Helius AI Arbitrage Bot Scam: Impersonating Solana Infrastructure Providers to Induce Fund Lock-ups Before Collapsing

Who Gets Targeted

The primary victims are retail investors in the Solana ecosystem and newcomers to the crypto market, aged between 20 and 40. They typically have some experience with on-chain wallet operations but lack an understanding of underlying MEV technology. They are generally attracted by marketing claims such as 'AI-automated arbitrage' and 'daily returns,' hoping to generate stable passive income through small investments, and lack the ability to discern forged profit screenshots and customer service scripts used in Telegram/Discord communities.

骗局怎么运作

• Impersonating official entities to build communities: Scammers create Telegram groups or channels named 'Helius AI Arbitrage Bot,' misappropriating Helius's official branding, tweet screenshots, and Solana ecosystem partnership diagrams to forge customer service accounts and use shills to create a sense of official project backing.
• Promising stable AI MEV returns: Marketing materials are posted in groups claiming that the bot uses Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) strategies to achieve stable daily returns of 1% to 5% on the Solana chain, accompanied by forged backend profit curves and withdrawal screenshots.
• Building trust through small trial investments: Users are guided to transfer small amounts of SOL or USDC to designated Solana wallet addresses for a trial. For the first few days, shills or staged small payouts create a false sense of profitability, leading users to believe in the bot's strategy.
• Inducing additional fund lock-ups: Using tactics such as 'upgrading to VIP strategies,' 'high-yield arbitrage pools requiring lock-ups,' or 'AI model training deposits,' scammers demand that users transfer large sums to new addresses, promising higher returns after lock-up, and sometimes even inducing users to grant contract authorization permissions.
• Shutting down withdrawals and absconding: Once funds reach a certain scale, the platform freezes withdrawals citing 'on-chain congestion,' 'contract upgrades,' or 'tax audits.' Subsequently, the Telegram group is disbanded, customer service goes silent, and funds are moved via mixers or cross-chain bridges, leaving users unable to recover their assets.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Any Telegram arbitrage group operating under the Helius name is not an official channel; Helius explicitly states that it does not provide personal AI arbitrage bots for retail users.
• 🚩 Requests to transfer funds to third-party wallet addresses or to grant contract authorization permissions, rather than executing strategies through user-controlled on-chain methods.
• 🚩 Promises of fixed daily returns or high, stable arbitrage yields, which contradict the high volatility and technical complexity inherent in on-chain MEV arbitrage.
• 🚩 The presence of numerous templates in the group such as 'students showing off profits' or 'successful withdrawal today,' combined with high-pressure sales tactics from customer service and guarantees of principal protection.
• 🚩 The product is not listed on the official Helius website, there is no corresponding bot entry on the Solana Compass project page, and the official MEV disclosure page only describes infrastructure-level services, not quantitative arbitrage products.

真实案例

• In the Upbit HEMI vulnerability incident disclosed in September 2026, attackers exploited token issuance and security flaws to steal funds, demonstrating that arbitrage-style projects in the crypto ecosystem are easily disguised as technical tools to commit fraud.
• A year-end 2026 high-risk fund warning report revealed that over 20 Ponzi schemes and cryptocurrency scams, including Kairos and Kangtan e-Gou, collapsed around the May Day holiday. The methods involved freezing withdrawals and ghosting by customer service, highly similar to the AI arbitrage bot scam. (Source: https://www.heipan.cc/article/6978.html)
• The Microex AI exposure case showed that approximately 300,000 people were defrauded of billions. The project team migrated to a new exchange to conduct a second round of harvesting, indicating that such AI-related crypto schemes often continue to exploit users under the guise of technical upgrades. (Source: https://www.pxjm.cc/article/5293.html)
• In September 2024, the Lianhe Intelligent Computing Center hosting dividend scheme was launched, attracting investment under the guise of AI computing power hosting dividends. A 2026 YiCha report revealed that the scheme had about 110,000 members; after the operators absconded with over 100 million, withdrawals were disabled, and victims are currently seeking legal recourse. (Source: https://panxun.vwt.cc/article/6474.html)
• An August 2026 YiCha report stated that the Lianhe Intelligent Computing Center scheme leased server equipment rights for 60,000 per unit, reaching 110,000 members. After the operators absconded with over 100 million, the platform collapsed and ceased withdrawals. (Source: https://panxun.vwt.cc/article/6474.html)

Official Stance

• The Helius official MEV Disclosure statement (April 2026) emphasizes that it only provides infrastructure-level RPC and MEV services and has not authorized any third-party personal arbitrage bot products.
• PhishFort published an MEV arbitrage scam protection guide in 2025, listing 7 identifying characteristics and explicitly warning DeFi users to refuse deposit solicitations from Telegram/Discord.
• The IsDown platform's Helius status page shows that Helius is operating normally and has not released any risk-prone products or partnership announcements related to AI arbitrage bots.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Verify product information only through the official helius.dev domain, official X accounts, and official Solana ecosystem channels. Do not click on unfamiliar bot links in Telegram or Discord.
• ✅ Refuse to transfer SOL or USDC to any third-party address or grant contract permissions. Arbitrage strategies should be executed via open-source code or self-controlled wallets.
• ✅ Immediately flag projects that promise fixed daily returns, require lock-ups for upgrades, or use high-pressure customer service tactics as scams. Save chat logs and on-chain transaction hashes as evidence.
• ✅ If you suspect you have been scammed, stop adding funds immediately, track the flow of funds via block explorers, and submit evidence to local cyber police or crypto scam reporting platforms.