The war on trust: How fake recruiters are targeting crypto’s future

Every bull market attracts a new wave of scammers, and their attempts at fraud take many ￰0￱ cover 11 different scams and how to identify them in our Support Center. Lately, scammers have found a new angle: impersonating Kraken recruiters and support ￰1￱ goal? To steal your trust first and your assets second. They’ll promise jobs, partnerships or quick money.

They’ll spin stories that sound plausible. They’ll try to make urgency feel like ￰2￱ here’s the truth: real employment opportunities can be found through our official Kraken jobs portal and aren’t driven by ￰3￱ fake recruiter scams work These bad actors are shapeshifters. They’ll show up as “recruiters” on LinkedIn, email you from lookalike domains, or DM you on Telegram with “exclusive” openings. They’ll even borrow real Kraken employee photos or copy legitimate job ￰4￱ scams are ￰5￱ will go slowly before to better gain the trust of their victims, a process often referred to as “pig butchering.” We collaborated with the ￰6￱ Service in an operation that recovered $225 million from such ￰7￱ scams move fast, trying to use pressure and FOMO to get you to act quickly and without thinking too ￰8￱ comes the ask, often to: Pay “training” or “equipment” fees Provide wallet keys or personal documents Let’s be clear: Kraken will never ask for payment during hiring, ￰9￱ will never ask for your wallet keys , at any point, ￰10￱ you’ve found a scammer impersonating Kraken?

Tell us about it ￰11￱ to tell what’s real and what’s risky Use verified@kraken. com email addresses – Scammers have been using real Kraken employee names but from unrelated email addresses – If it’s not from@kraken. com, it’s not ￰12￱ on LinkedIn as verified Kraken team members – Look for the Kraken Verified ￰13￱ request sensitive information outside secure ￰14￱ pressure you into urgent action or ￰15￱ someone doesn’t check all four boxes, stop engaging ￰16￱ to do if you think you’re being scammed Scammers don’t win because they’re ￰17￱ win because people ￰18￱ best move you can make is the slow one. Here’s how to fight back—with calm, clarity and ￰19￱ your instincts – If it sounds too good to be true, it ￰20￱ of success don’t exist in real markets, only in ￰21￱ slowly and be deliberate – Doing nothing is often the smartest ￰22￱ weaponize ￰23￱ notes, hang up, and contact the company through their official website—not the number or link they gave ￰24￱ before trusting – Words are ￰25￱ isn’t.

Real companies don’t cold-call to fix your “account issue.” Ask for ID, note the employee number and follow up through official ￰26￱ can fake logos and uniforms, but not ￰27￱ your emotions – Fear, greed and panic are the scammer’s ￰28￱ someone’s message sparks anxiety or excitement, step ￰29￱ the call, close the chat and breathe before ￰30￱ scammers build trust – Con artists play the long game. They’ll mirror your life, your family, your tone—just to lower your ￰31￱ fake familiarity is manipulation disguised as empathy. Passwords, pins and logins aren’t for sharing – ￰32￱ with “recruiters,” “support,” or anyone ￰33￱ a password manager that generates random, unique ￰34￱ breach shouldn’t mean every account ￰35￱ profiles are available to scammers too – Everything you post – names, jobs, usernames – feeds their ￰36￱ the same handle across platforms?

You’ve already given them a ￰37￱ down what you ￰38￱ website URLs extremely carefully – Fake sites are near-perfect clones, and search engines don’t always protect you. Don’t ￰39￱ the address directly into your ￰40￱ the URL feels “off,” it probably ￰41￱ the urge to reply – Even “unsubscribe” tells scammers your email is ￰42￱ that “hi” text from an unknown number? That’s not curiosity – it’s ￰43￱ is your ￰44￱ everything you see with a grain of salt – Deepfakes, AI-generated profiles and fabricated news are the new normal. Don’t take screenshots as ￰45￱ information across multiple sources before you act – or ￰46￱ commitment to security At Kraken, security above everything is part of our ￰47￱ don’t outsource ￰48￱ build it, teach it and live ￰49￱ paranoia is culture .

It’s how we protect what matters most – our people, our clients and their ￰50￱ time you slow down to verify, you strengthen not just your defenses but the entire Kraken ￰51￱ your ￰52￱ your ￰53￱ out this form to let us know if you think you’ve found a scammer impersonating ￰54￱ crypto world rewards curiosity, not ￰55￱ this ￰56￱ ￰57￱ ￰58￱ remember — trust must be earned, never ￰59￱ to get a (legit) job at Kraken Remember, there is only one guaranteed-legit source for legit jobs at ￰60￱ you are contacted by a scammer about a role, it may well be about an actual open job listing at Kraken – one of the ways scammers make themselves appear authentic.

Don’t fall for ￰61￱ go to the ￰62￱ careers at Kraken