# Crypto giveaway and airdrop scams — 'send one, get two back' and fake claims

No one legitimate doubles crypto you send them — every 'send 1, get 2 back' offer is theft, including those streamed from hijacked celebrity or brand accounts. Airdrop claim sites that ask for your seed phrase or an unlimited wallet approval are stealing, not giving. Real airdrops never need your recovery words and never require you to send funds first.

## Key facts
- 'Send crypto, receive double back' is always a scam — no exceptions, whatever account posts it.
- Hijacked verified accounts and fake live streams lend giveaways false credibility.
- Malicious claim sites harvest seed phrases or drain wallets through signed approvals.
- Real airdrops send tokens to eligible addresses or use claim flows that never ask for recovery words.
- Unsolicited tokens appearing in your wallet can be bait — interacting with them can trigger the trap.
- Airdropped tokens you receive may count as income and later disposals may trigger CGT — records matter.

## The doubling giveaway

A stream or post — often from a compromised verified account, sometimes wrapped around real footage of a well-known figure — announces a limited-time giveaway: send crypto to an address and receive double back to 'verify your wallet'. The wallet address collects and nothing returns. The theatre varies; the mechanic never does. Any offer that requires sending funds to receive funds is theft by design.
## Fake airdrop claim pages

Attackers announce an airdrop for a plausible project and circulate a claim link. The page asks you to connect a wallet and either enter your seed phrase to 'verify eligibility' — which hands over the wallet — or sign an approval that lets a contract drain your tokens. Lookalike domains of real projects are common, and ads sometimes rank above the genuine site.
## How genuine airdrops behave

Real distributions send tokens directly to qualifying addresses, or run claim flows announced on the project's own verified channels that require nothing more than connecting and paying network fees from your own wallet. They never ask for recovery words, never require an upfront payment, and rarely impose panic deadlines. When in doubt, reach the claim only through the project's official site, typed yourself.
## Dust, bait tokens and tax notes

Unknown tokens sometimes appear uninvited in wallets. Some are marketing; some are bait designed so that swapping or approving them triggers a malicious contract. The safe handling is to ignore them — hiding them in your wallet interface if you like — rather than interacting. On tax: genuine airdrops can count as miscellaneous income at receipt in some circumstances, and disposing of airdropped tokens is a normal CGT disposal, so record values and dates even for tokens you did not ask for.

## FAQs
### A verified account is running the giveaway. Doesn't verification make it real?

No. Verified accounts get hijacked precisely to run these scams, and paid verification has made blue ticks easy to obtain. The mechanic — send funds to receive more — is disqualifying regardless of who posts it.
### I connected my wallet to a claim site but signed nothing. Am I safe?

Connecting alone usually only reveals your address. The danger is signing approvals or transactions, or entering recovery words. If you signed anything you did not understand, review and revoke approvals now and consider moving funds to a fresh wallet.
### Do I owe tax on airdropped tokens?

Possibly — HMRC can treat airdrops received in return for a service, or in some other circumstances, as taxable income, and later selling is a CGT disposal. Record the sterling value at receipt and see our DeFi and income guides.

## Sources

- [Action Fraud — report fraud and cybercrime](https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/)
- [FCA ScamSmart](https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart)

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— Digital Assets UK (https://digital-assets.co.uk/scams/giveaway-airdrop-scams/), reviewed 2026-07-17. Source: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/