FTX Bankruptcy Claim Derivative Scam: Phishing Pages and Debt Arbitrage Harvesting Creditors

Who Gets Targeted

The victims are primarily retail creditors on the FTX platform, including users from various countries who failed to withdraw funds in time during the 2022 bankruptcy, individuals transferring claims at a discount through third-party markets, and small and medium-sized investors in Asia and Latin America unfamiliar with the English claim process. Their common psychological weakness is anxiety over the payout progress—worrying about missing the June 16 registration window while hoping to recover their principal as soon as possible from the 105% recovery rate. This urgency makes official-impersonation phishing emails and expedited service pitches extremely effective. At the same time, many do not understand bankruptcy law procedures, mistakenly believing that paying for an agent can increase the recovery ratio, leading them to trust counterfeit websites and form intermediaries.

骗局怎么运作

• Tracking the official payout schedule and laying out phishing domains in advance. Gray-market syndicates closely monitor the registration opening dates and payout dates published by the FTX liquidation team, batch-registering similar domains (such as ftx-claim.net, ftx-repayment.io) around official announcements, and building high-fidelity login pages mimicking the official website to intercept creditors upon searching. Some syndicates also purchase search engine keyword ads to make their fake websites rank higher than the official entry in results pages.
• Mass-mailing emails and SMS impersonating the liquidation team. Script templates typically read: 'Your FTX claim eligibility has been verified; click the link to complete final confirmation, otherwise you will miss this round of distribution,' accompanied by a high-fidelity login page designed to entice users into entering their account email and password. The email signature is forged to look like an official claims agency, and links to real payout news are embedded in the text to increase credibility and lower the recipient's guard.
• Demanding expedited processing fees or audit deposits. Once victims submit information on the counterfeit page, scammers claim excessive queue numbers and demand a payment of 0.005 to 0.1 Bitcoin to a designated address as a priority processing fee, promising delivery within three to five business days. After receiving the funds, they lose contact while using the stolen emails and contacts list to spread phishing emails to the victim's friends and family, expanding the scope of victimization.
• Enticing wallet connection or seed phrase handover. Some counterfeit pages claim that cryptographic asset payouts require verification through on-chain addresses, guiding victims to import wallets like MetaMask or input seed phrases to complete identity verification, after which all assets in the wallet are automatically drained. Because blockchain transfers are irreversible, victims often discover their assets stolen days later, by which time the funds have already flowed into mixing platforms.
• Acquiring claims at low prices under the guise of debt transfer services. Professional arbitrage parties post high-price FTX claim acquisition ads on platforms like Telegram and X, offering quotes that appear higher than the retail buyer's cost but are actually far below the ultimate distribution rate of bankruptcy estate assets. Cumulative recovery for some Dotcom-grade claims has exceeded 100%. Once retail investors sell, they lose subsequent distribution earnings, with the difference becoming institutional profit and forming a secondary harvest of retail investors.
• Capitalizing on the information asymmetry of the form battle. Targeting creditors unfamiliar with English legal documents, third-party agents hawk paid form-filling services for hundreds of dollars, even though the official claims system itself is open for free. Some agents even intentionally fill in incorrect claim types, causing creditors to lose eligibility, and then charge a secondary fee under the pretext of refiling, turning information asymmetry into stable income.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Domain name does not match official channels: The official claims portal is the website link of the liquidation firm designated by the bankruptcy court. Any newly registered domains with suffixes like claim, repayment, or payout are high-risk signals.
• 🚩 Proactively asking for private keys or seed phrases: Formal bankruptcy procedures will never require creditors to provide wallet seed phrases or private keys. Any such request can be identified as phishing.
• 🚩 Demanding service fees or expedited fees: Official claim registration and distribution do not charge creditors any fees. Anything charging in the name of priority review or manual expedition is a scam.
• 🚩 Creating a sense of time urgency: Countdown pressure tactics in scripts such as 'failure to confirm within 48 hours will result in loss of distribution eligibility' or 'remaining slots for this round are limited' are typical high-pressure sales methods.
• 🚩 Unsolicited contact through unofficial channels: The liquidation team will not proactively contact creditors for information via personal email, Telegram, or SMS. Official communications come only from formal correspondence of designated claims agencies.
• 🚩 Promising instant recovery above market price: If the so-called debt transfer acquirer quotes far above the public market price—such as claiming a guaranteed 105% recovery—it is basically an advance-fee scam or illegal investment scheme.

真实案例

• Chaos of form agents: In 2025, multiple crypto media outlets reported on the 'form battle' during the FTX bankruptcy claims phase, where creditors needed to accurately declare claim types and amounts in designated formats, while third-party agents seized the opportunity to pitch paid form-filling services costing hundreds of dollars to retail investors. Relevant reports explicitly reminded that the official system is open for free, and phishing links masquerading as claim forms were circulating on social platforms.
• Feast of bankruptcy arbitrage: Golden Finance reported in December 2025 on the bankruptcy arbitrage feast behind the 2.2 billion dollar distribution of the FTX finale, where professional institutions rushed to acquire claims at discounted rates ahead of retail investors, and then profited from the price spread according to the bankruptcy distribution rate. During the same period, BlockWeeks reported that FTX distributed 900 million dollars to creditors in the fifth round, with cumulative recovery rates for Dotcom-grade creditors reaching 105%, while retail investors who transferred claims at low prices generally missed out on subsequent upside gains. (Source: [https://blockweeks.com/news/281505](https://blockweeks.com/news/281505))
• Regulatory accountability sample: In 2025, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission concluded its civil litigation proceedings against former FTX executives Ellison and Wang Zixiao, with both facing 5-year trading bans and cooperation with investigations. Previously, SBF's appeal failed, and his 25-year prison sentence and 11 billion dollar forfeiture order were upheld. While continuous regulatory accountability provided a reference for creditor claims, it did not eliminate secondary scams targeting retail investors. (Source: [https://www.coinlive.com/zh/news/sbf-s-appeal-fails-the-final-chapter-of-the-ftx-fraud](https://www.coinlive.com/zh/news/sbf-s-appeal-fails-the-final-chapter-of-the-ftx-fraud))

Official Stance

• In December 2022, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against FTX, Alameda, and SBF, with the complaint publicly disclosing that the defendants commingled customer assets with Alameda's trading funds from the start, constituting fraud and misrepresentation. This complaint became core evidence for subsequent criminal convictions.
• In 2025, the CFTC concluded civil litigation proceedings against former FTX executives Ellison and Wang Zixiao, with both receiving 5-year trading bans. The authorities simultaneously confirmed that cooperators with investigations could be exempt from civil penalties, a handling method that has become a reference case for crypto executive accountability.
• The FTX liquidation team announced the compensation schedule, confirming that the next round of registration will open on June 16, and setting July 31, 2026, as the payout date for creditor claims. The liquidation team has repeatedly emphasized that creditors can only fill out claim forms through officially designated channels, and any third parties claiming internal or expedited channels are scams.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Recognize only official domains: Manually type ftx.com in the browser to enter the liquidation announcement page, or directly access the claims system URL published by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Do not click links in emails or text messages, and bookmark the official claims portal.
• ✅ Refuse all paid expedition: Official claim registration is free. Anything demanding payment in Ethereum, Bitcoin, or fiat currency as an audit fee or expedited fee should be blacklisted and reported to local cyber administration or anti-fraud centers.
• ✅ Physically isolate seed phrases: If any website or customer service requests wallet seed phrases or private keys, immediately stop operations. Formal bankruptcy distributions are made only through KYC bank accounts or verified exchange accounts; there is no on-chain verification process.
• ✅ Check prices before transferring claims: If considering selling claim rights, first check public market quotes and official distribution rates. Cumulative recovery for some claims has already exceeded 100%. Decide only after comparing discounts, and remain alert to exaggerated promises such as guaranteed recovery or managed trading.
• ✅ Lock in official notification sources: Regularly check liquidation team announcements, court notices, and officially certified creditor notification channels. Avoid relying on secondary information from social media, and be especially wary of so-called customer service proactively sending direct messages in Telegram groups.