Fake Tokens, Honeypots & Rug Pulls

A fake token is a user-interface attack. Wallets render whatever a contract claims, so a scammer only needs to make the number look right for long enough to close a deal — the sell function is where the truth lives.

How this vector actually works

The variants below span cloned stablecoins, contracts that permit buys and block sells, supply that vanishes on a timer, and liquidity that leaves in one block. All of them are checkable before you pay, and each investigation shows exactly where to look.

  • The display trick — Name, ticker and decimals are free text. USDT-Z, HKDAP, a mirrored logo — the wallet has no opinion on authenticity.
  • The asymmetric contract — Buys succeed, sells revert for anyone outside a whitelist. Blacklists, transfer taxes and pausable transfers do the same job.
  • The exit — Liquidity is pulled, ownership is renounced after a hidden mint, or the deployer bridges out. The chart goes vertical, then to zero.

Red flags you can check in a minute

Any single item below is enough to stop and verify before you sign, send or install anything. The balance is real on screen and fictional on-chain. Honeypots, flash USDT and exit rugs.

  • The contract address does not match the issuer's official one, character for character.
  • Nobody except a handful of addresses has ever successfully sold.
  • The deployer holds a mint, pause, blacklist or fee-setting function.
  • Liquidity is unlocked, or the lock expires within weeks.
  • The deal happens in a private chat with a countdown attached.

If it already happened

Order matters more than speed of panic: contain the wallet first, preserve the evidence second, report third. Recovery services that contact you after the fact are the follow-up scam.

  • Stop trying to sell — a honeypot's sell attempts only pay gas to the attacker's design.
  • Record the contract address and the deployer; both feed public scam databases.
  • If a counterparty pushed the token during an OTC deal, treat every other asset in that deal as suspect.
  • Report the contract to the explorer — labelled contracts stop the next buyer.

Related vectors and tools

Most real cases mix two vectors, so read the neighbouring hubs, and run anything suspicious through the detector before you act on it.