New trends often give rise to new scams, and with the introduction of Defi, fraudsters have utilized a plethora of tricks to entice people into trapping and stealing their money. NFTs are not new to us, but the desire for them and how valuable they are has lately gained the attention of many media outlets, which, as you know, is always a signal and new employment for fraudsters to start a new method of exploiting the uninformed ones.
NFT are one of the most in-demand Defi applications since they are scarce, unique, and because only one entity of them exists, those who value it will pay any amount to acquire it before anybody else. The values that come with them have enticed fraudsters to go to any length to get your money.
These are some of the more prevalent methods fraudsters have used to defraud users of their NFT arts.
Cloning of NFT markets: Because of the nature of NFT, they cannot be listed on exchanges in the same way that other coins and tokens are, therefore NFT are usually auctioned on prominent NFT marketplaces such as Opensea and Rarible. Some Defi projects make their own marketplace available to their investors and token holder but scammers always find their way out to clone these websites just like the conventional ways hackers do to online banking where they copy every feature of the bank and ask you to input your sensitive information and also credits, these are no way different in NFTs markets too, NFT markets script can be purchase online and they can clone them and make you purchase a fake NFTs in exchange for your ETH and BNB which are the popular networks that support NFTs.
Online Telegram support: You should be aware that Opensea does not offer telegram group chat assistance since it is difficult to maintain owing to the numerous impersonators and frauds that occur on the platform on a regular basis. Rarible used to have a Telegram group, however, it was later announced that they had migrated to Discord due to difficulties in controlling fraudsters and the amount of reported scams. If you are dealing with NFTs on those two largest NFT marketplaces, stay away from Telegram, if you have any problems, you may check the online support on their website, but you should also be wary about the website. Don't make complain on open social networks. it's no different from Telegram, except that Telegram has become a haven for fraudsters due to the rise of cryptocurrency.
As you can see from their official Twitter handle, you can only get support via their website or Discord, avoid telegram like you avoid a plague.
Regarding the rest of the projects that have their own NFT markets place, you should be aware that most admin will never send you a private message asking for private keys or any other sensitive information. Instead, tailor your problem to the appropriately tagged admin in the official group, and he/she may direct you on how to resolve the issues.
NFT giveaways: This never gets old, and I despise anything free. Airdrops were given out during the previous bull run where everyone received free tokens and coins from new projects, but that has changed recently. The only available airdrops you see around are mostly for promotion and for loyal investors, particularly those who stayed with projects during their early stages and those who invested in them. In some projects, the only method to obtain NFT is to hold their token and stake them in exchange, you get randomly picked for this NFTs airdrop. Don't lose your wallet for free stuff that doesn't worth it.
Avoid been associated with NFT projects because of Artists and celebrities: Artistes and celebrities, in general, are just regular people like you; this isn't the first time they've taken on new projects for the sake of a few checks, similar situations have occurred in the past, and they were later fined for getting followers invested in new projects, according to some
reports from SEC website. This is not an exception, they will sell them to you and return to their way of life in the entertainment industry. Buy NFT from trustworthy organizations and projects that will provide you with security; don't buy items you will later regret; and even if you are following an artiste for NFT, you may make the mistake of purchasing the wrong NFT due to impersonators.
Fake Projects: Defi is a new place, and no regulations have been put in place to protect investors, so your chances of being scammed are quite high. Do your study and due diligence before transferring all of your funds in the name of an image that may end up in the hospital, scammers do not deserve your attention.
