“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 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.
CEO of Supermicro Charles Liang speaks during the Reuters NEXT conference in New York City, U.S., December 10, 2024.
Mike Segar | Reuters
PARIS — Super Micro plans to increase its investment in Europe, including ramping up manufacturing of its AI servers in the region, CEO Charles Liang told CNBC in an interview that aired on Wednesday.
The company sells servers which are packed with Nvidia chips and are key for training and implementing huge AI models. It has manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, but could expand to other places.
“But because the demand in Europe is growing very fast, so I already decided, indeed, [there’s] already a plan to invest more in Europe, including manufacturing,” Liang told CNBC at the Raise Summit in Paris, France.
“The demand is global, and the demand will continue to improve in [the] next many years,” Liang added.
Liang’s comments come less than a month after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited various parts of Europe, signing infrastructure deals and urging the region to ramp up its computing capacity.
Growth to be ‘strong’
Super Micro rode the growth wave after OpenAI’s ChatGPT boom boosted demand for Nvidia’s chips, which underpin big AI models. The server maker’s stock hit a record high in March 2024. However, the stock is around 60% off that all-time high over concerns about its accounting and financial reporting. But the company in February filed its delayed financial report for its 2024 fiscal year, assuaging those fears.
In May, the company reported weaker-than-expected guidance for the current quarter, raising concerns about demand for its product.
However, Liang dismissed those fears. “Our growth rate continues to be strong, because we continue to grow our fundamental technology, and we [are] also expanding our business scope,” Liang said.
“So the room … to grow will be still very tremendous, very big.”
Jeff Williams, chief operating officer of Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, US, on Monday, June 9, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple said on Tuesday that Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, a 27-year company veteran, will be retiring later this year.
Current operations leader Sabih Khan will take over much of the COO role later this month, Apple said in a press release. For his remaining time with the comapny, Williams will continue to head up Apple’s design team, Apple Watch, and health initiatives, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.
Williams becomes the latestlongtime Apple executive to step down as key employees, who were active in the company’s hyper-growth years, reach retirement age. Williams, 62, previously headed Apple’s formidable operations division, which is in charge of manufacturing millions of complicated devices like iPhones, while keeping costs down.
He also led important teams inside Apple, including the company’s fabled industrial design team, after longtime leader Jony Ive retired in 2019. When Williams retires, Apple’s design team will report to CEO Tim Cook, Apple said.
“He’s helped to create one of the most respected global supply chains in the world; launched Apple Watch and overseen its development; architected Apple’s health strategy; and led our world class team of designers with great wisdom, heart, and dedication,” Cook said in the statement.
Williams said he plans to spend more time with friends and family.
“June marked my 27th anniversary with Apple, and my 40th in the industry,” Williams said in the release.
Williams is leaving Apple at a time when its famous supply chain is under significant pressure, as the U.S. imposes tariffs on many of the countries where Apple sources its devices, and White House officials publicly pressure Apple to move more production to the U.S.
Khan was added to Apple’s executive team in 2019, taking an executive vice president title. Apple said on Tuesday that he will lead supply chain, product quality, planning, procurement, and fulfillment at Apple.
The operations leader joined Apple’s procurement group in 1995, and before that worked as an engineer and technical leader at GE Plastics. He has a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York.
Khan has worked closely with Cook. Once, during a meeting when Cook said that a manufacturing problem was “really bad,” Khan stood up and drove to the airport, and immediately booked a flight to China to fix it, according to an anecdote published in Fortune.
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla, attends the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, June 16, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives to “Shut up” on Tuesday after the analyst offered three recommendations to the electric vehicle company’s board in a post on X.
Ives has been one of the most bullish Tesla observers on Wall Street. With a $500 price target on the stock, he has the highest projection of any analyst tracked by FactSet.
But on Tuesday, Ives took to X with critical remarks about Musk’s political activity after the world’s richest person said over the weekend that he was creating a new political party called the America Party to challenge Republican candidates who voted for the spending bill that was backed by President Donald Trump.
Ives’ post followed a nearly 7% slide in Tesla’s stock Monday, which wiped out $68 billion in market cap. Ives called for Tesla’s board to create a new pay package for Musk that would get him 25% voting control and clear a path to merge with xAI, establish “guardrails” for how much time Musk has to spend at Tesla, and provide “oversight on political endeavors.”
Ives published a lengthier note with other analysts from his firm headlined, “The Tesla board MUST Act and Create Ground Rules For Musk; Soap Opera Must End.” The analysts said that Musk’s launching of a new political party created a “tipping point in the Tesla story,” necessitating action by the company’s board to rein in the CEO.
Still, Wedbush maintained its price target and its buy recommendation on the stock.
“Shut up, Dan,” Musk wrote in response on X, even though the first suggestion would hand the CEO the voting control he has long sought at Tesla.
In an email to CNBC, Ives wrote, “Elon has his opinion and I get it, but we stand by what the right course of action is for the Board.”
Musk’s historic 2018 CEO pay package, which had been worth around $56 billion and has since gone up in value, was voided last year by the Delaware Court of Chancery. Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled that Tesla’s board members had lacked independence from Musk and failed to properly negotiate at arm’s length with the CEO.
Tesla has appealed that case to the Delaware state Supreme Court and is trying to determine what Musk’s next pay package should entail.
Ives isn’t the only Tesla bull to criticize Musk’s continued political activism.
Analysts at William Blair downgraded the stock to the equivalent of a hold from a buy on Monday, because of Musk’s political plans and rhetoric as well as the negative impacts that the spending bill passed by Congress could have on Tesla’s margins and EV sales.
“We expect that investors are growing tired of the distraction at a point when the business needs Musk’s attention the most and only see downside from his dip back into politics,” the analysts wrote. “We would prefer this effort to be channeled towards the robotaxi rollout at this critical juncture.”
Trump supporter James Fishback, CEO of hedge fund Azoria Partners, said Saturday that his firm postponed the listing of an exchange-traded fund, the Azoria Tesla Convexity ETF, that would invest in the EV company’s shares and options. He began his post on X saying, “Elon has gone too far.”
“I encourage the Board to meet immediately and ask Elon to clarify his political ambitions and evaluate whether they are compatible with his full-time obligations to Tesla as CEO,” Fishback wrote.
Musk said Saturday that he has formed the America Party, which he claimed will give Americans “back your freedom.” He hasn’t shared formal details, including where the party may be registered, how much funding he will provide for it and which candidates he will back.
Tesla’s stock is now down about 25% this year, badly underperforming U.S. indexes and by far the worst performance among tech’s megacaps.
Musk spent much of the first half of the year working with the Trump administration and leading an effort to massively downsize the federal government. His official work with the administration wrapped up at the end of May, and his exit preceded a public spat between Musk and Trump over the spending bill and other matters.
Musk, Tesla’s board chair Robyn Denholm and investor relations representative Travis Axelrod didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.