The following report is by Joe Doran via The Trends Journal:
Beware of scams asking to connect to your browser extension crypto wallet.
They can drain your crypto before you realize what’s going on. And the scams can build whole authentic looking Twitter feeds (and / or other social media feeds) and websites around their ploys.
Which is funny in a way, considering how fast and thoroughly social media platforms have shown their ability to crack down on people and accounts expressing dissident political opinions or skepticism about controversial subjects like mRNA gene-level technologies.
One recent scam that reached my Twitter inbox consisted of an invite to take advantage of a supposed Quant Networks air drop of tokens, “to encourage tokenization” activity and projects on the network.
I had previously followed the official Quant Network twitter account. The message in my twitter notification inbox seemed “phishy,” to say the least.
When I clicked the link to the message’s “Quant Network” twitter feed, it took me to a pretty convincing knock-off of the official Quant twitter feed.
The feed contained a post advertising the airdrop of QNT.
The feed did not, however, have an authenticating “blue checkmark.”
A simple Twitter search brought me to the official Quant feed, showing the blue checkmark.
The official feed contained no post or mention of any airdrop of WNT tokens.
I investigated further, by going back to the original message in my twitter notifications inbox, and checking out a website link in the message.
I was taken to an official looking website that again, looked like a convincing knock-off of the official Quant website. Of course, the url of the website was not the url of the official Quant website.
The knock-off site asked to connect to my browser crypto wallet.
Avoiding Scams
Twitter, of course, is hardly unique as a vector point for enticing people into crypto related scams. Bad actors utilize all social media platforms, especially the most popular ones for these ploys, because that’s where the people are.
Unfortunately, making people and organizations pay a monthly fee to retain their “blue checkmarks” on Twitter, potentially makes scamming easier for bad actors.
The vast majority of legit crypto companies and projects do pay their fee to have that important blue checkmark, so simply checking the official feeds of crypto projects is a good basic step to finding legit information concerning things like token airdrops.
Knowing and verifying the urls of official websites, and making sure you’re at an official website, when considering any crypto activity, is another must precaution.
Disabling browser-based crypto wallet extensions when not in active use is another precaution.
In addition, there are some tools that can help with identifying scam sites and attempted interactions with browser integrated crypto wallets.
Wallet Guard, an open source web3 security tool partnered with Metamask, is available as a web browser extension. It alerts users about phishing attempts and suspicious websites, and has other security features.
Shout out to the excellent Youtube crypto channel Crypto Casey for info on Wallet Guard.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[5] The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. [6] The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. [7] The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them; because they refuse to do judgment. Proverbs 21:5-7
Perhaps people would take cryptocurrencies more seriously if there were not so many scams and grifters, as with NFTs. What merit these concepts could potentially have get squandered by the fact that so many cryptos and the people running them are totally shady characters.
Beyond the blatant scams designed to drain your wallets, the more obvious ones are things like “memecoins,” or these tokens that are created overnight. Many of these coins and exchanges are just pump & dump and pyramid schemes; and once these scammers get enough people involved and the price of their imaginary coin climbs in value, they dump it, cash-out, and never talk about it again. This has happened so many times in the last several years it has really marred the whole industry; which is either a good or bad thing depending on how you feel about it.
I am cautious about cryptos in general. It’s your money so you can do whatever you want with it, but just be very careful and prudent on what you spend it on; and if it is cryptos and NFTs, just make sure you’ve done your due diligence and make sure your investment has a strategic purpose.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Point taken. There was this one crypto firm called ftx that shutdown and the founder/ceo was arrested for scamming people. So yes take caution.
The way I see things, if it’s not tracts, emergency supplies, groceries, bills, necessities, King James Bibles or products for self sustainability, (such as water purifies, seeds, tools, and solar panel systems), it’s probably a very poor investment. Especially in the days we live in now…
why do i get the feeling that video games paved the way for many to fall into these fake digital money pyramid schemes.
please people listen to Jesus more than anyhting or anyone on this earth.
Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.