Last year, I got excited about an upcoming token presale for a project called NexaWorld, supposedly focused on building a metaverse infrastructure for digital creators. It was promoted heavily on crypto forums and had several influencers tweeting about it. The team behind it claimed to have past experience in big-name blockchain startups, and the presale was “by invite only.”

I was lucky—or so I thought—to receive an invite link. It led me to a sleek landing page with a countdown timer and clear instructions to participate in the presale by sending ETH to a specific wallet address. I sent 1.2 ETH (worth around $2,300 at the time), excited to be early to the next big thing.

After a few days of silence, I checked the official Telegram group, only to find hundreds of other people asking why they hadn’t received their tokens. Minutes later, the group was shut down, and the NexaWorld website went offline. That’s when it hit me—I’d been scammed.

The entire project was fake. The influencers were likely paid shills or part of the operation. The photos of the “team” were stolen, the whitepaper was plagiarized, and the ETH had been drained into a mixer wallet.

What shocked me most was how well-executed the scam was—it didn’t look shady at all. It taught me a painful lesson: always verify presales through official and public project channels, never send crypto to random addresses without blockchain-based verification, and don’t rely solely on social media hype. In crypto, even the most legitimate-looking project can be a trap.