My Adventure as a Crypto Bounty Hunter Part 3 (Most common scams!)

In this post I'll go into detail about some of the most common scams based on my experiences (and some basic actions you can take to prevent them).

Edit: Previous posts

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/yezl4u/my_adventure_as_a_crypto_bounty_hunter_and_some/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/yjk4s2/my_adventure_as_a_crypto_bounty_hunter_part_2/

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Fake tokens

This has to take the number 1 spot. People are always looking to be the next Shiba Inu investor who invested 5000 USD and turned it into over 2 billion USD. These tokens are made to appeal to the FOMO.

I'll be honest, if you’re trying to invest in projects very early on, it is very hard to spot a fake token vs a legit one. Usually, the biggest tell is when the project is very vague in what they will do; don't have a viable whitepaper - meaning they don’t explain anything valuable in their whitepaper - and/or their token's code is a copy pasta of everything there is out there (not going to promote any websites, but there are plenty that allow you to check if the token is copied or not).

What I just explained usually takes the form of a honeypot (meaning the owners will remove the liquidity and you will lose everything), but this scam can also take the "Unlimited spending" form - meaning when you sell a token, you have to approve the contract, and you might be accidently approving unlimited spending of your hard earned crypto, so beware!

Pro tip: Use fresh wallets (meaning different seed phrases and not just another metamask wallet). Metamask allows you to create several wallets within the same seed phrase (the unique words combination that makes your crypto wallet). The thing is, if one of your accounts within the same seed phrase gets compromised, all can be compromised. As such, in order to safeguard from that scenario, create another wallet on another device or browser and do your "meme tokens" trading there.

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Insane Returns

This is a common scam as well, praying on people’s greed. These are more personal - meaning they usually are less of a general marketing campaign and more of a face in the middle of the project. Usually, when it all folds, it’s paid actors or someone who had no idea (or they claim so).

This scam takes 2 forms: it might be the smart contract type, meaning it’s all automated and automatic - you go to a website and you’re offered 1000000% APY for your crypto, all you have to do is farm a pair (only to never see your returns again); or you may get contacted by someone who has the opportunity of a lifetime - they will offer 1000% of your money at the end of the year, all you have to do is bring a friend and invest x amount. They will give a nice and elaborate story about how they are a growing company and will show you that they are organized, they have a website or an exchange, and have a reasonable motive to need your money.

Pro tip: Listen to the good old "too good to be true" rule - you have to remind yourself, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

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Discord Fake link

Self-explanatory, super common. What happens is that when you click on the link, you give access to every wallet on your system. Pretty easy to avoid.

Pro tip: Don’t trust the link? Don’t click on it. If you have to click on it, copy the source and paste it to check what’s on the link.

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General Malware

You get it from downloads on shady websites or recently by browsing on the browsing on websites that download content to your computer without your knowledge. Usually, you either give access to the wallets in your system, or it installs a replace virus that replaces the address you’re sending your crypto to with the perpetrator’s one.

Pro tip: I use Malwarebytes, which is pretty good and updated for these types of scenarios, but any major antivirus will do. Also, make sure to double check the addresses you’re sending your crypto to.

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Double What you send

If you would ask me some time ago if this was one of the most common scams, I would say no way. But apparently it is!

They usually make it elaborate - meaning your curiosity gets the better of you and you send 50$ of Ethereum on the Ethereum chain, receiving 100$ of BNB on the Ethereum chain, and when you go cash it out it works! And so, your greed starts to pile up, and you start sending higher and higher amounts and they keep sending BNB back. However, along the way they switch the real BNB with a fake BNB token that you don’t notice and so you lose 100k USD.

Pro Tip: Too good to be true also applies here (explanation above).

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I would like to end the post by saying that the most common misconception is that you got "hacked" - these are all scams. Hacking in the crypto space is pretty uncommon when it comes to individuals because crypto was designed that way. Who usually gets hacked are projects, not individuals. If you lost your funds, chances are that you played a part in it somehow.

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TLTR: I explain the most common types of scams and good general practices that may help you avoid these scams.

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If you got scammed, don’t give up, there may still be a way to recover your money, even if it was a long time ago. So, if you can’t do it yourself, try to seek some professional help to get your funds back – just be careful to not fall in another scam, be weary if people ask you for money even before they know if they can help you or not.

As always, Stay safe and Freak the Scammers!