🔐 5 Common Scams and Ways to Avoid Them

September 08, 2022

Seedphrase Daily 👋 the crypto newsletter that makes you smarter every time you read.

  • 🔐 5 Ways Hackers Take Your Money and How to Avoid Them.

  • 🏀 Earning ETH prizes playing fantasy sports.

  • 🌱 NewSeeds

  • ✨ Meme of the Metaverse

🔐 5 Ways to Fend Off Hackers

Cryptocurrency is a valuable asset to criminals. Hell. It gained traction as a way for people to buy drugs, guns and services on the dark web. It's liquid, highly portable, anonymous (to a degree), and once the transaction is made, there's no reversing it.

As technology advances, there are new ways scammers trick you into giving them their money. We've all heard of stories like famous actor Seth Green getting his Bored Ape stolen from a phishing scam.

I'm going to make sure that never happens to you.

By teaching you all the scams, so you understand them better than the scammers.

1. Social Media Giveaways 📱:

Posts from influencers promise to give away crypto if you retweet or like.

These posts usually have high engagement and will ask you to send them 1ETH, 1BTC, 1BNB or whatever the case is to get back a 10x.

Why would you need to send money to win a giveaway? Exactly. It means it's fake and too good to be true.

To Avoid: Vet the profile to ensure it's real, or just avoid these giveaway posts in general.

2. Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes 🔼:

Ponzies: Guarantee you huge returns through investment/portfolio management services when in reality, those "returns" are other people's money.

The only cash flow comes from the organizers when they take money from new investors and give them to the old ones.

For instance, there's a service that promises 10% monthly returns. You contribute $100, and the organizer then onboards another victim. With his $100 pays you out the $110. The cycle continues until funds stop coming in, and then you're all screwed.

Pyramid Schemes: A little bit different from ponzis. Pyramid schemes require a small team of recruiters that the organizers hire to onboard more people.

The recruiters will receive a commission for each new member they get; as time goes on, older members increase their revenue.

This is illegal but typicallys continues until the organizer gets caught or people stop buying.

To Avoid: Be skeptical. If you see content online telling you to buy a course to make money, invest in a project or product, or sell something yourself, be cautious. Understand the investment and investigate the seller.

3. Fake Mobile Apps 📲:

There are malicious apps disguised as popular ones designed to take your crypto. Once installed on your phone, hackers gain access to drain your wallet more than Uber Eats fees.

These apps also could rank high on the Apple Store or Google Play Store, which gives them legitimacy if you're not careful!

To Avoid: Only download from the official website.

4. Phishing 🎣: This is by far the most popular. You've probably seen these in the form of fake Discord, Instagram, Telegram and Twitter accounts that try talking to you. They will either ask you for money posing as a project founder or ask you to click a link.

To Avoid: NEVER CLICK THE LINK. Only one thing will happen, and it'll keep you up at night.

Phishing can take the form of:

  • Fake websites that make you connect your wallet.

  • Fake links from impersonators that automatically take your wallet

  • Signing/Approving a blind signature popup that allows them access.

5. Vested Interest 🧍‍♂️:

"Influencers" don't always have your best interest. Suppose they tweet or tell you to buy something just for the lolz. They likely got paid for the promotion to pump their bags and have no interest in holding said project.

To Avoid: DYOR and don't just blindly ape, especially in bearish times.

Quick Summary ⏰:

  • Always verify links from official websites and accounts.

  • If it's too good to be true, it most likely is.

  • Verify influencers and social media accounts before trusting them.

  • Don’t click on random links!

  • DYOR, and make sure to base your decisions on logic.

Understanding the traits of different scams will increase your capabilities as a trader, and spotting them could help guide others not to make the same mistake.

If you learned something, send a friend the referral link below! You'll both get points towards free stuff.

🏀 Earn ETH prizes playing fantasy sports.

Sorare is an Ethereum-based platform where people can buy/sell digital collectibles of professional athletes.

They offer NFT soccer and baseball player cards that allow you to form teams and enter them into a fantasy league where they compete with others.

Similar to FIFA's system of opening packs, it will range from common to super rare. Winning the tournaments with your team will allow you to collect ETH prizes and extra packs.

Sorare Partners with NBA to Launch a New Game! ⛹️‍♂️

Last year they received $680M in funding, giving them a $4.3B valuation.

And soon enough, they will launch cards NBA cards for this years season. The premise of the game is the same, but i see dollar signs everywhere. Digital collectibles in the most popular sports on earth? That you can create fantasy leagues with? And receive ETH prizes?

Cmon now. Don't sleep.

Thoughts on the game 💭

When I signed up, they gave me a free pack. It was nostalgic, wondering if I would pull a super rare player. I felt like a kid opening pokemon cards.

Spoiler: they were all common.

But, I used those cards that made a shitty team and placed them in a tournament to see what would happen. Wish me luck

All around, it was fun, and if I were a bigger sports fan, I'd enjoy it much more.

Rating : 7.6/10

🌱 NewSeeds

How Ethereum Miners plan to Pivot After the Merge. Adapt or get lost in the sauce. 🍝

✨ Meme of the Metaverse

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research

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