Helio helps merchants process payments directly on the blockchain, i.e. payments flow directly from the consumer to the merchant’s wallet and can’t be reversed by Helio, Solana, Polygon or any other party. Instant settlement and “immutability” of transactions are two powerful advantages of blockchain vs traditional payments, where merchants often wait days or weeks to get paid, and “reversals” cost $50–100 a pop.
As in traditional banking, scammers operate in web3 as well to exploit users with very similar techniques. They tend to revolve around impersonating others. For example, they might impersonate a hyped NFT project or big brand. Typically scammers will snoop around in Discord pretending to represent such projects as “alpha hunters” (by imitating Discord names of real people). Such scammers might be offering unsolicited pre-sales using Helio Pay Links.
It’s best practice to disable link posting in Discord entirely (even in support tickets) and never respond to unsolicited approaches.
In addition to user awareness, we’ve made it easy to use Helio safety tools & merchant verification to keep you safe and make web3 payments with peace of mind.
Before purchasing on Helio Pay Links, always check the merchant can be trusted based on a number of key identifiers.
Wallet Transparency
Users can look up the recipient wallet (on the block explorer) from a Helio checkout page with a single click
The block explorer is essentially a public record of the wallet’s transaction history. A legitimate wallet has a healthy balance, frequent transactions and a history of transactions over a decent period of time.
A scammer’s wallet will look like this. It is typically created recently, with little balance and a very limited transaction history.
Pay Links from merchants who disable wallet transparency are automatically marked with a warning message.
Report a suspicious link
Report a suspicious link to the Helio team directly from the checkout page or in a dedicated channel in our Discord. Our security operations monitor and shut down suspicious links and blacklist wallets 24x7 using automated tools based on heuristics and these reports.
Twitter confirmation badge
Merchants can now confirm their Twitter account directly with Helio to benefit from a “Twitter confirmed” badge on Helio checkout pages.
This is important as it signals trust and proves you’re the verified owner of the merchant's Twitter handle. Pay Links from merchants who haven’t confirmed their Twitter accounts show an unconfirmed symbol.
If you’d like to verify your Twitter account, please complete this form and follow the instructions. We aim to verify and enable the badge on your Helio checkout pages within 24 hours during workdays.
Pay Link authentication
We offer authentication options for Pay Links such as Discord SSO, NFT gating or passwords. This helps merchants lock down payments to a targeted and intended customer audience.
Unique URLs (aka slugs)
Merchants can use unique URLs such as hel.io/x/Customername to help customers recognise the Pay Link belongs to them.
Additional merchant verification options are coming soon. If you have additional safety recommendations please contact us in Discord or via the website.
