The 'Passive Income' Trap: Why That YouTube MEV Bot Is a Scam

Executive Summary: If you search for 'Crypto Trading Bot' on YouTube, you will find thousands of videos promising huge returns. They ask you to copy-paste code into Remix. This article deconstructs the 'Mempool Front-Runner' scam and the hidden code that steals your deposit.

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1. The Hook: "Copy-Paste Wealth"

You are browsing YouTube or TikTok. You see a video titled:

"Build a Uniswap Front-Running Bot with ChatGPT (No Coding Needed) - $600/Day Profit!"

The video is high quality. The narrator sounds professional. They show "live proof" of a wallet earning ETH automatically.

The Instruction:

1. Go to Remix.ethereum.org (a legitimate developer tool).
2. Copy the "Bot Code" from the video description / Pastebin.
3. Deploy the contract.
4. Fund the contract with 0.5 ETH or more (to "fuel" the trading).
5. Click "Start."

2. The Trap: The Start() Function

You deploy the contract. You send the 0.5 ETH. You click "Start."

What you expect: The bot starts scanning the mempool to front-run trades and profit.

What actually happens: The 0.5 ETH is instantly transferred to the scammer's wallet.

3. The Code: Security by Obscurity

How did you miss it? You looked at the code!

The scammer uses Obfuscation.

The code usually looks like this:

function start() public payable {
    emit Log("Running Front Run function...");
    manager.performTasks();
}

function performTasks() {
    // Looks complicated...
    bytes memory _data = hex"68747470733a2f2f..."; // Massive hex string
    // ...
}

The scammer hides their wallet address inside that massive, unreadable list of Hexadecimal numbers or imports it from a separate "IPFS" file referenced in the code.

When you click start(), the contract reconstructs the scammer's address from the hex data and executes a transfer(address(this).balance).

4. How to Spot the Scam

The "marketing"

• Comments are bots: Look at the comments section. It's full of "Wow, this works!" and "I made 2 ETH today!" from accounts created 2 days ago.
• High Returns/Low Effort: Front-running (MEV) is incredibly competitive. It requires millions of dollars in liquidity and sub-millisecond latency. You cannot do it with a 50-line Solidity script on Remix.

The Code

• Imports from weird URLs: Does the code import from github.com/RandomUser/mempool-api?
• Unreadable Logic: If the code uses huge blocks of hex"..." or complex assembly for simple tasks, it is hiding a destination address.

5. Defense: Read Before You Deploy

Never deploy code you don't understand, especially if it handles money.

• Use a Simulator: Tools like Tenderly allow you to simulate a transaction before sending real ETH. If you simulated the "Start" button, you would see the ETH leaving your wallet to an unknown address.
• The Golden Rule: If a bot was truly printing $500/day for free, the creator would keep it for themselves—they wouldn't put it on YouTube.

Related: Scams often rely on you running code blindly. Read about the Collaborator Trap, where scammers trick devs into testing malicious bots. Also, learn how Ice Phishing uses fake "Bot Activation" buttons to steal permissions.

Conclusion

There is no "Cheat Code" for crypto trading. Profitable algorithms are closely guarded secrets, not Pastebin links. If it seems too easy, you are the yield.