The Non-fungible token is a recent technological phenomenon in the digital space. It has achieved massive success within a short period since its Inception, proving to be a revolutionary technology with the capacity to turn artists and collectors into overnight millionaires.
However, just like any new technology, the NFT space is not without its shortcomings. Recently, there has been a lot of rug pulling and hacking going on in the NFT space. A lot of people have complained about their wallets being hacked.
Not quite long ago a developer that goes by the name ‘Evil ape’ scammed a lot of people with an NFT project known as ‘Evolved ape’. After making 798 Eth (Around 2.7m dollars) from the project he ghosted the community. Another one is the ‘Banksy NFT’ that made a whopping sum of $350,000 from selling a worthless NFT on Opensea.
The reason for this scamming is that the NFT marketplace is still new and riddled with some security and authenticity issues. How can you protect yourself from falling victims to this vicious set of individuals?
Don’t worry. In this article, I will share some tips with you that will help you avoid being hacked or scammed in the NFT space.
1. Conduct proper research
Before buying any NFT verify its authenticity by researching them on google, social media platforms, and legit platforms like opensea to see how valuable they are. You can start by checking out their properties and description on their website or NFT marketplaces like Opensea, rarible, foundation, etc. This is because most scammers don’t stress themselves over providing detailed descriptions and properties about their NFT. You can also get to know whether or not an NFT is a scam or valuable when you go through their social media pages. This way you get to see what they are up to and what people are saying about them online. Trust me, there is always a loophole somewhere. You just have to do your homework.
2. Don’t buy unverified NFTs
Desist from buying unverified NFTs in the NFT marketplace. However, This doesn’t mean that all unverified NFTs are scams as verification may take weeks or months, but unless you are 100% sure don’t buy it.
3. Don’t give out your private key
Your private key is your seed phrase (password) which is personal to you. You will only need it when setting up your wallet, recovering your wallet, or transferring your wallet to another browser or device. This seed phrase is what gives you access to your wallet and if it mistakenly enters into the wrong hands all your crypto, stored in your wallet will be withdrawn. Hence, keep it safe and don’t give it to anyone disguising as an NFT customer support on any platform. This is because no Legit NFT customer support will ask you for your private key. In addition, don’t enter your private key into any pop-up or sign-up form sent to you via email or any phishing website.
4. Learn to identify counterfeits
There are a lot of copycats in the NFT space that look very similar to the originals with little to differentiate them, but there are still ways to identify them. They include;
- Low price. Ever heard the saying “If something is too good to be true then it is not true” Exactly it isn’t true!
- Low sales volume or no sales volume.
- No description or properties
- A purple ethereum symbol instead of gray with Eth word written on the polygon word.
5. Don’t jump on free drops
Don’t think you are lucky or something for getting a free NFT drop. They are most likely a means to dupe people.
6. Turn off your Dm on communication channels
There are many people on these channels with different agendas. Some are solely in this group to scam people. They will send you links to airdrops or disguise themselves as customer support on these channels, wanting to help you with any issue. Please be vigilant and note that no NFT customer support will ever DM you directly first to help you solve an issue. You may turn on your dm once in a while to integrate with trusted sources or verification bots. If not it is safe you turn it off for security reasons.
Concluding note
The above tips can help you avoid being scammed or hacked in the NFT space, but it is not a 100% guarantee. You can never be too careful, so don’t limit your precaution to just those tips. Ensure you carry out extra research to protect yourself. Lastly, NFT is a huge investment but never invest money you can’t afford to lose.
