A few months ago, I experienced a devastating cryptocurrency scam that cost me nearly $2,500 worth of Bitcoin. I was preparing to transfer some Bitcoin from my exchange account to my personal hardware wallet. I’ve done this dozens of times before, and I didn’t expect any issues. I copied my wallet’s Bitcoin address and pasted it into the withdrawal field on my exchange. Confident everything was correct, I clicked “Send.”

Minutes later, I checked my hardware wallet, but there was no incoming transaction. Thinking it might be a delay, I waited, but nothing happened. After about an hour, panic set in. I double-checked the transaction details on the exchange, and my heart sank. The Bitcoin address listed wasn’t mine—it had somehow changed to a completely unknown address.

Confused and desperate, I started researching online and soon discovered I was a victim of a clipboard hijacking scam. Malware on my computer had secretly changed the Bitcoin address I copied to one controlled by scammers. Because cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible, my funds were gone forever.

I immediately reported the fraudulent address to the exchange and various online forums to warn others. But I couldn’t recover my money. This painful experience taught me the hard way to always triple-check wallet addresses, confirm multiple times before transactions, and maintain robust anti-malware software to avoid such scams.