As a small business owner, I’m always on the lookout for ways to expand my reach, including accepting cryptocurrency payments. One day, I received a message on LinkedIn from a professional claiming to be a representative of a well-known blockchain payment provider. They offered me a chance to integrate their crypto payment gateway into my website for free as part of a promotional campaign.

The representative was professional and knowledgeable, answering all my questions and even sharing a detailed implementation guide. They provided a link to download the payment gateway plugin and asked for a deposit of $1,000 in Bitcoin to “activate” the service. The deposit, they explained, was a temporary security measure that would be refunded once the integration was complete.

Feeling reassured, I transferred the deposit and installed the plugin on my website. Everything seemed to work fine initially—customers could make payments in cryptocurrency, and I received confirmation emails for each transaction. However, when I tried to withdraw the funds from my account, the system displayed an error message.

I contacted the representative, but they stopped responding. It turned out that the plugin had been designed to redirect all payments to the scammers’ wallets. Not only had I lost my deposit, but my customers’ payments were also stolen. I had to quickly shut down the payment gateway and inform my customers about the breach.

This experience taught me to thoroughly vet third-party providers before integrating them into my business. Always verify their credentials, look for independent reviews, and avoid paying upfront fees for services. If something feels too good to be true, it probably is.