Last year, I was almost scammed on Twitter, and it was by far one of the most sophisticated schemes I’ve seen. It all began when I saw a tweet from an account that appeared to be the official Bitcoin account. The tweet promised a limited-time Bitcoin giveaway, claiming that as part of Bitcoin’s 12th anniversary, the foundation was giving away 1,000 BTC to random followers who participated in the giveaway by sending small amounts of Bitcoin to a specified address.

The giveaway had all the trappings of authenticity—it was tweeted by a verified account, had thousands of retweets and likes, and even included a link to what appeared to be a Bitcoin Foundation website. The urgency in the tweet made me believe it was time-sensitive, and I didn’t want to miss out on such a huge opportunity.

I checked the account and found it was indeed verified, so I clicked the link and was directed to a page that looked just like the official Bitcoin website. There was a countdown clock, and the page instructed me to send a small amount of Bitcoin to a wallet address for verification, after which I would receive 10 times the amount I sent. The site even had convincing testimonials with screenshots of supposed recipients who received their winnings.

I was cautious, but the website was so convincing that I felt a little pressure. I sent 0.05 BTC (around $2,500 at the time). Immediately after, the page thanked me and said the funds would be returned shortly. Of course, no Bitcoin ever arrived in my wallet. I tried to contact support, but their website had disappeared, and the Twitter account was taken down.

Upon later research, I learned that fraudulent giveaways like this are common and easy for scammers to pull off by creating fake Twitter accounts and websites. They target users’ excitement for free offers and use social media’s trust factor to exploit people.

What I learned from this experience is the importance of never sending crypto to any address without thoroughly verifying the legitimacy of the offer. Even if a tweet looks legitimate, check for other sources, and remember that Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency giveaways will never require you to send money upfront.