A new and deceptive wave of scams is targeting ambitious Web3 users, turning their quest for trading profits into a costly lesson. Aspiring traders looking for an edge through Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) or arbitrage strategies are being lured by social media tutorials that promise a simple path to automated earnings. The reality is a malicious, self-executing smart contract that drains their crypto wallets.

MEV refers to the additional profit that can be captured by strategically ordering on-chain transactions within a block. Scammers exploit the appeal of this complex but lucrative concept, offering guides—sometimes even using code allegedly written by ChatGPT—to build a profit-generating bot with just a few clicks.

Anatomy of an Educational Scam

This scheme operates as a new class of educational fraud. It presents what appears to be a helpful lesson in building a trading bot, but the code provided is a trap. Victims are carefully guided to deploy a smart contract that they believe is a trading tool. They then fund it with their own assets, like ETH, to get it started.

The final step triggers the trap. The function that the user is told will activate the bot is actually programmed to drain the contract and send the funds directly to the hacker. Because the victim performs every technical step themselves, the attacker never needs direct access to their wallet. Recent reports indicate scammers have already stolen more than $900,000 using this method.

The Illusion of Legitimacy

These fake MEV tutorials are distributed across major social platforms where users frequently search for Web3 education. The production quality often rivals legitimate content, with presenters speaking on camera and walking users through the process in a familiar interface.

To reinforce the illusion of authenticity, scammers employ social proof. Comment sections are flooded with praise from fake accounts that feature realistic avatars and established-looking follower counts, making the scam appear credible to unsuspecting traders.