A few months ago, I made a terrible mistake that cost me nearly $3,000 in Bitcoin. I had been investing in crypto for a while, and everything was going smoothly until I fell for a scam that seemed harmless at first. I was trying to transfer some Bitcoin to a cold storage wallet when I accidentally copied a fraudulent address without realizing it.

It all started when I was searching for a blockchain explorer to check a transaction. I clicked on a website that looked exactly like Blockchain.com, but I later found out it was a fake version designed to steal crypto. While using the site, I unknowingly copied a scammer’s address instead of my own. When I pasted it into my crypto wallet and hit “send,” the money was gone within seconds.

At first, I didn’t even realize what had happened. But when I checked my wallet later and saw that my Bitcoin never arrived, I started panicking. I went back to my transaction history and saw that the recipient address was different from the one I intended to use. That’s when I realized I had fallen for an address-swapping scam. These scammers create fake sites, modify copied wallet addresses, and trick users into sending money straight into their pockets.

I tried contacting customer support for my wallet, but there was nothing they could do. Unlike banks, crypto transactions are irreversible. Once the funds are sent, they’re gone forever. I felt completely helpless, and it was a painful lesson to learn.

To protect yourself from fraudulent crypto addresses, always double-check the URL before entering any sensitive information. Use a hardware wallet for large transactions and enable two-factor authentication on all crypto accounts. Before sending funds, verify the recipient address multiple times to make sure it’s correct. Scammers are getting more sophisticated, so staying cautious is the only way to avoid losing money like I did.