Crypto pump-and-dump schemes follow the same three steps every time, and the people who buy into the hype are the ones who lose.

• A group quietly buys up a coin that barely trades, so even small buying moves the price.
• The hype machine then fires up across social media — X, Instagram, WhatsApp — to pull in new buyers.
• The group buys all at once to spike the chart, then sells into the crowd rushing in behind them.
• Because the demand was fake, the chart collapses into the familiar shape traders call the Eiffel Tower: a rocket, a cliff, then a graveyard.

Outlook: Expect more of these as long as social media can manufacture demand faster than buyers can check it — loud online hype about a thin coin remains the clearest warning sign.