Even in a bull market, the scams continue... There have been quite a few airdrop scams that have started up in the last month or so, where wallets are airdropped tokens/NFTs and when they try to claim or mint they are unknowingly authorising the scammer to essentially empty their wallets. In the end, it is a blockchain version of the good old phishing scam... and so, it is often just prudence to just assume that random things that land in your very public Ethereum or other blockchain wallet is going to be a scam!

I often get quite a few notifications of things landing in my public hot wallet... I subscribe to alert notifications via the blockchain notification service, Forta. Every few days, there are is going to be some unexpected token transfer or incoming thing... those I generally ignore, but often just check up just in case. If they are incoming, there is generally nothing to worry about, but if there are other events, then it is best to check just to be sure. Of course, there can be very many innocent reasons why a wallet address gets caught up in a notification.

Today, there was an interesting Discord notification that was an alert that there was an ongoing scam that was affecting users of Uniswap. I used to have some LP positions on mainnet Ethereum, I think I still have some floating around... but most of mine have now migrated to L2 versions of Uniswap.

Anyway, I was sort of curious to know if I had been included into the lucky list of scam winners...

I mean, there was quite a lot of buzz going around... and I felt like I would have been a little bit left out if I missed out on a scam attempt!

Woohoo... a quick check on Etherscan showed that I WAS lucky enough to have been sent a chunk of scam ERC20 tokens. Thankfully, it was marked on Etherscan... but the fact that quite a few people seem to have clicked on an "airdrop claim" before thinking about anything else shows up how vulnerable some people are to a quick cash grab. Of course, anyone can always fall prey to these things... but crypto is a bit prone to the click-first, think later mentality... and this is during a bear market! Imagine how bad it would be in a bull market... well, we don't need to imagine...

Anyway... I was able to learn about a resurfacing of an older blockchain scam that is also making the rounds. This involves a contact where the scammer "accidentally" shares the private key/seed phrase of a wallet that has some ERC-20 tokens in it... but no ETH (or native chain coins) to fuel the transactions to "steal/claim" the "free" tokens.

So, the victim tries to take the ERC-20 tokens by sending in some ETH (or otherwise, depending on the chain) to fuel the token extraction. Then... they discover that there is a script set up to immediately drain ETH as soon as it lands in the wallet! Ingenious!... and it really feeds on the greed of the victim! Of course, there is another version which feeds on the kindness of strangers to help extract the locked funds in exchange for a small reward!

Anyway... stay safe out there in crypto-land. It really is worth re-iterating often... there are lots of sharks out there!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!