Check the USDT contract you received against Tether's official list, character by character

Open the transfer in a block explorer, look at the token's contract address, and compare it character by character with the USDT contract Tether lists on its website. Only a perfect match is real USDT. The name and ticker your wallet shows can be copied very closely, but on any one chain, no two contracts share an address.

Fake USDT here means a different token that borrows USDT's name to pass itself off as USDT: once you have it, you can't trade it, and it's worth nothing. That's a different problem from dirty USDT sent by a stranger: dirty USDT is real USDT whose trouble lies in where it came from, while with fake USDT the trouble is the coin itself.

Fake USDT can be called USDT; only the contract address tells them apart

TokenPocket's help centre files this under fake token scams: scammers take your real tokens and give you counterfeit ones, whose token names and symbols imitate well-known tokens such as USDT, ETH and BTC. People who know their way around blockchains tell real from fake by checking the token's contract address.

Tether writes USDT as USD₮ and lists the official contract on each chain on its Supported Protocols page. The table below takes four of those chains:

Beyond these four, the page also covers Avalanche, Kava, Celo, Kaia, Liquid, Polkadot AssetHub, Tezos, Near, Aptos and other chains. For Polkadot AssetHub it gives the asset ID 1984, and for Near a name, usdt.tether-token.near, which look nothing like the addresses on the other chains; when checking, compare against the entry for the same chain on that page.

Compare the whole string. If you only look at the first few and last few characters, a difference in the middle won't show.

Checking which contract a USDT transfer used on a block explorer

1. In your wallet's transaction history, open the incoming transfer and copy the transaction hash. It's also called a TxID, the same kind of reference you use for tracking a withdrawal.
2. Open the block explorer for the chain the token is on: etherscan.io for Ethereum, tronscan.org for Tron, explorer.solana.com for Solana. For these three chains, the contract links Tether gives point to exactly these sites. Paste the hash into the search box.
3. In the transaction details, find the token that was transferred and open its token page. On Ethereum the token page address is etherscan.io/token/ followed by the contract address; on Tron it's tronscan.org/#/token20/ followed by the contract address. The string at the end of that URL is the token's contract.
4. Compare that string character by character with the address for the same chain in the table above. If a single character differs, the transfer isn't USDT.

When TokenPocket flags a token as risky, it's mostly a honeypot (a token you can buy but can't sell), a fake token, or one with problems such as a 100% sell tax; if you see the warning, stop whatever you're doing and delete the asset. Tokens without a warning still need their contract address checked.

Why the USDT someone sold you cheap won't sell

The scam goes like this: someone says they have coins they need to offload quickly and names a very tempting price; the buyer pays up for the bargain, and only after the tokens land in the wallet finds that they can't be traded and are worth nothing.

An extra line reading USDT in your wallet balance only tells you that a token by that name arrived at your address. The only addresses to check against are the ones on Tether's page. USDT offered at an unusually low price is itself a signal to stop.

Does fake USDT deposited to OKX become an untradable asset?

Crypto that OKX doesn't support can't be used or traded on OKX once deposited; OKX lists it under untradable assets and supports withdrawing it. Fake USDT runs on a different contract from the USDT that OKX supports, so if it lands in your account, this is the rule that applies.

OKX counts four kinds of untradable asset: crypto it doesn't support, crypto sent over a network it doesn't support, crypto that has been or will be delisted, and airdropped crypto that can't be traded. You'll find it here:

• App: go to [Assets] and scroll down to [Untradable assets]. If that section isn't there, turn on [Show untradable assets] in the display settings.
• Web: go to [Assets], select [Withdraw], then open the [Untradable] tab.

An untradable asset may be withdrawable to a wallet or platform that supports the same crypto, network and token contract. In the app (version 6.0.29 or later), tap the asset; if self-service withdrawal is available, a [Withdraw] button appears, and you enter the receiving address and amount and follow the prompts. On the web, the withdrawal network is picked automatically from the asset.

If it can't be withdrawn, OKX's route is the feedback form, and it says whether any recovery option exists depends on the asset and network, with no guarantee.

This only covers OKX. If fake USDT went into a different exchange, follow that exchange's help centre; and before contacting support, check that you're dealing with an official channel rather than a "support agent" found in a group chat or a DM.

Once you've spotted fake USDT, don't click its links or sign approvals

Once you've identified it, don't take it to any website to swap it, and don't open any link that turned up with it. If your wallet flags a website as risky, stop everything, check your wallet's approval records and revoke any dangerous approvals. If you've already confirmed something on some page, follow the steps for finding and revoking token approvals.

If you paid real money for the fake USDT, keep the other side's receiving address, the transaction hash of your payment and the chat history, then go to the police; Scammed in Crypto? How to Report and Respond sets out the order for stopping losses, keeping evidence and reporting. Don't send more money to any address on their say-so, and stay away from anyone who claims they can get your crypto back.

When a USDT contract doesn't match the one you expected