What to check in a service before you put money into it

How do I know I'm on the real service?

Start from the official entry point, not from a message, an ad or a link forwarded by a stranger. Scammers copy the look of a service well; they cannot easily copy the place where you originally found it. For a service that runs inside Telegram, that means finding the bot through the company's own official channels and checking that the handle matches exactly. If you did arrive through a link, close it and go in again the long way. It costs a minute and removes the most common trap.

What requests should make me stop immediately?

Two requests are red flags.

• A seed phrase: whoever has it controls the funds, and a service has no legitimate reason to ask you to type it into a chat or a form.
• A login code: it exists to prove that you are the one signing in, so passing it to anyone, including someone claiming to be support, hands over your access.

Because a transfer sent to the wrong hands cannot be brought back, there is no second chance after you comply. If a request feels urgent, treat the urgency itself as part of the warning.

What should a service tell me about fees and how funds are held?

A trustworthy service states its fees plainly and the numbers agree wherever they appear. Nexus Pay, for example, lists a $0 monthly card fee, 0% on purchases, 0.1% to move money from the wallet to the card and 0.25% per ATM withdrawal. It also gives a worked example: 1000 USDT moved to the card becomes $999.00, and withdrawn at an ATM it leaves $996.50 before any ATM-owner fee. Look for the same kind of detail on custody, such as whether the main share of funds is kept in wallets without a permanent network connection. Vague promises with no numbers and no explanation of how funds are held tell you little, and the vagueness is worth noting.

How small should a test deposit be?

Small enough that losing it would not matter, but not below the network minimum. Every network has a minimum deposit shown in the app, and deposits under it are not credited. Check that the address matches the network you are sending through, because each address belongs to one network and a coin sent through another will not arrive and cannot be reversed. Then wait for confirmation, which takes from a few minutes to about an hour depending on the blockchain. Only when the test amount appears in your balance is it worth sending more.

What can still go wrong after these checks?

A checklist lowers risk, it does not remove it. A correct-looking service can still be one you misunderstood, and a wrong address or wrong network remains unrecoverable on any service. Use the test amount to try what you actually plan to do, such as a swap where the received amount is shown before you confirm, and watch whether the result matches what was promised. This is general information, not financial, legal or tax advice, and you should decide with your own circumstances in mind.

How does this checklist apply to a wallet with a card?

The same steps apply to Nexus Pay, or to any similar option. Open it via its official entry point, the bot @nexuspaymybot, and compare the published fees with what the app shows. A card service also has to verify you: issuing a card requires a document and a photo under anti-money-laundering law, and the card is issued by a licensed partner organisation. Remember that it is a crypto wallet with a Visa card, not a bank. Once the test deposit lands, the card only spends the available balance, with no credit or overdraft, and it can be frozen and unfrozen in the app in one tap.

Common questions