NFT Scams: How They Work, Common Types and How to Avoid Them
NFT scams are fraudulent schemes that exploit the non-fungible token market to steal victims' cryptocurrency, funds, or digital artwork. Both buyers (through fake marketplaces, rug pulls, and counterfeit collections) and creators (through phishing attacks, wallet drainers, and impersonation of their projects) are common targets of NFT scams.
What Is an NFT, and Are NFTs a Scam?
An NFT stands for a non-fungible token and it acts like a digital certificate of ownership for a unique item. Fungible stands for interchangeable and non-fungible means that the item is one of a kind, unique and cannot be replaced by an identical item. NFT’s are placed on the blockchain and often used to show ownership of music, digital artwork, or virtual game items.
The honest answer to “are NFT’s a scam?” is that the technology is legitimate and you can buy, sell and keep legitimate NFT’s. However, the market is rife with fraud and fraudsters looking to exploit victims through NFT scams.
How Do NFT Scams Work?
NFT scams typically work by creating a sense of urgency or exclusivity that pushes victims to act before they can properly verify what they're buying or interacting with. Scammers exploit the fact that NFT ownership, wallet addresses, and smart contracts are difficult for the average buyer or creator to independently verify, they then use that gap to gain access to funds or assets.
In practice, this usually means tricking a victim into connecting their wallet to a malicious site or signing a transaction that quietly transfers their crypto or NFTs to the scammer.
Common Types of NFT Scams
Fake or Counterfeit NFTs and Plagiarised Art
Scammers make copies of an artist's work under a new collection name and sell them to buyers who believe they're getting an original or verified piece. Because anyone can mint an NFT of any image without proving ownership, plagiarised collections often circulate before they're caught and removed.
Phishing and Wallet-Draining Scams (Malicious Contract Approvals)
Fraudsters send fake links pretending to be wallet checks or free NFT giveaways. If you click and approve the transaction, you're actually giving the scammer ongoing access to drain your wallet. Impersonation and social-engineering scams surged 1,400% year-over-year in 2025, making this one of the fastest-growing NFT and crypto scam types.
Fake Marketplaces and OpenSea Impersonation
Scammers build clone websites copying the branding and URL of platforms like OpenSea, often promoted through paid ads or urgent DMs claiming a listing is about to sell out. Legitimate marketplaces never ask for a seed phrase and any site that does should be treated as fraudulent.
Rug Pulls and Pump-and-Dumps
A rug pull happens when a creator hypes a collection, collects mint payments, then abandons the project, leaving the NFTs worthless. Rug pulls are common in cryptocurrency scams and losses grew from $1.3 million in 2022 to $94.8 million in 2024, and 2021 alone saw over $5 billion in rug pull losses.
Fake Bids, Offers and Customer-Support Scams
Scammers pose as buyers with high offers that redirect sellers to malicious "acceptance" pages, or impersonate marketplace support to request wallet access. Recovery scams alone where fraudsters posing as firms offering to recover lost funds added $1.4 billion in crypto losses in 2025, showing how scammers will target and look to exploit crypto scam victims continuously.
NFT Scams Targeting Artists and Creators
Artists and creators are regularly targeted by fraudsters messaging them out of the blue on social media claiming to want to buy their art or item as an NFT. The scammers will claim to be interested in the item and message the artists, usually on Instagram or X.
The scam typically happens in a few steps:
1. The unsolicited approach. A stranger DMs the artist praising their work and offering to buy or mint it as an NFT, often claiming to represent a collector, gallery, or "Web3 project." The approach is usually flattering and fast-moving, designed to build trust before the artist has time to research the buyer.
2. The redirect to a fake platform. The "buyer" directs the artist to a minting site or marketplace link that looks legitimate but is a scammer-controlled clone, sometimes branded to resemble OpenSea or another known platform.
3. The fee or wallet trap. Once on the fake site, the artist is asked to pay a "minting," "gas," or "listing" fee upfront to complete the sale. This money goes straight to the scammer and the promised purchase never materialises. In other forms of the scam, the artist is prompted to connect their wallet or enter their seed phrase to "list" the piece, which gives the scammer direct access to drain any crypto or NFTs the artist already holds.
Because this scam targets the artist's income and reputation rather than an existing crypto asset, it's especially damaging for creators who don't yet use wallets regularly and may not recognise a seed phrase request as a red flag.
The core rule that protects against every version of this scam: legitimate buyers never require the seller to pay a fee upfront, and no real marketplace will ever ask for a seed phrase.
How to Tell If an NFT Is Fake
Spotting a fake or counterfeit NFT comes down to verifying it independently rather than trusting the listing itself. A few checks you can do before purchasing an NFT to ensure it is legitimate:
1. Verified collection badges - legitimate collections on major marketplaces usually carry a verification checkmark next to the collection name. No badge doesn't always mean fake, but a badge on a brand-new or unofficial-looking collection should be double-checked, since badges can occasionally be spoofed on clone sites.
2. Contract address verification - every genuine NFT collection has one official smart contract address, usually published on the creator's verified website or social account. Compare the contract address shown in the listing against the official one; even a single-character difference means it's a counterfeit token.
3. Creator verification - check that the seller's profile links back to a verified social account or website for the artist or project, rather than just a display name and profile picture, which are easy to copy.
4. Collection and transaction history - a legitimate collection typically has a consistent mint history, a realistic number of holders, and organic trading activity over time. Fake collections often show a suspiciously recent mint date, a tiny or inflated holder count, and trading volume concentrated in a handful of wallets, a common sign of artificially inflated activity.
How to Avoid NFT Scams
A few practical steps you can take to avoid NFT scams:
Use reputable marketplaces - Stick to well-established platforms rather than links shared in DMs or unfamiliar sites. A large proportion of NFT fraud starts with a cloned or lookalike marketplace.
Verify the smart contract - Before connecting a wallet, check that the contract address matches the project's official, publicly listed address.
Never share your seed phrase - No genuine marketplace, support team, or "verification" process will ever ask for it and anyone who does is attempting a scam.
Be sceptical of unsolicited buy offers - Offers well above market value are a common tactic used to lure victims into the scam.
Revoke unused token approvals - Old wallet approvals left open are one of the most common ways wallets get drained months after the original transaction. Review and revoke them periodically using a tool like Etherscan's Token Approval Checker.
Can You Recover Money Lost to an NFT Scam?
Whether you can recover money lost to an NFT scam depends on how you paid for the NFT. If your NFT loss happened entirely on-chain, a malicious contract approval, a wallet drained through a signed transaction, or crypto sent directly to a scammer's wallet, recovery is generally difficult.
However, when money is paid through a UK bank account, you have a stronger chance of recovery. This is because banks in the UK have obligations to protect your money against fraud, if they have failed in their obligations then you have a legitimate claim. This is similar to crypto scam recovery, where you have a stronger chance of recovering your funds from your bank, and if necessary the Financial Ombudsman Service, than tracing the crypto on the blockchain.
Acting quickly matters and can affect the chances of recovery. Refundee can help you navigate the best next steps and provide a free case assessment to give you clear guidance on your chances of recovering your funds from an NFT scam.
How Refundee can help:
If you lost money to an NFT scam and you paid using a UK bank account, then we may be able to help you recover funds.
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and so far we have recovered over £130 million for our clients. We specialise in APP fraud & crypto scam recovery, including NFT scams.
We work on a no-win, no-fee basis so you only pay us if we are successful in recovering your funds. If you would like a free case assessment then please complete our claim form.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
How do NFT scams work?
NFT scams typically work by tricking victims into connecting their wallet to a malicious site or approving a fraudulent smart contract, which then drains the wallet's assets. Common variants include fake marketplaces, phishing links, and "rug pull" projects that disappear after taking investor funds.
What is an NFT and what are the risks?
An NFT (non-fungible token) is a blockchain-based record proving ownership of a unique digital or physical item. The risk isn't the technology itself, but the largely unregulated market around it, which scammers exploit through fake listings, cloned marketplaces, and inflated-value schemes.
How can you tell a fake NFT?
Check that the seller's wallet address matches the verified collection on the official marketplace, and be wary of listings with no trading history or an unusually low price for a "rare" item. Reverse-searching the artwork can also reveal if it's been copied from a genuine project.
In conclusion:
NFT scams are on the rise and if you have been the victim of one, don’t blame yourself. Scammers are very smart in how they operate and they are becoming more and more sophisticated. If you paid through a UK bank account, then you may have options to recover your funds.
Written by Stuart McFadden, Co-Founder at Refundee.
Stuart specialises in banking regulations and crypto fraud recovery, helping victims navigate claims against UK banks that have failed in their duty to protect customers. He has featured regularly in the media discussing fraud and victim rights, including the BBC and ITV.