A scam on the internet is modern-day theft. Furthermore, there are many things you need to be wary of on the internet and one of them is scammers. Furthermore, there are many different types of internet scams such as; copycat government scams, dating scams, phishing emails, holiday scams, pharming, forex scams and many more. 

We will look at NFT scams and how to avoid them when trading. NFTs are very new to the world of the internet, including scams. Make yourself aware of these scams and how to avoid them when trading. 

 

How To Avoid Scams When Buying NFTs

Before you start trading, we advise you to have two wallets for your NFTs. One of those wallets will be your main trading wallet and the other will be to store your NFTs/ digital currencies. The wallet which will store your NFTs will not be used for any external transactions as this will be your “safe” wallet. 

For the wallet which you will be trading with, all you need to do is ensure you have a sufficient amount of digital currency in your wallet. Enough so it covers the transaction. That way, the scammers won’t take too much from your wallet if there is nothing in there. The malicious scraper code will get little to nothing back from your trading wallet. Finally, once you own that NFT, we strongly advise you to add that to your wallet. 

 

Thoroughly Read Transactions and Keep Keys To Yourself

Once you have your two separate wallets for trading NFTs, you need to be careful when trading. Read all the minor details for the NFT before you commit to the transaction. 

Something else you must keep to yourself is your private key. You need to treat this like it is one of your passwords. A mistake some NFT traders make is giving their private keys to people who claim to be part of tech support. It is a common scam for many so ensure you don’t fall for this one. Keep your digital keys to yourself and then you should be ok. 

 

Avoid Private Messages

We touched on it in the last section but avoiding private messages is very important. Furthermore, it is one of the oldest scams to date so make sure you are not sharing data with anyone who privately messages you. 

If you are in any discord groups or even on Reddit, we advise you to turn off your private DMs so nobody can contact you. Sometimes, people will claim they are part of tech support from inside the group or even a dev. These people will likely be scammers because a developer wouldn’t contact you privately to solve an issue. They will deal with it publicly because it will likely help others in the future who have a similar problem to you. 

If you ever receive these types of messages and they contain links, avoid clicking those links. Furthermore, make sure you do research on the user before responding to them. 

Scammers imitating an organisation or individual has been a common scam for many years. You may have received one yourself through email or even text messages. Furthermore, they will likely have an email similar to an individual/organisation. Carefully read the email before you respond or click anything which is contained within the email. To check the email, visit the website and see if you can find them there. Another way to check is to enter the email on Google to see what appears. 

If you come across anyone looking to scam you through your emails or messages, report them and then block them. If you are part of groups on Discord or Reddit, put a message in the group to make other people aware of the scammer. 

 

How Do I Avoid Scamming Projects? 

Suspicious social media accounts are something else you need to be wary of. Furthermore, these are very easy to spot as long as you know what to look for. Firstly, check the number of followers they have and compare it to how many tweets they have posted. Additionally, if they have a high follower count but low engagement, this could also mean they are fake accounts. On Discord, this could be something similar such as a group with a lot of members but there are few posts in the group. 

Project roadmap scams are something else you should be aware of although these are more difficult to spot. The roadmap must include all of the finer details such as specific descriptions, why the project began, who you should contact for any queries about the project, timeliness and the overall goal of the project roadmap.

Before you start investing in a project roadmap for NFTs, you need to ensure the artists are legitimate. You also need to check to see if the artist has discussed NFTs in the past as well as that project. Although this may be more difficult for the average trader, you should also check if their previous artwork aligns with the project. Finally, check to see if the artist has existed for a long time. 

 

What Happens If You Fall For A NFT Scam?

If you have been a victim of NFT fraud then that is nothing to be ashamed of as the internet is relatively new to this sort of scam. Being aware of these particular scams is difficult because there are many out there. 

If you do get scammed through an NFT, you mustn’t try to sell the NFT to make the money back. We understand you have lost money but if you sell the NFT as well, you are also participating in the scam and therefore, normalising scams in the NFT community. Report the scam once it has occurred and make other people aware of the scam. You should include all of the minor details about the scam and ensure other people make the same mistakes that you made. 

 

Summary

Avoiding NFT scams isn’t easy because they are so new to the digital world. The best thing to do is read about the different scams that often occur with NFTs before you start trading. Remember, if something doesn’t feel right when you are talking to someone or negotiating a trade, it probably isn’t. Make sure you completely trust the trader or artist before committing to the trade. 

Just like crypto coins, NFTs are very new. Furthermore, they don’t have any governing bodies to monitor the trades. This is why so many people do not trade NFTs because you can not guarantee it is legitimate.