ASIC miner scams and how to avoid them

1. Ghost sellers

The seller does not have the machines. The ad uses stock or stolen photos, the price is 20 to 40% below the market, and there is pressure to pay quickly because “another buyer is waiting”. Payment is requested in USDT or BTC to a personal wallet, sometimes after a small “reservation fee”. Once paid, the seller disappears.

• Compare the ask with its efficiency band median. A price far below market is the signal, not the opportunity.
• Ask for a live video call that shows the machines, a serial sticker and a note with today’s date and your name.
• Reverse-search the photos. Scam ads reuse pictures from manufacturer sites, other marketplaces and old Telegram posts.
• Check who you are paying: a registered company with an address and a trade licence, not a personal wallet.

2. Swapped or downgraded hashboards

The machine is real, but it is not the machine in the ad. Hashboards are swapped for lower-bin or repaired boards, or a lower-hashrate model is relabelled. From the outside the chassis and sticker look right; inside, the machine delivers 10 to 30% less hashrate or fails within weeks.

• Ask for photos of each hashboard serial and board code, not just the chassis label.
• Read the kernel log: each chain should detect the full chip count for the model.
• Run a 24 to 48 hour test on a pool account you control and compare the pool-side hashrate with nameplate.
• Agree DOA terms that cover hashrate below an agreed share of nameplate, not only “does not boot”.

3. Fake hosting contracts

You are offered machines that are “already hosted and mining” at a farm, often with an attractive monthly rate. The farm does not exist, does not know the seller, or the machines belong to someone else. Variants include hosting deposits for capacity that is never delivered and “cloud mining” contracts with no machine behind them.

• Contact the hosting provider yourself using the details on its official website, and ask it to confirm the serial numbers and the seller as the owner of record.
• Do not accept a pool screenshot as proof. Ask for a read-only observer link to the pool account, or better, proof from the operator’s own monitoring.
• Read the hosting contract: who owns the machines, what happens on transfer, how deposits and unpaid fees are settled, and the exit terms.
• Ask about curtailment: some regions cut power for weeks at a time, which changes what a hosted machine earns.

4. Impersonation

Scammers copy the names, logos and staff photos of known dealers and hosting companies, including Segments, on Telegram, WhatsApp and look-alike domains. They answer your inquiry faster than the real company and send bank or wallet details that are not the company’s.

• Segments only operates from segments.ae. Check the domain of every link and email address letter by letter.
• Segments never asks for payment to a personal wallet or a personal bank account, and never sends payment details by direct message only.
• If an account contacts you first, end the chat and reach the company through the contact details on its official website.
• Treat a change of bank details mid-deal as fraud until confirmed by phone with a number you already had.

Other patterns to recognise

• Fake escrow: the seller insists on an escrow service you have never heard of. The site belongs to the scammer.
• Customs release fees: after payment, a “shipping agent” asks for duty or a release fee before delivery. Real duty is invoiced by the carrier or customs broker named on the airway bill.
• Fake tracking numbers on clone courier sites.
• Under-declared invoices offered to “save on duty”: illegal, uninsurable and a hold on your shipment waiting to happen.

How the Segments Marketplace helps

Nothing replaces your own checks, but the marketplace is built to make the four scams above harder:

• Hosted at Segments badge: issued by the system from our own telemetry, not by the seller. It lapses automatically when a machine stops reporting or leaves the site.
• Hosted sales: ownership moves on our books while the machine keeps hashing, and the buyer pays a Segments invoice, never the seller directly.
• ID-verified sellers and verified dealers: identity and company documents are checked by staff before the badge appears.
• Segments inspection: a dated report with measured hashrate, board and fan status, photos and video is attached to the ad.
• Deal labels and moderation: every ad shows how its $/TH compares with its band median, and prices far below market are flagged for review before publication.
• Report button: every ad can be reported, and reports go straight to the moderation team.