It’s no secret that the blockchain industry has its fair share of risks and dangers lurking around every corner. One of them are scammers, who are always coming up with creative ways to snatch the keys to your wallet, and separate you from your hard-earned assets.
Here at ERTHA, it’s one of our missions to keep the community as safe as possible. Most of it comes down to knowledge — recognising scams is easy once you know how they work. Therefore in this article, we’re sharing the most common scams floating around in crypto communities, as well as the best practices to avoid them.
Private Messages
The Con: One of the most well known ways scammers try to trick people is by pretending they’re someone else. This is usually done by creating fake profiles on Telegram, Discord or other social platforms. These profiles pretend to be a position of authority by copying the profiles of administrators or moderators, then trying to “help” people by contacting them in private messages. This results in some inexperienced users getting swindled out of their private keys to their wallet, or transferring their assets.
The Fix: Never trust anyone that contacts you privately offering help. Never give away the secret phrase (keys) to your wallet to anyone. Never approve any transactions or scan unknown QR codes you receive in a private message. Disable receiving private messages on Discord from people you don’t know.
Wallet Connections
The Con: Another common way for your wallet to get drained is by having it connected to a phishing website. “Phishing websites” are copies of another website, with a slightly different URL address, trying to get users to think they’re on the real website, then connect their wallet and make transactions. Real websites and their databases can also be hacked, therefore it’s important to not have your wallet connected to sites you don’t use.
The Fix: Only connect your wallet when you need to. Always double check whether you’re on the official website before connecting. Periodically disconnect your Metamask from sites you are not actively using by following this guide.
Fake Prizes, Rewards, Airdrops
The Con: Fake channels, messages or emails asking you to claim a prize is also a scam that’s very common. Most of the time it’s a flashy, buzzword-ridden message that is trying to get you into a state of excitement by thinking you’re getting something for free. This is an easy way to lose your judgment and not think twice about what you’re about to do, and by the time you realize it’s a scam, it’s already too late.
The Fix: Don’t make impulse decisions or clicks when you receive a message about a reward. Verify the legitimacy of the sender, content of the message and what it’s asking you to do. Real winners of giveaways are never asked for crucial information like wallet keys or passwords.
Blockchain Addresses
The fact that nowadays, anybody can create their own cryptocurrency, is both a blessing and a curse. That’s why it’s incredibly important to learn the technical aspects of blockchain — addresses. In the real world, each place has its own address and postcode so that it can be uniquely located. Blockchain works the same way — each wallet, coin and token has its own identifying address to ensure transactions go where they’re supposed to.
The Con: Scammers can create a copy of a crypto token with the same name and functionality, and trick people into buying it, while the victims are unaware and think they’re buying the correct thing.
The Fix: Before purchasing any token, verify whether the unique token address is official. The one and only $ERTHA token address is 0x62823659d09f9f9d2222058878f89437425eb261.
Signal & Pump Groups
The Con: This is not a direct scam where hackers could take control of your wallet, however it’s still a very worthy mention. If you’ve been part of crypto communities for at least a little while, you’ve seen people (or bots) posting invites to social groups that advertise “100x” returns just by following their buy/sell “signals” of various low-cap crypto coins. In reality, the owners of these groups have bought the coin long before their signal about it, so they can dump it for a profit right after regular people from the group start buying, resulting in everyone except the owners losing money.
The Fix: Never, ever trust any “signal” or “pump” group. Do not buy a coin just because somebody asks you to do so, or advertises large returns.
Cold Storage
As a general rule, it is strongly recommended to keep any assets that you’re not immediately going to use, in a cold storage (hardware) wallet, like Ledger or Trezor. If used correctly, hardware wallets are impossible to scam or hack. As opposed to Hot Wallets like Metamask, which have much less security and obstacles for potential threats to be stopped. Never store a large amount of assets in a Hot Wallet.
In summary, always exercise caution when participating in any crypto community. Always double check who you’re talking to, know where your wallet is connected and verify whether you’re buying the right thing. And mistakes do happen — so better to be safe than sorry by keeping your assets safely locked away in a cold wallet.
Ertha is an MMO 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) game with extensive opportunities to satisfy one’s need for curiosity, competitiveness, and social recognition through roleplaying in a vast geopolitical map.
With three distinct characters to select from and endless possibilities to alter them, players themselves will be the creators of their own narrative and wealth both in virtual and real worlds.
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