Learn from other person's mistakes

[sokani]

There's a popular saying that experience is the best teacher but honestly, the best teacher is learning from other person's mistakes. So to the newbies, I know you've been warned umpteen times not to click on phishing links and not to give unknown website permission to your wallet, but it's not a bad idea to bring it up again. My goal is that it sinks into your head and saves someone.

This is a sad experience of a crypto investor who lost a whooping 8.6 ETH to a scammer, when he clicked a phishing link and granted it authorization to access his wallet because he wanted to participate in an airdrop.

LESSONS LEARNT:

• Don't give authorization to unknown websites to access your wallet.
• if you've large amount of funds, keep in a cold storage.
• If you're the type that's interested in airdrops, have a separate or dedicated wallet for it, do not use the wallet where you've most of your funds.

Enjoy the read and learn.

"I got scammed out of 8.6 Eth (22,000$) so you don't have to
Obligatory this didn't happen today, it happened Christmas day.

Transaction: 0x8b9223289156047cc08dea656bd5d479695bc6c7bc48917253be0bc4e02c1246

It was Christmas day, and I was sitting on the porcelain chair regretting my prior Eggnog decisions, curiously checking up on a totally unrelated crypto, Quantum. In poking around, I came across a Medium post with a bunch of high-fives (or claps, or whatever their rating system is) talking about an air-drop for QTUM. It referenced a "tool" that you could link to your Web3 wallet to see what aidrops were currently active that you were eligible for.

So I linked up, clicked the button, and up popped a signing request. This should have been first :sirens: AWOOGA :sirens: moment.

Now, for those that don't know, a signing request is a request for approval to send a transaction. The kicker in this case though, was that the signing request had no information (Exodus, the wallet I use, didn't show any details of the transaction I was being asked to send - destination, quantity, etc).

In my ignorance with the advent of Web3 standards and lack of knowledge of how things work, I legitimately thought this was normal - that it was asking to reveal my public address (or seomthing). Again, the prompt to approve the signing request did not contain anything indicating I was sending currency (no destination address was shown, no value / quantity, etc - nothing).

After the third or fourth back to back pop-up, that feeling of dread sank in... and my sins became very painfully clear. I sent all of my Ethereum, Polygon, BAT, and Render, unknowingly, to this scammer.

Because of how crypto works, there is no recourse (not even in taxes - thefts aren't claimable, and unrealized gains aren't either).

I reached out to Exodus and mostly got canned responses back. There's nothing they can do, obviously (other than fix their fucking app to show critical information that would have prevented this from happening in the first place)

Hopefully my fuck-up can serve as a reminder to anybody involved in the Crypto world to remain vigilant, and always remember that you're your own worst enemy.

Technical Details

The link in the TL;DR at the top is the transaction, if you're curious, where I unknowingly and unwillingly sent the entirety of my Ethereum holdings. Hopefully Exodus Wallet fixes their own apps' shortcoming...

The destination (scam) address is 0x0000C5d73291e9ae226E7fE59ea1e6b68bE30000, which itself is an Ethereum App, owned by 0x2915d0f44448cCEbBe95eBCa9193ceb2E462AbBF.

The actual scammed currency gets transparently forwarded to 0x000037bB05B2CeF17c6469f4BcDb198826Ce0000.

At the time of this writing, this scammer has successfully scammed 60.89 Eth (~159,000$) of which 8.636 Eth is mine."

https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/s/Mw0ShVxdP8

[1714632199]

1714632199

[lovesmayfamilis]

I will only repeat what is written in the reviews. Keeping a five-digit number in your wallet and not being aware of the slightest signs of fraud is very stupid. Can another truth be told here: crypto is not for everyone. And this guy was given a very tough lesson: a Christmas gift with a spice that will probably be remembered for a very long time.
Good reminder, OP. Such lessons should be taught at the same level that beginners rush to invest all their money without wanting to learn the basics of security. Having an understanding that crypto not only grows but also disappears at the same speed, if you are not careful, is a good result of lessons learned by oneself or extracted from others.

[pakhitheboss]

I still don't understand why people still fall for such scams. Having a sel custody wallet has some benefits but lots of pain for such individuals. Blaming the wallet for a personal mistake makes me realize how much this person is aware of what is happening around him in the real world. If anyone doesn't understand how the cryptocurrency world works then it is better to stay away from it. I am sorry for his loss and pity for his ignorance that it is him who gave those ETH willingly to the scammers.

[Shishir99]

If someone is an Airdrop hunter, I do not see any reason why he would have used a wallet where he has such an amount of money. These are the basic things a person should know before they start playing with crypto websites.  I understand the fact that some airdrops offer airdrops only for holders, but with the amount they offer in an airdrop, it is not worth taking the risk.

If someone hunts airdrops or connects their wallet on random websites, it's always advised to use a dummy wallet or a wallet with a very low amount of crypto. It's better if you could stay away from unknown sources. But, the sad thing is, hunters never care about the source!

[Findingnemo]

The era of making money from airdrops dead for years but still people believe that we are oing to make money from an airdrop that we just found random from people or advertisement.

People are working their life to make money but when it comes to safe guarding them, they just act lethargic and I am just saying this because it's most common in everyone's life. Internet always filled with scammers irrespective of time period so just don't waste your time by looking for free money and this is another story to keep the funds in cold storage.

[serjent05]

I still don't understand why people still fall for such scams.

Greed, ignorance, laziness, friend influence, and too trusting are the most common reasons why people fall for scams.  One way or another many people have that attribute, especially greed and laziness to dig deep research on the projects or investments they want to put their money into.

Having a sel custody wallet has some benefits but lots of pain for such individuals. Blaming the wallet for a personal mistake makes me realize how much this person is aware of what is happening around him in the real world. If anyone doesn't understand how the cryptocurrency world works then it is better to stay away from it. I am sorry for his loss and pity for his ignorance that it is him who gave those ETH willingly to the scammers.

I think it if one has little knowledge about cryptocurrency, they don't have to stay away from it but rather dig deep and learn more about cryptocurrency and its current events before investing.  This way the person will be equipped with the basic knowledge needed to avoid possible scams and fraud company.  Besides if all people who have little knowledge about cryptocurrency stay away then the cryptocurrency industry will not grow and develop.  Every person is a novice at some point of their careers.

[Rikafip]

The era of making money from airdrops dead for years

You couldn't be more wrong about airdrops. Some of my close friends made four digit number via airdrops in the last few years so these things are still alive and kicking but they work differently compared to how old airdrops used to work where you just have to give your address and wait for tokens. Now you actually have to be active and do some social media tasks or even better do some trading in order to qualify but from what I've seen its not a waste of time if you put some effort into it.

Having said that, I can't force myself doing that.

[Gladitorcomeback]

LESSONS LEARNT:
Don't give authorization to unknown websites to access your wallet.
if you've large amount of funds, keep in a cold storage.
If you're the type that's interested in airdrops, have a separate or dedicated wallet for it, do not use the wallet where you've most of your funds.

The above mentioned all three lesson are primary lessons which are for everyone especially for those who are new to crypto. Most of the wallet drained happened due to same mistake where one phishing site ask to connect wallet for claiming airdrop and then got access to drain wallet.

I wish to add one more lesson that I learned that we should never save our private key/phrase cloudly (online) ,nor took screenshots. We have yo save only in hard copy because the chances of getting access is 90% if we store online.

[Nwada001]

This is a sad experience of a crypto investor who lost a whooping 8.6 ETH to a scammer, when he clicked a phishing link and granted it authorization to access his wallet because he wanted to participate in an airdrop.

It's always not far from here, like if you must do an airdrop, what stops you from having a separate wallet that you can use to claim all these cheap airdrops, which aren't even worth anything?
 
I always advise people that if you must do an airdrop, you should at least have a sperate wallet that you can use to connect to the Web3 dapp, where they will request access to the wallet, and if there is any harm that comes to the wallet, it will be an empty one and nothing far from that.
 
But greed and ignorance always make people rush as if they are going to lose it all if they don't use their major wallet to claim an airdrop.
 
It's appearing these days that the majority of people who hold large amounts of coins, especially altcoins, don't take security very seriously. They always fall victim to such scams, as they are also mostly the largest target of these scammers.

[BABY SHOES]

The era of making money from airdrops dead for years but still people believe that we are oing to make money from an airdrop that we just found random from people or advertisement.

People are working their life to make money but when it comes to safe guarding them, they just act lethargic and I am just saying this because it's most common in everyone's life. Internet always filled with scammers irrespective of time period so just don't waste your time by looking for free money and this is another story to keep the funds in cold storage.

Maybe you don't follow the development of airdrops now because in reality many people have made thousands of dollars from aridrops now, for example, DYM, JUP, Mavia, Zeta and many more are certainly now more airdrop hunters because they have made thousands of dollars.

Yes it's their own fault for accessing phishing sites or maybe they didn't research properly, I also believe there are still many fraudsters on social media who spread phishing sites, the only way is you have to be able to protect it.

[BITCOIN4X]

There's a popular saying that experience is the best teacher but honestly, the best teacher is learning from other person's mistakes.

Of course, you don't have to make mistakes to learn. So learning from other people's mistakes should be enough so that you don't make the same mistakes.

LESSONS LEARNT:

• Don't give authorization to unknown websites to access your wallet.
• if you've large amount of funds, keep in a cold storage.
• If you're the type that's interested in airdrops, have a separate or dedicated wallet for it, do not use the wallet where you've most of your funds.

There are always risks and dangers lurking for crypto users regardless of how much you have. Scammers, hackers and bad people want your money and of course you must always be alert to anything that endangers the security of your wallet and so on.

The 3 points above are very useful, they are advice that should alert everyone to potential risks that should be avoided. Storing assets in online wallets is not safe, although each user's risk tolerance varies, it is clearly not recommended. Hardware wallets are a smart choice if they have thousands of dollars in crypto assets, but some users ignore them.

Your last point is very correct, separating wallets to participate in airdrops is a wise choice. The point is always to use a new wallet instead of one wallet for all.

[icalical]

There's a popular saying that experience is the best teacher but honestly, the best teacher is learning from other person's mistakes.

In my opinion learning from other people's mistakes is still learning from experience, it's just not our own experience.

LESSONS LEARNT:

• If you're the type that's interested in airdrops, have a separate or dedicated wallet for it, do not use the wallet where you've most of your funds.

I think this one is the most common mistakes made by people, especially the one who are just starting to know crypto and they want to start by earning free crypto with airdrop. They will store a huge amount of ETH in the same wallet they use to claim airdrop, for the reason of saving money for fee, rather than they send ETH every time they want to send their airdrop earned coin to exchange they just send huge amount at once to avoid paying fees multiple time. But instead of saving some money they are risking their ETH for hacker by joining random multiple airdrop.

[Hamza2424]

Haha, some of the members below said if you have 5-digit capital in the wallet and you are not aware of the security precautions and stupidity, and on, I would like to quote 3 digits are also not a small number you should need to adopt the proper safety habits.

Anyway OP thanks a lot for a detailed topic on a serious issue but as your tile suggests learn from other's mistakes haha for the majority this is impractical because we never learn from other mistakes until we go through our blunders haha. Becasue we prefer self experiencing mode.

[348Judah]

LESSONS LEARNT:

• Don't give authorization to unknown websites to access your wallet.
• if you've large amount of funds, keep in a cold storage.
• If you're the type that's interested in airdrops, have a separate or dedicated wallet for it, do not use the wallet where you've most of your funds.

People lack many of the investment and security tips that could have prevented them from getting scammed or hacked, we must begin with learning and if we seek first the information required, we are going to make use of the best practices of our investment.

It's high time they know that not your keys is not your coins, if we don't give anyone access to attack us, there's not how they could get an entry to attack us, we should also take serious with our privacy.

[GeorgeJohn]

In cryptocurrency transactions and the other things that is applicable to its feature you have to be technical and also be observant in learning and understanding the true concept of cryptocurrency especially Bitcoin , mostly more we found ourselves here we need to be observant to learn from others especially from people's mistakes that is more important thing whosoever that want to learn the techniques of Bitcoin should learn and understand the true concept of it so therefore Bitcoin need attention and you don't need to make a mistake someone made already through a cryptocurrency

[Shishir99]

The era of making money from airdrops dead for years but still people believe that we are oing to make money from an airdrop that we just found random from people or advertisement.

You weren't able to make a single buck lately through airdrop does not mean these things do not work anymore. But, you have to find legit ones. Recently I got some FAR tokens from their airdrop by completing some tasks. Some YouTube channels out there provide links to quality projects which has a better chance to airdrop to their users. BRC-20 Tokens started another era of crypto airdrops. There are some cross-chain dexes and defi projects that launch every day. Just you have to spend your time and money to make more money. Unfortunately, I do not have that patience.

[Nangiconference]

Sorry for the lost, whoever that has not been scammed will not understand the pain in it. Your thread is really helpful in terms of security. Atleast no viewer of this thread can fall victim in this same manner. When entering and learning about crypto I think the first thing to learn is the security first before any other thing because if you learn trading before security your assets could be stolen and your hard earned fund will be lost.

[The Cryptovator]

Only one rule can save a lot of users: don't be greedy. Due to greed, a lot of users lost their funds. Hackers usually can't hack unless you help them directly or indirectly. I know we have been making these types of mistakes unconsciously. But greed is responsible for these types of stories. You are authorising random sites to access your wallet just for a few pennies. Almost 99% of airdrops are just scams. Nothing is except a waste of your valuable time, and sometimes you are losing funds this way. So you must control your greed first. And your task wallet should always be separate from your main portfolio wallet. If your wallet is empty, you can connect anywhere. Just make sure you create a new wallet for each task; it doesn't cost you anything.

[tvplus006]

Maybe you don't follow the development of airdrops now because in reality many people have made thousands of dollars from aridrops now, for example, DYM, JUP, Mavia, Zeta and many more are certainly now more airdrop hunters because they have made thousands of dollars...

All the retrospective airdrops you mentioned provided enough time to claim it. And everyone could read enough reviews to make a decision for themselves to interact with the site for claim airdrop. In the case described by the OP, we see that the victim did not conduct his own research and hurried to give approval on an unknown site for his wallet. So in this case, the main reason why the money was lost is greed.

[Zaguru12]

Maybe you don't follow the development of airdrops now because in reality many people have made thousands of dollars from aridrops now, for example, DYM, JUP, Mavia, Zeta and many more are certainly now more airdrop hunters because they have made thousands of dollars.

Yes it's their own fault for accessing phishing sites or maybe they didn't research properly, I also believe there are still many fraudsters on social media who spread phishing sites, the only way is you have to be able to protect it.

There is no denying the fact that airdrop token has been a thing since the start of the year, it is more less like that whenever a bull run is around the corner. What I think the post you quoted was actually talking about is the fact that this airdrops do not pay like the ones in the past. If you engage in 10 you will it is not likely to earn from 3 of them. And this days airdrops mostly requires you to engage with DApps and that exposes wallet except for experienced investors that will use burner wallets for it. Also most of these wallets them selves aren’t even free you need somewhat like gas fee