How To Keep Yourself Safe Against Scammers In The Wild West Of Web3
Sorry to start of this blog on a bit of a ‘Debbie downer’ but these days it feels like there are scammers everywhere: in real life and on the internet. It can be so painful losing your hard-earned money (or crypto) to strangers, because you fell for one of the seemingly endless email, text message, or one of the multitudes of other types of scams.
Scammers these days are increasing their sophistication, sometimes developing methods which seem impossible — people get a text message from their mom, asking them to send a few dollars through because she is in a bind, what are you gonna do? Now, yes, it’s easy to assume you’d be ‘smarter than that, isn’t the benefit of hindsight wonderful, smarty pants?😉 But the truth is, anyone can get scammed. So it’s important, especially in crypto, where I’m sorry to say, scammers and ne’er do wells abound.
In part because of the technicalities involved in web3, it is possibly even easier for you to get scammed, especially if you do not know how to protect yourself and take adequate precautions. Does this mean you should avoid web3 totally? Course not silly. There are ways you can protect yourself from the Wild, Wild West of Web3, and your old friend Mallconomy is here with a few sage words of advice.
The first thing you need to remember, almost before anything else, is patience. Do not be in a hurry to submit your information, wallet address, seed phrase, or anything that could serve as your web3 identity.
Take your time to review a form or an email before clicking that ‘send’ button. If the instructors are pressuring you to act with little thought, i.e “Hurry now” or “ Do this fast, before the offer closes”, you have to be extra wary. Always do your research and take time to go through any site or mail you are sent.
Our MallStars community is a community that cares deeply about YOU and keeping you safe in the Metaverse and web3 is one of our absolute priorities. In fact, Armand Brunelle, our Cyber Security advisor here at Mallconomy, gave MallStars some useful tips on dodging scammers and maximizing their web3 security. Here they are:
1. Be careful with cryptocurrency giveaways: Who doesn’t like to win some free money or crypto from time to time? It can be thrilling to think you’ve just hit the jackpot - but you have to be extra careful. Be careful not to participate in just any giveaway. Some scammers will ask you to register on their website with a promo code or enter your wallet address to receive your rewards. However, this is just phishing: a deceitful way of obtaining your details by pretending to be genuine using a fake site. Make sure you report any scam to a Scam channel if you are in a Discord server or a Telegram group, or report the scammer to the admins.
2. Be cautious of wallet authentication: Some scammers will ask you to ‘authenticate’ your wallet address, to prove you are the owner, or threaten that you could lose your crypto if you do not. They create a website especially for this, asking you to input a recovery or seed phrase. Be extremely wary before inputting any information, especially if under duress. Legitimate companies will never send you a ‘authenticate your wallet or lose your crypto’ message. According to Brunelle, the best thing to do is ignore it. If anyone sends you a link in a server or a group chat, ensure it is coming from an admin (legitimate admins usually have roles attached to their usernames), and even then you should be wary, consider the circumstances — was it expected? Are they definitely the admin of that group? Are they trustworthy? If in doubt, ask in the chat channels and wait for an admin response to check!
3. Beware of fake emails: We’ve all received that dodgy email, perhaps from a leader of a small nation, who’s desperate to find one lucky person to store his millions in a bank account for him, and in exchange, he’s willing to go halfsies with you. Yeah, this kind of mail is common in Web3 and we’d like to think our savvy Mallstars would spot that kind of thing a mile away. Problem is, email scammers are not always that obvious. See the example below, although it’s not from a Web 3 company, it still highlights some of the warning signs one can be on guard for. Check the email address, check the company logo, is the spelling and punctuation accurate? Is the message expected?
You could get a mail like ‘Congratulations, you have won 1 BTC!’. Do not click on the mail and do not download any attachments. These emails are harmful to you and even your device. The best course of action to take in this case? DELETE that mail.
4. Look out for Twitter identity theft: There are accounts on Twitter (and other social media) that imitate the original accounts to scam people. These accounts will use an almost similar username, bio, and profile picture to catch the unsuspecting people. Before you engage with a crypto company account on Twitter, check when they joined Twitter, their followers, and who they are following. Head to the actual company’s Discord channel and reference it against the official accounts. Sometimes the characters will be just off by one, so look very carefully.
For example:
Instead of ‘Elon Musk’, you might see a message from ‘E1on Musk’
At first glance, the names can seem legit, but look closer and you’ll see there’s one character changed.
5. Employ 2FA and a strong password: You probably know about this from using your social media accounts, but our man Armand says it’s important to emphasize it again. For as many crypto applications as possible, always use two-factor authentication, such as Google Authenticator, and a strong password (no, putting a ‘1’ after your girlfriend’s name is not a secure password!). If an app doesn’t offer 2 factor, consider if it is worth the risk.
6. Look out for new crypto in your wallet: One of the more recent ways scammers in Web 3 are targeting unsuspecting individuals is by spamming out thousands of crypto to Defi Wallets. When the user tries to log in to a website to sell these funds (a website owned by the scammers) they are asked to connect their wallet, at which point funds are transferred out of their account. Make sure you are confident about the website or app you are connecting your Metamask to - you wouldn’t just punch in your bank details to any old site, so treat your Defi wallet the same.
With these tips, you can be better protected from scammers and enjoy the exciting world of web3 and the Metaverse. Make sure to report anything suspicious you see to your dedicated team of Mallconomy admins, we will be able to tell you straight away if a message or email you received is legit. Don’t be afraid to ask, always take your time and take care, especially when personal details or money is involved.
Want to join our MallStars Community? Register for Mallconomy here and join other rockstars waiting to work and live in the Metaverse! You could be on your way to making a living from working and selling in a 24/7 Metaverse mall.
Just do it safely.
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