YSK about these common crypto scams

Hi everyone, especially newbies, welcome aboard! This is the wild west of crypto where so many things are out to get you. But fret not, knowledge is power, and being aware can help you stay away from scams. When I started out in this space, I had to learn about some of these scams the hard way, so I'm hoping this post will help some of you newbies as well. So here's my list of 8 most common crypto scams you should be wary of!

1. The Dusting Attack

This is a scam where you will receive very tiny amounts of crypto, also known as dust, to a lot of addresses. The criminals will watch these wallets that thye've sent the dust to, to see if they can de-anonymize the wallet owner. Once they've identified the owner, they can set up more elegant phishing attempts to sweep the funds from the owner's wallets. Or, they may even physically target the owner to get them to give up the keys. Best way to protect yourself from this would be to leave the dust where it is. Do not touch it, do not interact with it in any way. And most of all, don't bother trying to sell it.

2. The Clipboard Malware

This one is where your device has been infected with a malware that changes the address that you have copied and pasted from your clipboard. The malware can swap the addresses to the hacker's own address, or to a random string of characters. When that transaction goes through, you'd have lost that crypto to the hacker or just poof, thin air. To avoid this scam, make sure that your device is clean, and not infected with any kind of virus. Keep your antivirus software up to date. When you copy and paste your addresses, double, no triple check to make sure you're sending it to the right address.

3. The Hot Lady in Your DM

Gentlemen, this scam is the one that targets your primal brain. A very attractive woman often dressed scantily with big boobs (sorry) may show up in your DMs asking you about crypto and try to chat you up. This eventually leads to "her" manipulating you into giving up your 12 word phrases or passwords. They may try to initiate exchange of nudes for crypto. They may even have a sob story and make you feel bad into sending her crypto. Best way to not fall for this, is to always remember that "if a hot lady DMs you about crypto, ignore him". Another variation of this is the "send me crypto I'll double it for you." or the "Investor" who thinks you're so special and wants to help you. There is no free lunch in this world. Nobody here is looking out for others by giving you free crypto (except moons of course). Personally, I avoid talking to anyone via DMs on here.

4. The "Helpful" Support Team in Your DM

This one is where a support team "member" from the project DMs you via Telegram or reddit to help you validate your wallet. This is an attempt to get you to divulge your private keys, or they'll link you to a phishing site that looks legit to get you to key in your 12 word phrase. It is very common to get some attention from scammers in your DMs when you've just posted a question on a subreddit or telegram group. If you got to this point, compliment OP. I'll give you a moon. Ok let's carry on. To protect yourself, remember not to entertain any kind of DMs from anyone. Do not click on any links, and most importantly do not give anyone your private keys.

5. The Rugpull

Rugpulls happen all the time, and even billionaires have fallen victim to them. This is a scam where the developers of the smart contract, or the project drain the funds from the liquidity pool. This is especially common in De-Fi, and have been on the rise as well. The best way to not fall victim to it, is to make sure you invest in projects that have fully doxxed and trusted developers & have trusted smart contracts. Of course, not everyone's gonna go through the code to make sure that the code is clean. There are third party companies that do contract auditing, such as Certik. This is where DYOR comes in. Personally I would avoid Binance Smart Chain projects altogether, cuz that's where i've experienced many rugpulls.

6. The Honeypot

This is a very common scam that I've experienced quite a few times in Binance Smart Chain "projects". The scam is very simple. The contract is written in a way where you can buy the token, but selling will be impossible. So if you're watching the charts, and you've thrown money in there, you'll see the value rising. However, when you're ready to sell, you'll notice that you won't be able to. The best way to avoid such a scam is just to watch the transactions on BSCscanner, to make sure that buy and sell transactions are going through to unique addresses.

7. The Attack of the Clones

Another kind of phishing attack, where you might get an seemingly legit looking email from an exchange, with a link contained within the email, or clicking on links from untrusted sources. These links may lead to websites that look like the carbon copy of the original website. There might be a security notification telling you to key in your seed phrase. When you do key it in, the hackers will own your crypto, and can simply sweep your wallet clean. To avoid this, you should double check the url of the site you're using, as they often look dodgy, with a .org or a .net extension. For instance you may click on a link that takes you to "pomhub.com" instead of the actual site. To protect yourself, bookmark the actual links to the exchanges, instead of clicking random links.

8. Pump and Dump

There are many telegram groups that organize planned pumps and dumps, hoping that others will FOMO in and buy in. Once the price has pumped, the people who are in on it will dump their positions, causing significant loss to the ones who had FOMO'd in. Often times, the owners of the project may be in on it, and may even pay influencers to shill the project. When the coin has pumped enough, they will just dump their positions and pocket the profits. To avoid this, just don't FOMO into projects. Don't listen to some influencer with 1 hit song back in 2013 to make financial decisions.

So that's all I have for now, maybe when I have more to think of, I might do a Part 2!

Hope you all stay safe and enjoy them greens!