3 of my friends got their wallets drained instantly of more than $25,000 from scams.
I did the research for you guys and found the 5 most common crypto scams and how to avoid them.
Let’s dive in
In this article I’ll be showing you:
~ 5 most common crypto scams & how to avoid them.
~ 10 ways to protect yourself from crypto scams.
~ My personal experience with scams.
1️⃣5 most common crypto scams & how to avoid them.
1. Fake websites / apps
If you’re using a Decentralized Exchange (DEX), you need to make sure you’re on the right website.
There’s been reports of people losing $$$ to a fake UniSwap Google Ad phishing seed phrases.
(You connect your wallet to the fake site; your seed phrase is compromised and all your funds are withdrawn)
How to avoid:
Traders could visit CoinGecko and select “UniSwap” or any other exchange from the Exchange section.
2. Pump and dump schemes
When a coin is being hyped on social media by your fav influencers.
Not wanting to miss out, you rush to buy the coins, pumping the price.
Then the scammers then sell their holdings – which causes a crash as the asset's value sharply declines.
This can happen within minutes.
How to avoid:
Be careful of influencers and celebrities that don’t disclose a sponsored post, especially the ones specifically telling you to buy and HODL until a certain price point or MC.
Also DYOR at all times.
3. Fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs)
In an ICO customers are promised a discount on the new coins and given the chance to buy cheaper before it opens to the public.
Several ICOs have turned out to be fraudulent.
How to avoid
Check their X and socials for an active community and not just bots.
If the returns look too good, its most likely a scam.
e.g ICO price $0.001, opening market price is $1.
Evaluate their roadmap & Tokenomics and look for quality partnerships.
4. Honeypot Scams
When tracking a wallet, we need to be aware of the risks involved.
Scammers also know which profitable wallets are being tracked, so they send scam tokens to that wallet.
With the intention of tricking all the trackers into buying that scam coin.
Those transactions will be labelled at “received”.
How to avoid:
Avoid tokens in small amount $200- $5,000 (in whale wallet) unless it was traded
Avoid “received” tokens, unless in a very large amount as that could be OTC deal.
5. Social Media Giveaway Scams
Accounts claiming to be hosting a giveaway will ask users to send them crypto with the promise of receiving a larger amount in return.
And the scammers keep your funds.
Some also message you saying you won some crypto, but you need to connect your wallet to their app to withdraw it.
How to avoid:
Don’t send anyone crypto with the promise of a bigger reward.
Don’t connect your wallet to suspicious sites asking you to receive your reward.
2️⃣How to protect yourself from crypto scams
1. Use hardware / cold wallets
2. Use multi-factor authentication
3. Don’t Ape into influencer tokens
4. Keep a close eye on website URLs
5. Make sure your crypto wallet is secure
6. Only download apps from official platforms
7. Use @DeDotFi ’s scanner tosspot red flags in projects
8. Use @bubblemaps to spot token distribution red flags
9. Don’t accept “free” money or crypto from strange sites
10. Don’t use your main wallet to interact with multiple DApps.
My personal experience with scams
I got a lot of DM’s on x from multiple people working for the same project saying I won $500 and I could only collect it from their app (never entered any giveaway btw)
I decided to play along.
They set up the app for me (gave them fake info).
I could see the funds there.
It was a decent looking app.
The first red flag was they wouldn’t transfer me the funds
I had to connect my wallet to withdraw the fake funds.
That would have compromised my seed phrase and all the funds there.
Thats it for now.
I hope this brought value to you.
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