(MoneyHippo.com) – NFTs offer an exciting new way to collect, trade, invest, and store digital information. Non-fungibles on a blockchain offer a decentralized outlet for collecting and investing, with transparent receipts and genuine ownership. Like all things digital, however, there’s always the risk of scams. Blockchains hold a slew of records for worthless NFTs, raided crypto wallets, and transfers for tokens that never existed at all.
NFT scams come masked in an assortment of disguises. One of the most common is social media hacking. Scammers have several methods of reaching NFT collectors on big tech platforms, particularly through private messaging. These scammers are after collectors’ NFT wallets, and whether they impersonate an influencer or hack friends’ accounts to reach their targets makes little difference to them. The best method to avoid these criminals is never to click a link sent to you privately or answer any personal questions from someone you don’t know.
Phishing is another popular scam. Thieves will send replicas of NFT Marketplaces that look authentic to victims’ emails or social media inboxes. After a series of clicks, victims unwittingly connect their NFT wallets… and criminals swiftly drain them. Once again, never open any link about cryptocurrency or NFTs that someone sends to you unsolicited.
“Rug-pulls” happen when someone creates a project and solicits investors, then they disappear. Remember the popular show “Squid Game?” Scammers created a token that rose in value to over $2,800,” then simply vanished. The website and social media accounts went dark, and the token became worthless.
The scammers walked away with over $3 million. While that might seem like an unavoidable consequence of playing in a risky world, there were plenty of signs and warnings from experts along the way. Those who stayed informed got out, while scammers took those playing and investing blindly for much more.
NFT scams are out there, and they’re numerous. To stay safe in the crypto world, keep yourself up to date with what’s in your wallet, be careful who you talk to, and research the tokens you mint and games you play.
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