HOW TO SPOT A SCAM AIRDROP.
Airdrop in crypto-world is an event whereby a crypto-coin gets to distribute its assets freely to selected group of people who must have performed a simple task via social media platform or any other medium.
Talking of the scam in these cases,there are people who will always find a way to introduce scam and fraud to any good concept out there not restricted to crypto-world alone.These kind of airdrop will promise a mouth watering offer in the event of their project;they send out google doc forms requesting for your details and thereafter they will scan each wallet registered for the airdrop and will spam the valuable ones.They spam by sending you another mail requesting for your private key or send you a phishing link of www.myetherwallet.com. Once they have your key,your tokens are gone as they are always ready to transfer out.Tokens sent out are not retrievable that’s the more reason private key should be private.In some cases some of them act as an existing token so as to get your attention,the newbie and greedy one mostly fall for this kind of scam.
These are ways to spot a scam Airdrop:
If you’ve heard of the coin before, alarm bells should be going off in your head and you should do a little research before filling out the form. EOS, Tron, and VeChain all supposedly had airdrops in February. They are currently #9, #14 and #17 on CMC. Do you think these coins need more help with marketing and want to give away lots of valuable tokens?
If there’s an official website, look at it and any social media accounts they link to. An airdrop should be mentioned somewhere. Stellar for example was already successful and had an airdrop last year, but you could find info on their website and social channels.
Unless it’s a brand new crypto project, there should be some usage history behind the account. Be wary of new Bitcointalk, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Many legit airdrops are held through Google Forms, but I’d say most quality projects hold their airdrop / bounties on their own website.
Sure, some projects are based out of parts of the world where their English isn’t very strong. But for a top 100 coin, there should be few, if any mistakes.
I’ve never donated to an “airdrop” to get more coins, because at that point, it’s more of an ICO. It could be legit, but I find most quality projects will run their ICO through their website and not some Google form.
If they’re claiming to be associated with a well-known Intellectual Property or company, they’re either scammers or it’s a low quality project.
There’s no way to withdraw without a purchase. Sometimes you sign up for a site and get lots for “free” tokens.In most cases their asset value is only listed on their website and not anywhere else.
With scammers, there is often a dollar value (or one that can be calculated from the price of the coin). If the airdrop was real it would definitely be worth your time to fill out the form. Unfortunately you won’t see any of those sweet sweet coins you were promised.
It doesn’t feel right. If you get a gut feeling that the project it isn’t legit, don’t join the website or fill out the form. Sure, you could miss out on a few bucks, but you could also dodge the bullet of getting phished or scammed.
Twitter:@TheDolapoO
Email: t2ndey@gmail.com
