Honeypot Tokens: When You Can Buy But Never Sell

Among the more insidious crypto scam mechanisms covered in Felix Bick’s How Not to Get Scammed by AI Trading Apps is the honeypot token, detailed in Chapter 32 — a scam designed so that the deception is invisible until it’s too late.

Bick explains the mechanism clearly: a honeypot token is designed so that buying appears to work normally, but the smart contract prevents holders from selling, typically through hidden code that blocks sell transactions for anyone other than the developer’s own wallet. Victims can watch their token’s price rise, believing they’re profiting, while being structurally unable to realize any of it.

What makes honeypots particularly dangerous, according to Bick, is that they’re often invisible without technical smart contract analysis. The buying experience feels completely normal, and price charts can be manipulated by the developer’s own wallet to show attractive, rising activity that draws in more buyers who are equally unable to sell — creating a self-reinforcing illusion of a thriving, profitable token.

Fortunately, the book offers genuinely accessible protection: several free tools exist that scan a token’s contract code for honeypot characteristics before purchase, and using one of these scanners as a routine step before buying any unfamiliar small-cap token takes only moments and can prevent a total loss.

This chapter is a great example of how How Not to Get Scammed by AI Trading Apps balances explaining a genuinely alarming, invisible threat with providing an equally accessible, low-effort solution. Readers don’t need to become smart contract auditors themselves — they just need to know the right tool exists and make using it a habit.

For anyone buying smaller, newer crypto tokens regularly, this chapter of Felix Bick’s book could prevent one of the more silent, total-loss scenarios in the entire crypto scam landscape.