Bitcoin Forum

Apologies if this is a dumb question or been asked preiovus but I need to know the answer. Can airdrop coins be malicious? I ask because there seem to be a lot of new airdrops going around right now and just want to

protect myself. Obviously only use links that are https and not http for safety but I am curious about the coins themselves. Can they screw up your MEW? Or could they possibly mess that whole one ETH account up? Thanks

for helping out a newbie in this space

If you download a wallet that is compromised, it could lead to a compromise of your system including all your wallets and online credentials. The short answer is: "No.". Bitcointalk provides no safety guarantee of any kind FYI.

No. Antivirus only works for trojans / keyloggers / R.A.T tools that have already been detected ( eg, signature is known ). 

This is not the case / could not the be the case with most/ some of these compromised wallets, if there is a decent malware programmer behind it. and your antivirus might not pick it up.

It's safer to just not use anything that is not scanned thorougly..

Have you ever heard of backdoors in softwares?

it's the man of breaking bad?

No software can be compromised , just look for airdrops where you can use an online wallet like myetherwallet.

As the rest of the people here have said, the danger mostly lies in downloading a wallet from the coin's site and getting infected with malware. Sometimes your antivirus won't catch bad stuff, either. Your safest options are-

1. Use on online wallet
2. Do a damn good amount of research in the project and hope you're right
3. Use a Virtual Machine

I see a lot of people use all three of these methods to keep themselves safe, and I use all three myself. If I'm personally on a project and helping out, I'll trust the wallet. If it's a small airdrop that allows online digital wallets, I'll use that. Worst case scenario I boot up my VM and download some malware!

Virtual Machines aren't completely safe, and some malware could get into your system, but it does a pretty good job of letting you sleep at night and acts as a filter for preliminary problems. Good luck.

I've been waiting to see the first scam airdrop that uses a wallet to compromise the user's system.  It is definitely something people should be aware of.  Especially with how anxious people are to rush into anything that promises free money.  It is only a matter of time before it happens.  Stay safe!



If possible, this is a great option.  Although that requires you to trust the exchange, at least there is nothing at stake.

I never participate in any airdrop which there is a need to download a wallet for it. I recommend anyone to not download them to. I participate in airdrops which I can get my reward using an online wallet.

One of most important rules is to not give anything away except your public coin addresses and maybe an email address. There were some scam airdrops where the private key of Ether and other coins were requested. If you only provide the public address the aidrop can be considered as safe. Nothing can happen except you get some worthless coins  :D In the best case they come into (good) value.

You are a total dumb person if you do really give your private keys publicly.Airdrops is safe in the sense you are getting free money out of those coins been given by those projects but as being said above the thing that it wont be already safe if you are downloading a malicious file (Coin wallet) which they do obliged you to do so.This is why when i do saw such thing i take always safety measures on protecting my pc from a possible infection.

I don't think this is possible. From security perspective, token airdrops are among the safest one out there, as you don't have to download any additional new and untested (and potentially dangerous) software to receive it. By tokens I mean assets created by smart contracts within some blockchain ecosystem.

But the software is not the only thing that could be comprised. For example, the website of the project could be infected as well. Or the project might require you to register an account and then take your registration information and try to log in to different exchanges, email services...

You can also use different hardware for trusted and different hardware for untrusted or less trusted software.

Not all of them. Better check the ICO websites and this forum for review and feedbacks.

This has happened very often over the last months while ICOs and airdrops have gained so much attention. There are many threads about complaints here on the board. The most "victims" are absolute beginners and newbies in the domain of crypto currencies. Many of them are technically not very skilled so I do not wonder that some of those scams are very successful.

as long as you are not giving away your private key or your personal details, it will be safe.. but I'd also be careful in the promotion using any of your social channel, unless you are very confident about the product otherwise, it will be risky if it turns out to be a scam

If the airdropped coin is already listed on an exchange and it allows you to have the coins dropped on your exchange address, it is perfectly safe.

If it is a token on a network like eth or waves, it is perfectly safe.

If it requires you to download a specialized wallet, be very careful!

all airdrop use eth platform is safe
youre myetherwallet account is safe, but dont visit phising site link, if is super safe don't follow aridrop is must register use webiste, maybe you can get spam inbox youre email about phising site

I think you shouldn't try to get airdrops forcing you to download specific software. There are tonnes of alternatives to that I keep finding around forums all the time.

I think it's better to join airdrops with extra caution. Because there is a great risk with some them to leak in your system. That's why i'm trying to stay away from airdrops if they are not well known by all community.

As soon as you download nothing, it's safe.
And generally you don't have to download anything for airdrops.

Oh wow, I have never thought of that. The greed of some people might actually make them vulnerable to viruses on the downloaded wallets

One day I decide not to participate in airdrops (maybe only the best one). And just to buy coins after it go to exchanges. Or when it will dump so I can buy cheaper than ICO price.

Airdrops are safe if you do not download wallets with troyans or go to shady websites. Also, do not provide personal information to airdrops. Main problem with airdrops: no liquidity for tokens. ICO's pay exchanges for listing, airdrops usually has no money to pay exchanges.

Airdrop itself is quite safe. of course you have to deal with tax issues but it will not harm you more than that. Otherwise you need to be careful about your credentials and any downloads, they are be stolen/infected.

airdrops are safe as long as you don't get an airdrop from an unknown project that requires you to download some phishy wallet. I've received airdrops and nothing wrong happened.

If you need to install something not trustful, install it on a PC run from a virtual CD with no HDD connected, install it on a flash memory card, which contains nothing of value.

Anyway, there are little non-scam airdrop, so staying away from any might be a solution as well, participating in a scam airdrop will make huge loses, if not for you, for somebody else, so staying away is an option for those who cares about their principles and morality.

i always avoid airdrops that require us to download their wallets. sometime it contain virus and will be bad for us. or you can try to use virtual computer

Thanks all for the answers I have learned a lot just now


This is a great summary of all kinds of drops. Thank you kindly everything is crystal clear now and I feel safe moving forward!