How to spot a cloud mining scam: 7 red flags

Why this matters

The 7 red flags

1. 1

   Guaranteed or fixed daily returns

   Real mining income is variable. "Earn 3% every day" or a fixed percentage is impossible from mining — it means the money comes from other depositors, not machines.

2. 2

   A balance that grows on its own

   If your dashboard number ticks up automatically on a schedule, it is a scripted counter, not mining. Real payouts are irregular and land in your wallet.

3. 3

   Pay to unlock your withdrawal

   You "earn" a balance, then to withdraw it you must buy a plan or pay a fee. This is advance-fee fraud — the earnings were never real. Walk away.

4. 4

   No on-chain proof

   A legitimate operator can show a transaction hash for every payout that you can verify on a block explorer. No proof, no trust.

5. 5

   Mining coins that cannot be mined

   Anyone offering "Ethereum mining" is misinformed or lying — ETH switched to proof-of-stake in 2022 and cannot be mined. See AI Ethereum mining.

6. 6

   Hidden operators and fake badges

   No named legal entity, no real team, and "audited" badges that link nowhere. Legitimate businesses are identifiable.

7. 7

   Deep referral trees and deposit-based commissions

   Three-or-more-tier referral schemes and commissions paid on deposits (not purchases) are pyramid signals.

Scam vs legitimate at a glance