Earlier this year, I decided to diversify a bit and invest in a new altcoin that wasn’t listed on my usual exchange. I looked up where it was being traded and found a site called DexTrust.io—a decentralized exchange I hadn’t heard of but that looked extremely professional. The site had interactive charts, order books, KYC registration, and even real-time chat support.

I signed up, verified my email, and got a prompt asking me to fund my account with USDT to start trading. Everything worked smoothly—I was able to deposit 1,200 USDT using the wallet address they provided. My balance updated in seconds, and I was impressed. I went to place my first order—and that’s where things started to feel off.

My order stayed “pending” indefinitely. I reached out to the live chat, and they responded quickly, saying it would be processed soon. Then they said I needed to verify my trading wallet by sending an additional deposit to the same address, or my trading functions would remain frozen due to “anti-money laundering protocols.”

That set off a red flag. I dug deeper and discovered the token wasn’t even listed on the official CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap pages, and the domain was less than 30 days old. I copied the wallet address and found several scam reports tied to it.

Panicking, I emailed support again, but by the next morning, the site had been wiped off the internet. No trace. My funds were gone.

What made this scam dangerous wasn’t how sloppy it was—but how well-crafted it looked. It mimicked real exchange functionality so well that even experienced traders could fall for it. Since then, I verify all exchanges through multiple trusted sources, avoid sending funds to addresses without triple confirmation, and check domain histories before I even sign up.

If a platform is asking you to send crypto to a personal address before you can even trade, that’s your sign to walk away.