cryptocurrency often trades in tandem with the stock market. On Wednesday, however, it decoupled with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which was lower by 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 dropped as well.

Coinbase was up more than 2% as bitcoin lifted it along with other crypto stocks. Robinhood – which offers crypto trading and is viewed as a beneficiary of a more crypto-friendly environment in the incoming Trump administration, gained 4%. MicroStrategy, which trades as a proxy for bitcoin, advanced 7%.

Bitcoin has been regularly hitting records since the Nov. 5 election, up about 38% in that time. On Friday, it rose as high as $99,849.99 before testing the $90,000 support level this week.

“The bitcoin bull market has legs,” Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, said in a report Wednesday. “There will be corrections and hiccups, which is normal. There could even some twilight regulatory or law enforcement actions from the outgoing Biden administration that jitter markets. But a combination of increasing institutional, corporate, and potentially nation-state adoption, a new U.S. administration that is shaping up to be extremely pro-bitcoin, and solid positioning and network data all point to higher over the near and medium term.”

Fairlead Strategies’ Katie Stockton told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that, at current levels, bitcoin investors are in “unchartered territory in terms of where there’s resistance – which, of course, there is none.” Meanwhile, support is around $74,000. Bitcoin reached $92,000 for the first time ever just two weeks ago, on Nov. 13.

“Bitcoin does tend to stair step both to the downside and to the upside, meaning that it sees these very sharp run ups and then consolidates,” she said. “People should … be willing to give bitcoin, and the cryptocurrencies in general, more room — because of the volatility there and also because of the long-term potential.”

Bitcoin is up 124% for the year and is still widely expected to reach the $100,000 milestone before the year is over. Ether, the outperformer since the election, is trailing bitcoin on a year-to-date basis with a 55% gain.