Donna Noffsinger OrWQ

Main TakeawaysIn 2025, out of the overall $6.69 billion in potential fraud and scam losses that Binance prevented – including account takeover and bank transfer fraud losses – 3.9 billion were related to scam attempts.In addition to recovering more than $12.8 million in stolen assets, we neutralized sophisticated scams while empowering users to safeguard their money through advanced technology, empathetic support, and user education.Security is a shared mission: by combining continuous innovation with community vigilance, Binance helps promote trust, resilience, and safer participation in crypto for all.In 2025, as the crypto industry accelerated the push toward mainstream adoption, security threats and risks evolved as well. Fueled by AI efficiencies and increasingly sophisticated methods of exploitation, they rendered static or reactive defenses insufficient.  The challenge for Binance as an industry-leading platform is no longer simply preventing crime using familiar approaches, but responding with security capabilities that evolve at least at the same pace as the threats themselves. To meet the demands of this fast-paced landscape, we’ve built a continuously adapting risk framework powered by AI, advanced analytics, and operational intelligence. By continuing to innovate on this foundation, we strive to ensure our users can participate in the future of finance with confidence and peace of mind. There is no single silver bullet against scams. Rather than relying on a single security mechanism, we’ve built a comprehensive defense ecosystem – spanning proactive detection, swift intervention such as blocking suspicious activities, and consistent user education. While many of these systems operate in the background, our strategy centers on two priorities: strengthening our operational foundations and integrating next-generation technologies. Here’s how we delivered on these key fronts in 2025.Results of Binance’s 2025 Anti-Scam and Recovery EffortsIn 2025, we recovered over $12.8 million for our users, up almost 41% compared to the year before. Our enhanced detection systems helped prevent over $3.9 billion in potential losses from scams. This figure represents cases where our Risk team flagged high-risk activity and either stopped suspicious transactions or issued warnings to users. Throughout the year, we blacklisted more than 36,000 malicious addresses and sent over 9,600 daily pop-up warnings to keep users informed in real time. Each month, we successfully recovered funds for over 4,000 users, for a total of more than 48,000 recoveries in 2025.In 2025, the share-seed-phrase scam surged, with scammers posing as Binance agents to trick users into moving funds to wallets they controlled, using a fake seed phrase to gain trust. At its peak in January, over 600 cases were reported in a month, but subsequent anti-risk and user education measures helped to reduce monthly cases to below 170 by November.Believing that empathetic conversation can cut through panic and stop scams better than texts, we channeled more resources in human support for at-risk users, resulting in a 20% increase in in-app voice calls year-on-year, with over 36,000 calls to potential victims in 2025.Additionally, we prioritized protecting vulnerable groups, such as elderly users, by sending over 110,000 customized high-risk alerts in 2025, helping them spot scams before funds left their accounts.Four Pillars of Anti-scam Initiative Last year, we introduced our Four Pillars of Anti-scam Refund Initiative to structure our user protection measures. However, as scam tactics continue to evolve, our strategies must also adapt. Here’s an overview of the core 2025 developments and initiatives behind these four pillars.Proactive ProtectionThe best way to fight scams is stopping losses before they occur. In 2025, we strengthened our global intelligence network and expanded our threat-hunting capabilities to identify and blacklist malicious addresses.Beyond backend defenses, we prioritized real-time user protection through personalized risk interventions for vulnerable user groups by delivering timely transfer-stage warnings to help users recognize danger at the most critical moment.24-Hour Safety NetEven with safeguards in place, some users may still proceed with risky transfers. To protect them, we maintain a 24-hour “safety net” that allows us to freeze funds sent to flagged accounts – creating a crucial window for investigation and recovery. In 2025, we strengthened our human support for high-risk cases. Supported by our anti-scam risk control measures, our teams were able to identify, warn, and dissuade vulnerable users from sending funds to scammers.Binance’s 9 Levels of Anti-Scam Risk Control Measures Rapid Response RecoveryOur Rapid Response Recovery system combines seamless user reporting with instant AI-powered analysis, enabling suspected accounts to be frozen within seconds. While we conduct thorough manual reviews and monitor fund flows proactively, the primary responsibility for tracing and recovery often lies with law enforcement. Furthermore, scammers usually move stolen funds immediately on-chain, making full recovery difficult. Nevertheless, we continue to support verified victims around the clock, facilitating refunds whenever funds remain accessible to us.Silent Sufferer SupportMany scam victims stay silent, feeling shame or believing recovery is impossible. We bridge this gap with proactive support that identifies users who have unknowingly sent funds to frozen scammer accounts. By guiding these potential victims through the recovery process, we ensure everyone receives fair, compassionate treatment. Our goal is to turn silent suffering into aided healing and real recovery.In 2025, users facing fraud found a lifeline through Binance’s recovery initiatives. From Rapid Response freezing scam wallets to hands-on guidance during reporting, these interventions turned potential loss into relief. Read their full stories to see how our defense strategies helped real users: a miner who got scammed by a fake online store; a seasoned user who lost their money when a trusted seller account got hijacked; a novice trader misled by a fake “trading mentor.” First Step to Recovery: Tracing the Stolen FundsTo have a chance to recover victims’ funds, tracing is essential. Stolen assets often pass through external on-chain addresses or other centralized exchanges before returning to accounts on Binance.Our approach relies on analyzing transaction history to link the victim’s initial transfer to the funds’ subsequent journey. This visibility enables us to freeze the suspect’s account, trace the flow, and, whenever possible, facilitate a refund from the scammer back to the victim.Intelligent Defenses: The Role of AI and Machine LearningBinance’s integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence represents a fundamental shift in how we combat fraud. As attackers adopt AI to scale and accelerate scams, manual rules can no longer keep pace. In response, our anti-scam strategits transitioned to an AI-native approach, using advanced models to power a faster, smarter, and continuously evolving risk framework, as demonstrated in the examples below.Risk Strategy Factory: Our purpose-built AI assistant reduces the lag between detecting new threats and deploying protections. It automatically identifies effective patterns and generates rules and tests based on new threat-related cases, reducing turnaround time. Detecting Scam Language in P2P Chats: Deceptive communication is one of the most common tactics in crypto trading scams. To counter this, Binance developed a monitoring system that analyzes chat messages between buyers and sellers during P2P transactions, identifying language patterns that indicate possible scam intent, such as pressuring users to release crypto before payment or suggesting that the trade continue outside the platform.Detecting Fake Proof-of-Payment Images: Some P2P scammers attempt to trick sellers by sending fake proof-of-payment (POP) images to make it appear that a transfer has been made. To tackle this, Binance built a computer vision-based pipeline that focuses on detecting fraudulent POP images, allowing Binance to quickly detect and block suspicious transactions, protecting users before any funds are released.Multimodal AI for Scam Reports Processing: To further improve scam detection, Binance created a multimodal AI model that combines different types of data, including behavioral transaction logs and user reports. By bringing structured and unstructured data together, the model can spot patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. This approach significantly reduces the time needed to process user reports, leading to quicker responses, fewer losses, and a better experience for users across the platform.Security as a PartnershipAbove all, security is a partnership. While our AI and investigators work behind the scenes, you remain in control of your assets. Protect yourself by introducing these key habits:1. Treat Warnings as Stops Rather Than Suggestions: When a Binance risk alert appears during a withdrawal, it’s a warning triggered by our risk engine detecting a high-probability threat. Don’t click through it. Take a moment to read the details and reconsider the transaction. That brief pause can be the difference between staying safe and falling for a scam.2. Break the Silence: Report any suspicious activity. Every report helps train our AI and strengthens protection for millions of users. If you suspect a scam, act immediately. File a report quickly and easily via the Self-Report page. Alternatively, you can also follow the steps provided here.3. Protect Your Account with Binance Verify and Anti-Phishing Code: Your vigilance is the first line of defense. Binance offers tools to verify communications and spot imposters:Binance Verify: Instantly check if a domain, email address, phone number, or Telegram ID is officially Binance.Anti-phishing code: Set a unique code that will appear in every genuine Binance email and SMS, to avoid falling prey to spoofed messages.Final ThoughtsIn 2025, the pattern behind most scam losses was speed, pressure, and misinformation at the moment a user is about to send funds. Our focus is to meet that reality with layered defenses that work in real time: earlier detection, clearer warnings, faster freezing and recovery workflows, and support that helps users slow down before a mistake becomes irreversible. As crypto becomes more widely used, security has to scale with it, which means building systems that reduce harm without adding friction for legitimate users. We will keep strengthening the controls and education that make participation safer, and we encourage users to treat alerts seriously, verify channels, and report suspicious activity quickly so protections improve for everyone.Further ReadingKnow Your Scam: How to Spot And Avoid Fake Investment SchemesBinance Drives Responsible Growth Through Compliance and Law Enforcement Partnerships#2025withBinance: Your Crypto Year Wrapped – Milestones, Innovation, and Community