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The Black Friday crypto scams to watch in 2026 are the ones dressed up as deals. Think of a hardware wallet at a price that's too good, a "Black Friday airdrop" or a shop that only takes crypto or gift cards. Or a text saying your order is held, a celebrity giveaway ad, a "Cyber Monday bonus" app, or a Giving Tuesday charity that wants crypto.
One rule catches most of them. If a seller says you can only pay with crypto, a gift card, a wire or a payment app, the FTC says it's probably a scam. Pay by credit card, buy from sellers you can check, and type web addresses yourself.
Updated 9 November 2026.
This year the deals aisle has a new worry. In October, Ledger confirmed that a hardware wallet sold through one of its official resellers in Southeast Asia had been opened up and fitted with a spy implant. A hardware wallet is the small device that keeps your crypto keys off the internet. This implant read the 24 recovery words (the backup words that can rebuild the wallet anywhere) while the owner set it up.
Trezor dropped the same reseller and is checking a similar report about one of its own devices. Black Friday is when a lot of people buy their first hardware wallet. Most will be fine. The ones who get hurt usually bought from the wrong place, or paid the wrong way.
All three numbers come from the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, published in April 2026. "Non-delivery" is the FBI's word for paying for something that never arrives, or arrives as something worse. These are only the cases people reported.
A deal, an airdrop, a giveaway or a "your order is held" text.
"Today only." "Ends at midnight." "Last 3 left."
Crypto, gift card or wire only, or "connect your wallet."
No package, no refund, no bank to call.
| Scam | What it looks like | What gives it away |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware wallet deal | A Ledger or Trezor well below the maker's price | Seller isn't on the maker's official reseller list |
| Black Friday airdrop | "Claim your holiday bonus tokens" | Asks you to connect your wallet or sign something |
| Crypto-only shop | Big discounts, checkout with no card option | Crypto, gift card, wire or payment app only |
| Delivery text | "Your order is held. Pay a small fee." | A link in a text you didn't ask for |
| Celebrity giveaway ad | A famous face "giving back" for the holidays | Send crypto first to get more back |
| Cyber Monday bonus app | A trading app with a holiday sign-up bonus | A fee or "tax" before you can withdraw |
| Giving Tuesday charity | A good cause that only wants crypto | Can't be found on the IRS charity search |
1. Hardware wallet deals from fake or tampered sellers
Ledger and Trezor both run real Black Friday sales, and both say the same thing about where to buy: from their own store or from a reseller on their official list. Ledger's list is at ledger.com/reseller and Trezor's is at trezor.io/resellers. On Amazon and other marketplaces, check the "Sold by" name, not just the brand on the listing, and look it up on that list.
October showed why. On 9 October, Ledger began looking into stolen funds among customers of CryptoBilis, an official reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. On 10 October it confirmed that one customer's device contained an "unauthorized hardware implant," as BleepingComputer reported.
The extra part reads the recovery words off the screen as you write them down, then sends them out over mobile data. Ledger says it leaves the wallet's secure chip alone, so a check that tests that chip won't catch it.
Trezor removed CryptoBilis as a reseller the same day, and on 30 October it reported a suspected implant in one Trezor Safe 5 bought from that seller, which it hadn't yet examined. Our Ledger spy implant guide has the full timeline.
Already own one? Every confirmed case so far traces to that one reseller. If you bought straight from Ledger or Trezor, nothing reported points at you. If yours came from a marketplace, a secondhand seller or you aren't sure, the fix is a new wallet bought direct, with a new recovery phrase, and moving your funds to it.
Check: a price far below the maker's own store, a box that looks opened, or a recovery phrase already printed inside. Trezor says its devices have no serial numbers, so a number on the box proves nothing. If anything looks off, don't set the wallet up. Contact the maker's support through its own website.
2. "Black Friday airdrops" and bonus tokens
A Black Friday "discount" on bitcoin itself that arrives by email or text is a red flag, and a token that turns up in your wallet with a holiday name isn't a gift. Fake "holiday discount" emails are an old trick: in 2018, a fake Black Friday email that pretended to come from the exchange Uphold offered a discount on crypto, The Next Web reported.
An airdrop is a batch of tokens sent to many wallets at once, and real ones exist. The fake kind sends you to a "claim your bonus" site that asks you to connect your wallet and approve a request. Approving it can hand a stranger permission to empty the wallet.
The FBI counted $111 million lost in 2025 to phishing and spoofing that involved crypto. Our guide to wallet drainers shows what that signature really does.
Check: any "free tokens" offer that wants a wallet connection, a signature or a small fee first. Leave unknown tokens alone, and don't visit the website written in their name.
3. Shops that only take crypto or gift cards
This is the most common Black Friday crypto scam and the easiest to spot. The site looks like a real store, the prices are deep, and at checkout the card option is missing or "temporarily down." Pay in bitcoin, USDT or a gift card instead, maybe with an extra 10% off for doing it.
The FTC is blunt about it. In its November 2025 holiday shopping alert it said that "if the seller says you can only pay with a gift card, wire transfer, payment app, or cryptocurrency, it's probably a scam." A card payment can be disputed. A crypto payment usually can't be reversed by anyone.
Check: search the store's name with "scam," "complaint" or "review" before you buy, as the FTC suggests, and pay by credit card. Our guide to the payment methods scammers ask for explains why each one is hard to get back.
⚠ Red flag
"We only accept crypto for Black Friday orders" or "pay by gift card for an extra discount." A real shop wants your money any way you'll give it. A scam shop wants it in a form you can't take back.
4. Fake "your order is held" delivery texts
Between the deals and the shipping, most of us are expecting a package by late November, and scammers know it. Fake delivery problems were the most reported text scam of 2024, usually pretending to be the U.S. Postal Service, according to the FTC. The text asks for a small "redelivery fee," and the page it links to collects your card number and more.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says USPS won't text you unless you asked for updates with a tracking number, and those texts don't contain a link. If a message about a crypto order ever asks for your recovery phrase, stop there. No real shop, carrier or wallet maker needs it.
Check: don't tap the link. Track the package in the store's order page or the carrier's own app, and forward the text to 7726 (SPAM). More on spotting these in our guide to fake Coinbase emails and texts.
Prefer to watch? How to check a hardware wallet after the Ledger implant, in under a minute.
5. Deepfake celebrity giveaway ads
A video of a famous founder or entertainer says they're "giving back" for the holidays. Send some crypto to the address on screen and they'll send back double. The face and voice can be AI-made, and the FBI has warned that criminals use AI-generated images of celebrities to promote fake products and non-delivery schemes, in a December 2024 alert.
The FBI's report counted $741.6 million lost in 2025 to crypto scams it tagged as AI-related. Our deepfake crypto scams guide shows how to check a video like this.
Check: nobody sends back double. A giveaway that asks you to pay first is a scam, however real the person looks.
6. Fake "Cyber Monday bonus" apps and exchanges
An ad or a new online friend points you to a trading app with a holiday welcome bonus. It might even be in the app store. Your balance climbs fast, then you try to take money out and there's a fee, a "tax" or a frozen account first. That is the pattern the FBI describes in fake investment apps.
In one case, the FBI seized a fake trading site's domain and told Google and Apple about the apps linked to it, and several were taken down, according to FBI San Diego.
Check: being in an app store doesn't make an app safe. Look up the company with your state's financial regulator, read the developer's other apps and reviews, and treat any withdrawal fee as the end of the story. Our guide to fake crypto apps walks through it.
7. Giving Tuesday crypto charity scams (Tuesday, 1 December)
Giving Tuesday falls on 1 December this year, and plenty of real charities accept crypto. That's what makes the fake ones work. A fake page borrows a real cause, or a name that sounds like a well-known charity, and shows a wallet address.
The FBI counted 662 charity fraud complaints in 2025 with $7.9 million lost, and 65 of those complaints, worth $3.2 million, involved crypto. In its Giving Tuesday alert, the FTC says a charity that insists on crypto, a payment app, a gift card or a wire is a strong sign of a scam.
Check: look up the charity's exact name on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, which shows whether it can take tax-deductible gifts. Then give through the charity's own website, not a link in a post or message. The test is the charity, not the coin.
Rob's take
I like crypto. I don't like it as the only button at the checkout of a shop I'd never heard of last week. And a hardware wallet is the one place I'd never chase a bargain from a stranger: it's the device you trust with everything else you own in crypto. Saving $30 on it isn't worth a year of wondering what's inside. Buy it from the maker, or from a name on the maker's list, and pay with a card.
5 checks before you buy on Black Friday
- Check the seller. Is it the brand itself, or a name on the brand's official reseller list? On marketplaces, check "Sold by."
- Check the payment. Is there a credit card option? Crypto, gift card, wire or payment app only means walk away.
- Check the link. Did you type the address yourself, or tap it in a text, email or ad? Go to the site directly.
- Check the "bonus." Does an airdrop, giveaway or bonus want you to connect a wallet, sign something or send crypto first? Stop.
- Check the charity. Giving? Find it on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, then give on its own site.
Not sure about a shop? Our guide on how to check if a crypto website is legit takes ten minutes, and the is this a scam? quiz takes one.
Shopping somewhere new? Get our free Is This Site Legit? check when you join the Sunday Briefing. It's a one-page, 10-minute test for any online store.
If you already paid
If you paid by card or bank transfer, call your card company or bank today and ask to dispute the charge. If you paid in crypto, contact the exchange or wallet you sent it from, and write down the transaction ID, the address and the website. Then report it at ic3.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If you entered a recovery phrase anywhere, move what's left to a new wallet with a new phrase right away.
Expect a second wave. People who report a loss online often hear from "recovery experts" who promise to get the crypto back for a fee. That's another scam: see our guide to crypto recovery scams. Our first 24 hours after a crypto scam plan lists every step in order.
Black Friday crypto scam FAQ
Are Black Friday crypto deals real?
Some are. Hardware wallet makers and some apps run real Black Friday sales. But a "deal" that arrives by text, email or ad and only takes crypto is probably a scam, by the FTC's rule. Go to the company's site yourself to check.
Is it safe to buy a Ledger or Trezor on Black Friday?
Buy from the maker's own store or from a reseller on its official list, which is what both makers advise. In October 2026, Ledger confirmed a tampered device sold through one reseller, and Trezor dropped that reseller too. If a wallet arrives with an opened box or a recovery phrase already written down, don't use it.
Why would a shop only take crypto or gift cards?
Because those payments are hard to get back. The FTC says a seller who will only take gift cards, wire transfers, payment apps or crypto is probably a scammer. Pay by credit card so you can dispute the charge.
Is a text saying my package is held a scam?
Treat it as one. Fake delivery texts were the most reported text scam of 2024, the FTC says, and USPS doesn't text links unless you signed up with a tracking number. Check your order in the store's app instead and forward the text to 7726.
Are "Black Friday airdrops" real?
Treat any holiday airdrop that asks you to connect your wallet, sign something or pay a fee as a scam. Leave unknown tokens in your wallet alone and don't visit the site named in them.
How do I check a charity before Giving Tuesday?
Search its exact name on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and give through its own website. The FTC says a charity that insists on crypto, a gift card, a payment app or a wire is a strong sign of a scam.
Can I get my crypto back after a Black Friday scam?
Sometimes, if you move fast. Report it at ic3.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov, tell the exchange you sent from, and keep every record. Ignore anyone who offers to recover it for a fee.
Preguntas frecuentes en español
¿Las ofertas de criptomonedas del Black Friday son reales?
Desconfía de cualquier "descuento" en criptomonedas que te llegue por correo, mensaje de texto o anuncio. En 2018 circuló un correo falso de "descuento de Black Friday" que se hacía pasar por el exchange Uphold. Si quieres comprar, abre tú mismo la app oficial o escribe la dirección del sitio; no uses el enlace del mensaje.
¿Por qué una tienda solo acepta pago en cripto o con tarjetas de regalo?
Porque así es difícil recuperar el dinero. La FTC dice que si un vendedor te dice que solo puedes pagar con tarjeta de regalo, transferencia, app de pagos o criptomonedas, probablemente es una estafa. Paga con tarjeta de crédito: puedes disputar el cargo. En 2025, la gente le reportó al FBI más de $503 millones en pérdidas por compras que pagó y nunca recibió.
¿Es seguro comprar una billetera Ledger o Trezor en oferta?
Cómprala en la tienda oficial del fabricante o con un revendedor que aparezca en su lista oficial (ledger.com/reseller y trezor.io/resellers). En octubre de 2026, Ledger confirmó un implante espía en un dispositivo vendido por un revendedor del sudeste asiático, y Trezor recibió un reporte similar que aún revisa. Si la caja llega abierta o algo se ve raro, no la configures y contacta al soporte del fabricante desde su sitio oficial.
¿Es una estafa el mensaje que dice "tu paquete está retenido"?
Trátalo como sospechoso. Los textos falsos de entrega fueron la estafa por mensaje de texto más reportada a la FTC en 2024. El Servicio de Inspección Postal de EE. UU. dice que USPS no te manda mensajes sin que tú los pidas con un número de rastreo, y que esos mensajes no traen enlaces. No toques el enlace. Reenvía el mensaje al 7726 (SPAM).
¿Cómo reviso una organización benéfica antes de donar en Giving Tuesday (1 de diciembre)?
Busca su nombre exacto en la herramienta Tax Exempt Organization Search del IRS, que muestra si puede recibir donaciones deducibles. La FTC advierte que si una "organización benéfica" insiste en que pagues con criptomonedas, app de pagos, tarjeta de regalo o transferencia, es una fuerte señal de estafa. Dona con tarjeta de crédito o cheque, directo en el sitio de la organización.
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