Nobody wants to be your friend on here.

Obviously you can have friendly exchanges with people in this sub, but the people DMing you, asking how you’re doing, aren’t your friends. I’ve seen plenty of warnings on here about general scams, like phishing and people wanting you to send them crypto to invest, but I haven’t seen any on the endless stream of fake friends in your DM box.

I’ve been getting daily chat requests at this point from people who claim they are new to crypto and looking for friends. The few I’ve engaged with play through the same scenario, wanting to know where I live, what I’m holding, and very quickly want me to chat with them on another app so that we can “talk easier.” It took my newbie butt a few chats to understand why they wanted me to switch apps, but every app they suggest is linked to your phone number: WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Telegram. I assume most people on here know what a SIM swap is, but if you’re new and dumb, like me, the “I may have just made a new friend” aspect was a new angle for me.

The biggest warning signs I’ve seen, as they all haven’t been new accounts, is:

1. They aren’t in any of the subs I am in.
2. They have little or negative karma.
3. If you ask why they messaged you they get defensive and apologetic.
4. They disappear immediately after I tell them I’m not downloading anything.

I’ve finally been on here 60 days so I can hopefully post without getting it removed. I’ve only been into crypto for a few months and this sub has been awesome for the support and information. Hopefully most of you are smarter than this to begin with, but I just wanted to put this out there since there are a lot of new people here.

tl;dr Scammers want your phone number; don’t trust anyone who wants you to download another app to chat with them.