Popular crypto scams and how to avoid them. Part 2

Staying safe in web3 is not an easy task. Unfortunately, the space is full of scams and potential fraud. But don’t worry, with a little bit of knowledge, you can protect your assets. Here we’re discussing popular crypto scams and how to avoid them.

If you’ve missed the 1st part of the series, check it out here. We previously covered crypto giveaways, rug pulls, phishing attacks, and other popular scams.

Now, let’s continue with the second part of this series.

Fake Discord groups

Discord has historically been one of the most popular tools to build communities on web3. But not everyone is familiar with how it works and it takes time to become a pro Discord user. It makes the app a perfect environment for scammers.

Once you register and join any web3 project, there is a 99.9% possibility you’ll start receiving countless DMs from suspicious “team members”, traders, etc. These will usually contain promotions, giveaways, links, and so on.

The golden rule to protect yourself in Discord is to never click on any promotional messages you receive in your DMs. All the project announcements generally are published on the general channels and official accounts. It's very unlikely that any legitimate project will reach out to you directly.

To avoid being added to unwanted groups and communities you need to choose Don’t allow direct messages on privacy settings:

Nonrealistic roadmaps

We believe that every web3 project should come up with a roadmap since this helps users/investors do their research before contributing and investing in the project. You can check out Tapx’s roadmap in case you’re interested in our plans for the future.

Here are red flags in roadmaps:

• Too many promises;
• Unrealistic goals;
• Short-term goals.

Usually, these projects promise too much without even creating a real use case for their NFT collection or token. Most of them end up with a rug pull or a general lack of demand for that project.

Bidding scams

Bidding scams usually occur on the secondary NFT market after a user has purchased a valuable NFT and wishes to resell it to the highest bidder.

However, when a valuable NFT is posted to sell, some malicious bidders might switch up the cryptocurrency used without notifying the seller. What happens next is you end up with 100 dollars in your wallet instead of 100 ETH.

Technically, the malicious bidders aren’t breaking any laws, so there’s no way you can take your NFT or money back.

To avoid this happening, always double-check the actual cryptocurrency that you’ll receive when selling your NFT.

2 efficient ways to stay safe in crypto

The most effective way to avoid all these scams is …. Do Your Own Research (DYOR).

Web3 is still in its infancy and there are no regulations and a general pattern for maintaining your security. However, things are changing for the better now, read our Securing web3 blog to learn more.

Still, doing your own research can save you from falling victim to malicious activity.

After spending sufficient time browsing through several web3 projects: their founding teams, roadmaps, whitepapers, and the assets themselves, will become easier to identify any potential irregularities and decide whether the project is worth investing in or not.

Another thing you should maintain to keep all your crypto assets secure is Wallet Hygiene.

Here are 2 red flags to remember:

• The site prompts you to connect your wallet before you can do anything there.
• After you connected the wallet, it will immediately request a signature, here’s where it gets DANGEROUS.

Make sure you check your token approvals regularly and revoke contracts that you’re no longer interacting with. And remember to always pay attention to what kind of signatures/transaction you sign with your private key.

Read more about wallet hygiene on this Twitter thread by WiiMee.eth.

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So now you know a little bit more about popular crypto scams and how to avoid them. Save this post to come back to it later, share it with your web3 frens and stay safe!