How to Avoid NFT Scams: Be Aware of Digital Fraud
Currently, the number of users in the NFT space is soaring high, and the flow of money is skyrocketing. The result? NFT scams are dramatically rising. Following our guide, you can easily identify and avoid the main NFT scams which seem to be everywhere. Let’s protect your NFTs together!
Table of Contents
How to Avoid Scams in the NFT Space?
The eye-watering amount of money entering the NFT space and the lack of regulation attract a lot of scammers. We have collected simple tips you can use to stay reasonably safe when buying or selling an NFT. Hence several tips to protect your NFT space:
- Never open suspicious links or files if unsure who the sender is. Scammers, for instance, use phishing emails to lure you into clicking on attachments. They can make you compromise your digital wallet credentials.
- Boost the security of your accounts. Creating strong and unique passwords can protect your NFT accounts and digital wallets.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the next step to boosting your security. Simply put, 2FA acts as a second layer of protection for your NFT account. Moreover, activating biometrics such as fingerprint scanning or facial recognition ensures hackers can’t get their digital hands on your crypto wallets or accounts.
- Always check NFT seller accounts’ verification. The blue checkmark beside the social media account’s username can verify the seller’s identity.
- Last but not least, your seed phrase, secret recovery phrase, or private key must be private, just like your regular passwords! Moreover, scammers can access your PC or another device, so don’t store your private key anywhere.
What are Most Popular NFT Scam Types?
Over the past few years, the NFT market keeps flying high, and so do the scams. Let’s investigate the minefield of scams to help you identify potential frauds. Each scam comes with safety tips to help you protect your digital assets.
Fake NFT Websites
Experienced fraudsters can create fake NFT sites and marketplaces to trick you into compromising your account and wallet credentials. The replicated websites look so legitimate that even expert NFT owners cannot distinguish a counterfeit from a real webpage. How to avoid ‘Fake Websites’ scams:
- Look for a blue checkmark to be sure the seller is verified.
- Verify the URL of the Marketplace page then do your purchase.
Fake NFT Offers or Phishing Emails
Scammers replicate popular NFT trading sites and send attractive offers regarding your NFT. The most common way of sending notifications is via email. Typically, these phishing emails urge you to open the attached link that moves you to a fake NFT marketplace. Then you are likely asked to link your wallet and type your account credentials. This information will lead them to hack into your wallet and steal every cent you have. Hence, some safety tips to follow:
- Never click on links or attachments from unknown senders.
- Verify the sender’s address and get direct help right from the official customer service of the platform.
NFT Giveaways/Airdrop Scams
Scammers sometimes promote NFT giveaway campaigns to deceive people into stealing their wallet credentials. The scammers, for instance, find you on social media and promise you free NFTs. The only requirement is to promote their message and sign up on their website.
The result? They will record what you type and then get access to your digital wallets. To avoid these NFT giveaway scams, you need to check the sender’s social media account as well as verify the link matches the NFT platform’s URL.
Fake NFT Projects (Rug Pull Scams)
We can observe that new NFT projects pop up and attain popularity on a daily basis. But how to distinguish legitimate projects from rug pull ones? A rug pull results when scammers create fake NFTs. They manipulate the cryptocurrency’s perceived value using different tech tactics. For instance, hype the NFT using social media advertisements, make people buy it and then pull the rug from investors.
So the whole process turns out to be worthless for investors. So the safety tips for avoiding this type of scam are:
- Before investing, do deep research.
- There are various Rug Pull detection tools available for you. Ensure the wallet app or browser extensions you use are legitimate.
Investor Scams
These types of scams are very popular as people want to be anonymous while dealing with cryptocurrencies. And many scammers take advantage of that and create projects, get investments then disappear with the money they collect from interested users.
The most rumored scam that happened recently is so colled project ‘Evolved Apes’. The developers of the project collected 798 ether in investments, which is almost $2.7 million. They vanished along with their official Twitter account and website — never to be heard of again.
How to avoid the scams like the above-mentioned: check if the contact information of the NFT developer is verifiable before investing any sum of money.
FAQ
How Do NFT Scams Work?
There are various ways through which scammers can get their digital hands on your cryptocurrency wallets or accounts. However, the most common ways are stealing your digital wallet/account login credentials and deceiving you into thinking you have made a successful purchase.
Is NFT Legitimate?
The answer is yes, NFT is legitimate. The digital economy is constantly evolving and acquiring new phenomena day by day. As NFT is a relatively new space with skyrocketing value, it captures many scammers’ attention. However, you can’t regard the whole space as a scam just because of the malicious users it has.
How Do I Know If My NFT Is Real?
After discussing all the potential scams you can face, it is reasonable to refer to NFT verification. Each NFT has a unique, non-replicable transaction hash. The former is a random sequence of letters and numbers, that is verified and added to the blockchain. So if you want to check whether your NFT is authentic, visit the Etherscan.io block explorer website, type the transaction hash and verify your NFT.
If you want to check the NFT sale history, sales volume charts, rankings, and prices, go to CryptoSlam.io.
Conclusion
The money flow announces a dramatic rise in NFT space, and so do the scams. To avoid these scams, you should, foremost, identify them. Through our article, you have understood what are the most popular NFT scams and even learned how to avoid them. So let’s sum up the basic steps you should take to deal with those frauds:
- Never open links or attachments from unknown senders
- Create a strong password and activate two-factor authentication for your digital wallet and account
- Always check NFT seller accounts’ verification
- Keep your seed phrase, secret recovery phrase or private key private! Moreover, never store your privet key or seed phrase on your PC or smartphone, as the scammers can access even them.
- Last but not least, read, re-read and re-re-read all the time! Spent most of your time on research rather than on NFT purchases.
After reading our article, you can certainly invest and purchase in the NFT space having no concern with scams.
