Bro cleared all the messages and blocked me ... dead giveaway they were scammers.

Like, how are you working on a "serious" project in 2025 and don’t even have an X account? That alone was already sus.

The moment he messaged me, I could tell with 99% certainty it was a scam.

They tried to look legit by sending an email from what seemed like an official Google address, but I’ve seen that trick before. It’s a bug they exploit using a method called email spoofing, makes it look like the email is from a real source when it’s not. I’ll probably break it down in another post later so you can understand how it works and not fall for it.

Because I’ve had experience with these tactics, I didn’t take the email verification at face value. I asked for their X account instead, because no legit project would hesitate to respond from their verified page. Once they saw I wasn’t buying it, they vanished. Cleared chat. Blocked me.

Stay sharp out there, the scams are getting more creative, but the red flags are always the same.