Some points that can make the airdrop hunters safe!

[albon]

Hi guys,

In this matter, I would like to share some points that can make the airdrop hunters and newbies in the crypto arena as safe as possible. Everyone knows that scammers have increased in abundance until this year, and they are making every effort to unjustly steal innocent people's money. They can steal anyone's money with just one mistake he makes.

One common mistake some airdrop hunters make is their belief that disconnecting their wallet (MetaMask, Trust wallet.. etc.) from the airdrop site or platform makes it safer and cuts off scammers’ access to their wallet, and this is wrong. Interaction with smart contracts takes place through a signature from the wallet (Approval Transaction), and this signature is not canceled unless the person performs a Revocation Permission transaction.

To protect your wallet and revoke these Permissions, you must go to Revoke.cash - Through it, you can view the Permissions of smart contracts from all networks and all wallet signatures in one place, and you can revoke any contract or signature that you deem suspicious, and the site takes some fees for each transaction.

Or through:

BSC: https://bscscan.com/tokenapprovalchecker
Ethereum: https://etherscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker
Optimism: https://optimistic.etherscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker
Arbitrum: https://arbiscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker
Polygon: https://polygonscan.com/tokenapprovalchecker
Fantom: https://ftmscan.com/tokenapprovalchecker
Avax: https://snowtrace.io/tokenapprovalchecker


Token Approval:

What is token approval?
In short: permission for a dapp to access and move a specific type of token from your wallet.

Well, this feature is on the Metamask wallet, and through it, you can put a specific number of the coins that you want to make the transaction with; I do not recommend that you put the entire amount of your coins in the (Custom Spending cap) you can lose some small fees each time if you want to increase the amount of the coins that you want to make the transaction with, but this protects you from losing all the amount of your coins.


Use extensions and wallets that help you detect transactions and changes that will occur to your wallet:

[1] Rabby Wallet: For Ethereum and all EVM chains.  ((Official site))

Rabby is an open-source crypto wallet in your browser for Ethereum. It is built and maintained by the DeBank team. Designed for DeFi users with a smooth multi-chain experience. Protect your assets with pre-transaction potential risk scanning. Show you the upcoming balance change before you sign a transaction.

[2] Joinfire extension: For Ethereum ((Official site))

Fire is a free extension that simulates web3 transactions, showing you exactly what will enter and exit your wallet before you sign the contract. All is under control with your current wallet.

[3] Pocket Universe extension: For Ethereum ((Official site))

Pocket Universe is a free browser extension that keeps your assets safe when you sign web3 transactions.

[4] AegisWeb3 extension: Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, and more chains. ((Official site))

AegisWeb3 was incubated by PeckShield, a leading blockchain security company.  It can provide users real-time scam token detection, phishing website identification, and interception. This free cyber security tool protects all types of web3 users from various cyber-attacks and phishing scams that allow you to freely swap, mint, stake, and explore web3 on Chrome.

To detect scam coins on other networks:

[1] https://gopluslabs.io/token-security [Note: this site can help you determine if a smart contract may be a scam, but there is no 100% guarantee. The contract check is only a user reference, not a basis for contract judgment]

[2] https://tokensniffer.com/ [Automated scam detection, auditing, and metrics - Support for 12 chains - Free to use]

[3] https://www.dextools.io/app/ [This is a great platform to see what is happening with a token quickly. After searching for the token contract address, you can sort the list of all the buys and sells happening for a token by clicking the "Type" category. If you don't see any sell orders, there is a chance you are looking at a honeypot]
^{For more information about Rugpulls and Honeypots, What they are, and how to avoid them. Check out the following link: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/n76wtr/rugpulls_and_honeypots_what_they_are_and_how_you/}

[4] https://poocoin.app/ [ you can through it View price charts and pool liquidity for any token in your wallet]


Follow the following Twitter accounts, as they are among the best accounts that publish hacking reports continuously:

1- https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert
2- https://twitter.com/CertiKAlert
3- https://twitter.com/BlockSecTeam

Sources:

1- https://support.metamask.io/hc/en-us/articles/6174898326683-What-is-a-token-approval-
2- https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/n76wtr/rugpulls_and_honeypots_what_they_are_and_how_you/
3- https://twitter.com/wacy_time1
4- https://help.1inch.io/en/articles/5363502-5-tools-to-identify-a-defi-scam-token

**If you find this helpful topic, please do not forget to share your opinions and tips on more important points that protect the airdrop hunters, it will be appreciated, and I will include anything I find helpful to the topic.**

Disclaimer: Before installing any Browser extension/phone wallet or using any sites in this thread, you must do your own research and obtain the necessary information.

[Zaguru12]

These are great tips OP because one of the easiest way people get scammed on the crypto space is through airdrops. Although most of them are just for engagement and they end up not paying which is why I advise people not to engage in them. But regardless there are those that are worth the time. The last one was that of Arbitrium and the Pepe token. But the risk is sometimes bigger than the gain.

The easiest security tip to people engaging in airdrops is to create a new wallet for almost each airdrop since there are no limitations to the number of wallet one can create on MetaMask or Trust wallet. Once the airdrops pays off you can swap them and probably move them to exchanges or your personal wallet. At least this save one from exposing his coins to the scammers when they are all stored on same wallet

[Sayeds56]

To protect your wallet and revoke these Permissions, you must go to Revoke.cash - Through it, you can view the Permissions of smart contracts from all networks and all wallet signatures in one place, and you can revoke any contract or signature that you deem suspicious, and the site takes some fees for each transaction.

Thank for creating this informative post which is certainly valuable for crypto community to secure their wallets to safeguard their hard earned funds.
Although it is a very challenging task to establish robust safety net around your wallet,  but as good SOP, it is crucial to follow best practices in this regard and one step can be use option of "Revoke" whenever we have some doubts about the authenticity of website we connect with. Additional, it is advisable to  keep our wallet disconnected from website unless we specifically need to interact with them.

[ItsCrafty]

Revoke.cash is really helpful and one can easily check which contract is still permission of unlimited approval for specific token. Revoke is very easy (just clicking on Revoke button which will request for small fee) which give you full security for any big loss. The most important is to revoke Usdc, Usdt, Matic, Bnb and Eth because we used these tokens for swapping in dex. The best features of this site is that many Chains (Arbitrum, Optimism, polygon, bnb, Ethereum and many more) available and don't need to check explorer for this purpose.

Other tipsy are also helpful and OP did a well job for sharing these tips because 80% of users trying for free airdrop which can sometimes lose of own fund and by caring these tips joining airdrop will be risk free.

[Eternad]

This tips is new to me and very helpful if I’m an airdrop hunter.

The only issue I’m thinking right now is isn’t the best tips is to avoid shady airdrop at all. The chances of being hack the moment you connect your wallet on scam web3 website is very high because you gave them already permission to access your wallet or whatever code they setup to hack your wallet. Either you disconnect or revoke access then it’s still useless if the hacker already got your seed phrase during your initial wallet connect.

A legit project that launch an airdrop through their engagement usually doesn’t have any hacking issue. I think this guide is suitable when you connect your wallet on legit website that later on got hacked and not against scammy website since there’s a big difference on coding on how they access web3 wallet.

-Additional safety precautions is to use separate airdrop wallet. Move all your assets away from your airdrop wallet once you already do the airdrop requirements. This way, hacker can’t hack anymore your asset even without this revoke.

Still thanks for this tips.

[holydarkness]

Hi, this is a very informative thread. I have not read the thread thoroughly, but at a glance, I think it'll be better suited and appreciated if you move them to begginers and help. One, because people who came here and found this thread most likely has already been scammed and this thread is a bit... too late for them to read, and two, IMO, the scam accusation board is more to --as the name suggested-- accuse an entity, solving a dispute and/or reporting a scam action. Such informative thread like this will be very much helpful and more on-context on the beginners sections

[albon]

Thank you, guys, for your reading, feedback, and kind words  

The easiest security tip to people engaging in airdrops is to create a new wallet for almost each airdrop since there are no limitations to the number of wallet one can create on MetaMask or Trust wallet. Once the airdrops pays off you can swap them and probably move them to exchanges or your personal wallet. At least this save one from exposing his coins to the scammers when they are all stored on same wallet

Yes, what you said is correct, thank you, and reduces the rate of loss. The new wallet that the person will create will contain the currency and fees to complete the transaction with, but if the fees are large or the currencies have a big value, their theft will also be inevitable.

Hi, this is a very informative thread. I have not read the thread thoroughly, but at a glance, I think it'll be better suited and appreciated if you move them to begginers and help. One, because people who came here and found this thread most likely has already been scammed and this thread is a bit... too late for them to read, and two, IMO, the scam accusation board is more to --as the name suggested-- accuse an entity, solving a dispute and/or reporting a scam action. Such informative thread like this will be very much helpful and more on-context on the beginners sections

Thank you got sharing these tops OP, I really appreciate your efforts but, honestly, do you think  any of those bounty hunters frequent this board.

Well, I will move the topic to the beginners and help board now, thank you for your kind suggestions, hoping that the topic will receive the interest of members and help as many of them as possible to keep their wallets safe and not fall victim to airdrop scams.

[hd49728]

To revoke smart contract, you can use https://app.unrekt.net/ too.

3 Minute Tips: How to Revoke Token Approval Following Opensea’s Latest Security Episode.

If you are bounty hunter and usually interact with new projects, new smart contracts, you must use wallets that are used for bounty tasks only. Don't use your main wallets that are used to store your main capital.

Revoke smart contract only reduce risk to lose money to scam smart contract. You will reduce it more by not using your main wallets.

[Yamifoud]

To revoke smart contract, you can use https://app.unrekt.net/ too.

3 Minute Tips: How to Revoke Token Approval Following Opensea’s Latest Security Episode.

If you are bounty hunter and usually interact with new projects, new smart contracts, you must use wallets that are used for bounty tasks only. Don't use your main wallets that are used to store your main capital.

Revoke smart contract only reduce risk to lose money to scam smart contract. You will reduce it more by not using your main wallets.

There should be a separate wallet address for airdrop as possible, not just to become safe but also it helps us easily recognize free coins that have value.

However, what I see is that most of these airdrop hunters don't take this seriously. Honestly, we can't change their behavior as these people certainly don't see the potential risk but what they see is the potential to earn money. Not to wonder why scammers keep increasing as they still notice that many innocent people are still in the market as well.

[hd49728]

There should be a separate wallet address for airdrop as possible, not just to become safe but also it helps us easily recognize free coins that have value.

They should use separating wallets for different purposes like investment storage, trading on legit websites, decentralized exchanges and smaller wallets for airdrop, retroactive tasks.

However, what I see is that most of these airdrop hunters don't take this seriously. Honestly, we can't change their behavior as these people certainly don't see the potential risk but what they see is the potential to earn money. Not to wonder why scammers keep increasing as they still notice that many innocent people are still in the market as well.

They might know about the security-wise advice but ignore it. They might not know about the security-wise advice at all.

I would like to use a computer for my daily activities on Internet, a separating computer.

A computer with which I installed my Bitcoin wallets to store my bitcoins, will be kept as mostly offline as possible. I never use it for DEX, airdrop and connect it to new websites.

[adaseb]

Whenever you see some advertisement for an airdrop. It will either be a useless airdrop or the airdrop will be a scam. Right now there are so many ZkSync and Metamask airdrops, I am not surprised people are getting scammed left and right.

These days to get an airdrop that’s worth something it’s a lot of work. Takes months of playing around with the network. You won’t get a 4 figure airdrop just because you go to a website and claim it for doing nothing. Hence why there are these scams.

[sunsilk]

Well done and you did a great job, thank you for sharing these. I'm not into airdrops but this is certainly helpful to those that's always catching those especially the new ones.

Whenever you see some advertisement for an airdrop. It will either be a useless airdrop or the airdrop will be a scam. Right now there are so many ZkSync and Metamask airdrops, I am not surprised people are getting scammed left and right.

That's true, even if with reminders like this, tips and guides on how to avoid such. It's sad to see that those victims won't have their second though upon seeing those fake ones.

What they think upon seeing such ads is like a walking airdrop and free money. But little did they know, it's the opposite of what the devs sees from them.

[FahriZah]

At the moments it’s very hard to find out good and best airdrop because maximum airdrop now scam please if anyone want to join airdrop kindly researchers properly always better.

[Yatsan]

Whenever you see some advertisement for an airdrop. It will either be a useless airdrop or the airdrop will be a scam. Right now there are so many ZkSync and Metamask airdrops, I am not surprised people are getting scammed left and right.

These days to get an airdrop that’s worth something it’s a lot of work. Takes months of playing around with the network. You won’t get a 4 figure airdrop just because you go to a website and claim it for doing nothing. Hence why there are these scams.

I agree. Those whoch are being advertised are ones which are risky to be involved with. On my end, I am checking for some airdrops in this forum and if it has the potential, I am making a follow up reading on their site and check reviews of that particular project through social media platforms. However it does not guarantee that a project would be paying. Problem here is that, you'd only know an airdrop is non-paying or a scam once they show it or once they have done it. And such thing would be hard to determine along the process. But some things to consider I guess is general project's activity and engagement to the community. If they aren't as responsive as they should be, then I guess that would be suspiscious.

[Similificator]

Thank you for this. It is very useful for those that are still fond of Airdrops nowadays. One thing I am curious about though is if it would be possible to re-use old wallets that have been scammed by such ways or would it be safe to use them again if the revoking of the smart contracts that scammed the wallet has been done by the owner of the wallet. This is because I have an old wallet that has been scammed back then with this method which made me scrap it (but I still kept the private keys for sentimental value). Although I can always make a new wallet, I would still want to be able to use my very first altcoin wallet even if not as a main wallet since it still holds a significant amount of sentimental value for me.