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The following are some of the easiest way to figure out a scam airdrop
1. They will ask you to donate
2. They will ask for your private key

Feel free to add yours in case there are many more.
Best regards and happy airdrop chase.

Never took part in airdrops. I dont really trust any of these.

i am a newbie to Airdrop thing this is very useful info for me thanks for sharing

I dont think people fall in this trap anymore. There used to be a lot of dumb money but no kids also know not to share their private keys with anyone.

Anyone asking for the private key is willing to scam you, airdrops doesn't need that because are free coins for the project.
Donations are always asked do not why it would be a sign of scam.

Even if they don't ask for anything particular. They will get your personnal data and use it against you. It will be very hard to detect. If they don't launch their token it's clearly a sign that they just want your data. But there is so many airdrop, you have to subscribe a lot to earn a little bit.

It's easy; is it and airdrop? If yes, it's already a scam with centralized funds and no transparency whatsoever in regards of initial distribution so they go against two of the most basic fundamentals of why crypto was created in the first place. It's 2017 and these take steps backwards instead of going forward therefore they shouldn't exist and only crypto-newbies welcome them...

And then there's the fact that account trading is legal (but discouraged) so the owners of airdrops can, and will redeem their own coins to dozens or even hundreds of their own sockpuppet accounts basically hiding the usual premined scam nonsense.

Edit: also, if any project is bound to a single, centralized website (like ICOs or airdrops) none of the numbers should be trusted at all! Only the source code.

They ask you to create a password
Type you e-mail

Most people use the same password multible places.

Then they can login to your e-mail, bitcointalk profile etc.

Yes, I think these are more likely to work than straight up asking for the keys as suggested by the first post. Due to laziness, careless or convenience a lot of people might use the same logins and fall victim due to that.

They are asking for private keys and some people give their private keys? Interesting. These are very clear already. Walllets may steal your keys also.

How can airdrops scam if they gave out free ? I never asked for my private key.

lol. airdrop era. As I see in token board - 5/10 new topic is airdrop. They even dont have a website or logo. So I think if we dont see they have team member we shouldn't waster our time

I used to participate in airdrops and get my signals to sign up for an airdrop on a WhatsApp group but as of recent I see signals of close to twenty new airdrops daily. This for me is a very big turn off and a sign that scammers have already taken over. People really need to be careful the way they give out their personal info just some free airdrop.

Firstly I did not believe in Airdrops, Bounties are best because In this game there are only 30% real airdrops and rest are fake. But Bounties are 100% real. Otherwise I have a solution for this: The best way to find out a scam airdrop is when they ask for private key and when they ask for TXN ID for donation. Donations are now becoming common part of forums which does not mean its scam, you can also leave it. Otherwise, there is a no way to find out scam airdrops.

yeah, when an airdrop wants a private key, it's no longer weird anymore. but it is certainly a scam. I'm still confused to people who want to give their private key to others they do not even know.

These two points are a bit obvious but it's always good to make a small reminder, mostly for newcomers.

In fact with airdrops, I'm always a bit afraid to come on an infected website. This is the only point where we can be weak if we don't follow some good rules, like having a system updated.

Airdrop is the current trend, as it was with ICO, so there is some scam, as always.

You can add on the list :
- Be careful when they ask too much personal data, like address, phone number, etc.

Why do you think so? Airdrops are the opportunity to earn some cryptocurrencies for free, aren`t they?

Thanks OP for that I would never give my private key or donate but I have been on the end of phishing for sure because I get unsolicited emails sometimes. That builds into the second point if they ask for personal data aside from your email give out information that isn't about you. Ask yourself why would somebody who is giving you an airdrop need to know your real name and address? Quite simply they don't and they are going to resell that information. Bottom line is protect yourself and all will be good.

If you give your private key just because they ask, you deserve to be robbed. Maybe they do you a favor because clearly you can't be trusted with your own money.

As for that other stuff they are asking, it's a crapshoot. Either they impersonate you or hack your accounts, or you actually receive tokens that could worth something.

etin06, if someone ask you a private key - it's not a scam, it's already a fraud.

a scam airdrop always give your a simple information about this project in their thread without roadmap and whitepaper
they also require you to donate before you can participate in their airdrop program

HERE ARE SOME BIG ONES!

They don't link to a website on the google doc.
They have no website to link to.
They use images they found in google for social media profile pics.
They misspell every other word in their airdrop form.
They forget to ask you for your eth address to send the airdrop to.

Sorry but all airdrops are totally shit for me, because most of the member for a couple of months ago actually there are many of them that has been hacked their account to their mew, because of giving their information in joining in any form of airdrops programs by the information to their applicants like private key and eth address and email.

Scam airdrops do not have excel spreadsheet for confirmation after registration . They do not also  have white paper and websites

That's an obvious way of scamming airdroppers and I don't know if someone will still fall with this scheme. Those newbies must not take part of it and should be warned about those scam airdrops. They are the most vulnerable people that will not aware if airdrops are asking these things. Most of airdrops too are just collecting information materials so I don't try on it anymore.

to be honest i think more than fifty percent of the airdrops that i participated in are scams but if the form of the airdrops asked you for your wallet key than beware this is definitely a hacking attempt.

How much is your personal information worth?  Email, IP address public wallet addresses, social media accounts etc.  They may ask you to download software which may contain malware.  I have participated in the past.  I am much more wary now.

And you are not still learning from it? Take it that most of them will just do the same thing. Don't just join if you feel suspicious and you had seen some irregularity about the airdrop, those standards that you had set shall be seen on them and if not, just jump to another one or much better is don't join any of them anymore so that you can be far from being hacked. Those hacking problems that their balance was gone probably is due to this.

We're are just wondering why we should give them a donation, in fact they will give us free coins. Or in the other hand, why they should need our donations when they have a lot of convertible coins in their wallet. With this, mostly people will accused that certain airdrop is a scam. But not only with that scenario, because some airdrops is hardly to find which one is legit or not until we've been involve with them. So, it is better if we really not engage more on airdrop.

Always been tell here that you must be aware interms of your private key cause the scam airdrop that was their strategy for so better to be alert and some are doing stupid thing also that what some airdrop been ask for is address but they give they key the awareness is always start for the one who uses it for how careful they are.

The two major attributes of scam Airdrops have already been mentioned which are;

• They ask for compulsory donations.
• And secondly, they request for your private key.

And some of them go as far as asking you to carry out outrageous task such following them on multiple social medias and sharing multiple post. Some Airdrops are legit. But one must really tread carefully to avoid falling victims to those shams.

Some are out to just get crowd to there telegram and other social media platform,just emsure you fill the airdrop with caution

Not all airdrops are scam. If they're just asking for your wallet address and your email, then what's the harm for trying? I only joined two airdrops and I already received their token. The only question here is, if their coin is worth hodling or not.

You can leave your Bitcointalk account nickname and email address and this will be enough. If you have easy password less or equal to 7 characters you already lost your Bitcointalk account along with your credentials (email and password) If you use the same password on the email account you already lost email address too. Sometimes your Bitcointalk account can be for sale but most of the times will be used for Signature Campaign. I participated in one AirDrip and regret this, simply saying is not worth it. If you really want to do the best way is to create new  account and separate email address just for that to stay safe.

As if that makes any difference at all. That excel spreadsheet coul still be filled mostly be their (or other people's) sockpuppet accounts. There's no way to know.

And existence of a white paper alone doesn't (shouldn't) make any difference at all, the contents of it might though.


Yes they are scams and you're giving platform to scams "just because it's free" ignoring crypto fundamentals and supporting centralized, premined scams like airdrops. They will own most of the coins, distribute some of it as they please (no fairness and transparency) and pump the price with people like you and cash out and repeat.



You can also buy (even batch buy) dozens of btctalk accounts and redeem airdrops as many times as you want. It's a terrible initial coin distribution method and shouldn't be taken anywhere near seriously.

Yes most of them are scam but not all of them. The only thing is you have to be careful with your private key. To be on the safer side create a new  ETH wallet and a new email for Airdrops because you cannot easily detect scam Airdrops.

In addition, if they don't explain further the details and they can't even provide white paper for the project.

Almost all airdrops are scam. Better stick to conventional coins

hey,Guys, thanks for the information. In fact, I participated in many airdrops, but never made any donations, etc. The most that I can do is send out information about the airdrop in my social networks. Now many scammers, you can not relax!

Yes ... that's right, how could an airdrop ask the participants to send eth to them, is not the airdrop program to spread the token for free? So if anyone asks for eth, it goes against the meaning of the airdrop itself. :) :) :)

I earned from airdrops because when I am still starting to know about it I was too active that I always check the telegram channels for airdrop if there is new which I could join. But now I realized that with the lot of efforts I have I only earn less.

1. FAKE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT
2. ENGLISH OR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
3. THEY ALWAYS BEG FOR DONATIONS
4. THEY SHARE REFERRER LINKS
5. THEY DON'T HAVE WHITE-PAPER OR WEBSITE

Are there still people who give their secret key to others, although they can go and in another way to learn from you all the data. Therefore, this is a shortened list, where there is obvious fraud.

I think the easiest way to know about the project, bounty, airdrop that you join is when they not update again at all of it social media. Because every project that have good team always give update about the development from their project. And i think that is one of indication you can know if it is scam

Yes, in addition to being said, also if they are asking your data, name and email address as well as getting KYC, which is red flag also for a scammed as they can use that information to retrieve your accounts.

Be careful guys

Yes, a private key must be a cheater. There are many projects that you need to join in the telegraph group and twitter. You can also judge the authenticity of the project by checking their social media and looking at the time and interaction of twitter.