Fake crypto gift card sites are getting harder to spot

You want to turn some crypto into a gift card. You search, click a promising result, and land on a site that looks polished and legitimate: a dark theme, trust badges, and promises of instant delivery and no ID checks. You wouldn’t think to question it. But a professional-looking website isn’t proof that it’s legitimate. What’s going on Crypto gift card sites are an easy category to fake. Several legitimate platforms let people convert Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies into gift cards for major brands. They also tend to look similar: a dark theme, a bold “Pay with crypto” message, trust badges, and a grid of popular gift card deals. That makes them easy to imitate. Scammers build lookalike sites that copy the same design language and sometimes even use a name that’s only one or two letters different from a legitimate platform. They’re designed to be mistaken for the real thing by anyone scrolling quickly or clicking through from an ad or search result. The pricing is part of the deception, too. A $100 Amazon gift card for $95. A $25 Steam Wallet code for $24. A $100 Netflix gift card for $92. Those discounts don’t look unrealistic, so the scam looks very convincing. What’s the scam? The simplest scam is non-delivery. You pay, and nothing arrives because there was never any gift card to send. The website exists solely to collect crypto payments. Crypto payments generally can’t be reversed. There’s no bank to call and no chargeback if the gift card never arrives. Once your Bitcoin or Ethereum leaves your wallet, it’s usually gone. Some scams go a step further and send you a code. It just isn’t a legitimate one. Stolen gift card numbers are bought and sold on cybercriminal marketplaces, often for a fraction of their face value because they’re likely to be drained or reported before they’re redeemed. A scam site can buy those codes cheaply, resell them at what looks like a reasonable discount, and leave you with a code that never works or stops working shortly after purchase. Even if a stolen code works at first, buying it helps create demand for more stolen gift cards. There’s another reason these sites attract criminals. Crypto gift cards are commonly used to launder stolen cryptocurrency . Converting crypto into gift cards, and gift cards into goods or account balances, makes transactions harder to trace. A fake storefront doesn’t just be steal from buyers, organized crime gangs also use it to move funds. None of this requires advanced technical skills. A convincing storefront, irreversible crypto payments, and search or social media ads are often enough to lure victims. How to protect yourself Go directly to the platform’s official site by typing the address yourself, rather than clicking a link from an ad, a search result, or a message. Check the spelling of the domain character by character. Scam sites often use domains that differ from a legitimate one by just one or two letters. Don’t assume “No ID required” means a site is trustworthy. It’s a genuine feature on some platforms, but scammers use it too. Think twice before clicking Connect Wallet . Depending on the permissions you approve, it can expose more than a single payment. Be skeptical of discounted gift cards, even modest discounts. Small discounts are designed to look believable. Search for the platform’s name plus “scam” or “reviews” before you pay , especially if you found the site through an ad. Use a browser extension that blocks scam and phishing sites , such as Malwarebytes Browser Guard . It can flag a fake storefront before you land on it, even ones it hasn’t seen before. If you’ve already sent crypto to a suspicious site Treat the funds as unrecoverable, but act quickly anyway. If you have the transaction ID, check a blockchain explorer to see whether the funds were sent to a known exchange. If they were, contact the exchange’s fraud team immediately. If you connected your wallet rather than sending a payment, review and revoke any token approvals you granted. Report the site to Google Safe Browsing and Microsoft SmartScreen to help warn other people. Remember A crypto gift card site can look completely legitimate and still not be. Before you send anything, check its reputation first. About the author Passionate about antivirus solutions, Stefan has been involved in malware testing and AV product QA from an early age. As part of the Malwarebytes team, Stefan is dedicated to protecting customers and ensuring their security.