8 Common NFT Scams To Avoid
Protect yourself and the digital artist community
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Artists and NFT collectors are falling for simple scams, because of a lack of basic protections.
In this article, I dissect 8 NFT scams designed to take away your digital art and digital currency. By the end of this tutorial you will be able to avoid these scams and keep your digital art and eth safe.
🚨MetaMask digital wallets without a hardware wallet make your more vulnerable. Don’t 🏊♂️ swim naked, because eventualy the tide goes out.
🍒Get a hardware wallet then watch how to set your hardware wallet up.
📽 Each how-to video is around 60 seconds long.
TL:DR
- Avoid fake marketplace profiles.
- Don’t store your seed phrase in your email or computer.
- Don’t respond to phishing emails.
- Don’t fill in a fake Metamask support form.
- Don’t reply to fake support DM’s on Discord or Twitter.
- Don’t Google NFT sites and connect your wallet to a fake site.
- Don’t giving out your seed phrase or private key.
- Don’t click on email attachments that run a web logger script.
Losing Your Digital Wallet — The Consequences
Accidentally giving out the password (seedphrase, secret recovery password, private key) to your digital wallet… invites the following to happen…fast.
- All lowball Weth offers on your NFT’s will be accepted by the scammer.
- All Eth in your wallet will be transferred out to their wallet.
There is no way to recover your digital art or your eth.
You can protect yourself by….
1. Avoid Fake marketplace profiles
2. Add 2FA On Your Email
…and don’t store you seedphrase on your computer….and definately not in your email account.
3. Delete Phishing Emails
…by being a little more vigilent when emails from brands you might recognise but with emails you do not.
4. Avoid Fake Metamask Support Forms
…the form is usually mentioned as a subtweet in a series of replies on Twitter.
The form appears helpful, and then asks for your seedphrase / private key. Avoid.
5. Avoid DM Support On Twitter / Discord
Support via a private DM channel on Discord or Twitter…might actually be with someone who wants to harm you not help you. Avoid.
6. Bookmark Marketplace Sites
Avoid Google ads pointing to fake website pretending to be a marketplace or wallet.
7. Don’t Give Out Your Seed Phrase
Twelve or twenty four words stand between you and someone else taking over your digital wallet.
Don’t give out your seed phrase / secret recovery phrase.
Don’t give out your private keys.
8. Be Click Wary — Don’t Open Attachments
A little script or screensaver attachment might lock you out of your computer. You don’t want that to happen.
Get A Hardware Wallet
A hardware wallet puts a physical barrier between your assets and the digital world. It also puts a PIN number on the device.
If you have been in digital art for more than a few months or have more than 5k in funds….and are still using MetaMask software only… you are at risk.
It’s time to get a Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet.
Here’s how to get setup with Ledger hardware and software Part I
Here’s how to connect Ledger with Metamask Part II
If this article has made you curious about getting started with digital art, we also run the Digital Artist Economy workshop helping artists create their first digital art through a three week programme. Share it with an artist you’d like to see on an NFT marketplace.
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