An advance-fee scam persuades you to pay a small sum now to unlock a much larger prize, refund, or reward later, one that never materialises. In crypto, it appears as “pay a gas fee to claim your airdrop”, “send a deposit to release your withdrawal”, or “pay a tax to receive your winnings.” Once you pay, the scammer either vanishes or invents more fees.<\/p>\n
This matters because it preys on the excitement around rewards and airdrops, turning anticipation into a trap.<\/p>\n
Example: a message says you have won a large token prize but must first send a small amount of crypto to cover “processing.” After you pay, a new fee appears, and the prize never arrives.<\/p>\n
Safety note: legitimate rewards, airdrops, and withdrawals never require you to send crypto to a person or wallet to unlock them. Real gas fees are paid to the network automatically from your own balance, not handed to a stranger. Any request to pay upfront to receive something bigger is fraud, full stop. Related terms include recovery scam, pig butchering, gas fee, and claim window.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A fraud that demands a small upfront payment to release a promised larger sum, prize, or reward that never actually exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-116","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokenspin.de.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokenspin.de.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokenspin.de.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokenspin.de.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}