crypto is notorious for being a space with tons of scammers. it is almost impossible to be on twitter and never come across to one of these types of scams.
even though you may think that it is too obvious that a person is trying to scam you or not, but still a lot of people fall into the trap.
obviously there are many scamming methods in crypto space, so I can’t cover all of them but here is a list of most common and dangerous methods that are being used.
it is a method where scammer wants to send you tokens, but first he needs you to send him a small amount to verify your address. most of the time they will send you a link to their website to show you a list of fake transactions and convince you that a lot of people received the money
also this method is very common on youtube, where you see elon musk or any other big name talking on a live stream and the scam link in the description where they act like the scam token is the subject of discussion in the live stream. in reality it is only a footage of a famous person talking about a completely different topic
rugpull is also a very common method that happens a lot in the NFT space. where the holders buy the NFT for expensive prices and the founder leaves the project with all the liquidity by deleting every social media platform and the NFT holders stay with worthless images
if you want to avoid these kinds of scams you have to make sure the liquidity is locked for a period of time, so the developers can’t pull out the liquidity any time they want.
if you want to know how you can check if the liquidity is locked or not, check out this article.
the most common form of phishing scam is asking for the seed phrase of your wallet or malicious software that steals your seed phrase. even the most complicated functionalities in crypto space doesn’t require your seed phrase, so if website or app asks you to enter the seed, get out immediately.
another form of phishing scam is when you try to install a new wallet, the given “supposedly new“ seed phrase, is the seed phrase of the scammer. so at that moment if you send any funds the scammer has full access to it and can steal your funds
most common form is where the scammer is trying impersonate a celebrity. this happens a lot on twitter and youtube, where vitalik buterin or elon musk is messaging you and saying you’ve won an airdrop or something like that and he needs you to send him some money before he can give you the airdrop
if you get a message from a famous person make sure to check their full profile and don’t be confused by their name. in reality the chance of some celebrity messaging you is almost 0
A Ponzi scheme is usually an investment scam designed to attract investors with the promise of generating high and quick rates of returns off the back of a non-existent enterprise. with this method the scammer pays huge amounts of money to early investors with the funds of new users
it is actually relatively hard to spot a ponzi scheme, because in this case they are actually paying the users for a period of time, and this makes it really appealing for a lot of people and they’ll start to come in. these are the most common signs that you are dealing with a ponzi scheme:
The promise of quick and risk-free investment returns, regardless of market conditions
Investment models or business activities behind such schemes that are presented as allegedly too complex to explain