Be extremely careful now that the year is coming to an end

[Outhue]

We have three more months before we say goodbye to 2024 and both pros and beginners are gearing up for the coming uptober like many people are calling October, even if we failed to get a uptober, one thing is certain, a full blow up top is coming.

Now imagine going through all the hassle since the beginning of this year and you ended up losing everything you've worked so hard for?


Hackers are crafting and placing phishing ads online everywhere with URLs that looks nearly identical to the original.

The name of this tactic is called Dynamic Redirect Options . ..

If you don't know what dynamic redirect means, it is a powerful feature that allows the hackers and scammers to redirect their visitors to a specific page or platform and the crazy part of this menace is that the result is based on various conditions like Locations, Search terms, Languages, Device types and many more.

These scammers now have the ability using dynamic redirect tool to bypass security scanners by cloaking their malicious websites and pages with the original websites.

Protect yourself from these attacks by

1. Moving your funds into an offline open source/noncustodial wallet.
2. Find a book and write down your favourite dApps URL, I do this a lot and it has helped my for years.
3. Avoid using search engine to find your dApps.
4. Avoid clicking on random links and Ads.

Scammers are always trying to be one step ahead of us, let's be careful and always be on guard, before it was links we need to look closely to make sure that it is the right one, maybe changing of O with 0 or similar, now aliexpress.com as we know it isn't even aliexpress.com anymore.

[Cantsay]

Hackers are crafting and placing phishing ads online everywhere with URLs that looks nearly identical to the original.

The name of this tactic is called Dynamic Redirect Options . ..

If you don't know what dynamic redirect means, it is a powerful feature that allows the hackers and scammers to redirect their visitors to a specific page or platform and the crazy part of this menace is that the result is based on various conditions like Locations, Search terms, Languages, Device types and many more.

These scammers now have the ability using dynamic redirect tool to bypass security scanners by cloaking their malicious websites and pages with the original websites.

Well I have never had a major cyber attack but the few cases I had heard and read about wasn’t pleasant at all, as the saying goes “prevention is better than cure”.

If you’re the type that isn’t always conscious of the url you click after searching for something then it’s advisable for you to look for a secure adblocker extension and install it on your computer. And if you’re using a mobile phone there are some good browsers also that have adblocker options and also prevent you from being redirected from a site to another - this might also help prevent scammers from accessing your system through phishing links from search results ads.

[Stalker22]

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Scammers are always trying to be one step ahead of us, let's be careful and always be on guard, before it was links we need to look closely to make sure that it is the right one, maybe changing of O with 0 or similar, now aliexpress.com as we know it isn't even aliexpress.com anymore.

Yep, phishing attacks are definitely happening more these days.  Scammers are getting clever with their tactics.  Writing down dApp URLs in a notebook does sound pretty old-school though and  most crypto wallets have built-in features now to bookmark dApps or save your favorites. 

Heres the real key takeaway - be careful out there!  Dont go clicking on random links without thinking twice.  Double and triple check those URLs before you connect any wallet.  And dont buy into guaranteed profits or any of those too-good-to-be-true cryptopromises.  Weve all seen how those turn out in the end. 

Stay skeptical, stick to legit platforms you know and trust and keep your guard up.  Thats how we make it through these spaces safely... in "Uptober" or any other month.

[348Judah]

Multiple scam techniques will continue popping up because we are approaching the end of the year, all they could do is to make a promotion for such offers that they want to give back to their communit5y and loya users on some platforms, after accepting for this, then they will have to still advance on their strategy ensuring that many are going to fall in for what they have promised to offer them, except thay take extra precuation on them.

[Potato Chips]

I would also suggest using an ad blocker to completely block those sponsored results in your searches. From my experience, they're mostly filled with scams. I would recommend ublock origin, see: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Also available in firefox mobile for your handheld devices since not all phone browsers support extensions. Some browsers have built in ad blockers as well tho I'm not sure how reliable they are.

[Z-tight]

I don't think it has anything to do with the end of the year, scammers will steal your funds anytime if they get the opportunity to do so, don't give them that chance by using a hardware wallet or an airgapped wallet to store your funds. Managing your funds in an online wallet is too risky, and even if you believe you are very careful, you might make a mistake sooner or later. Online wallets should only store funds that you need for spending on the go.

[EL MOHA]

Protect yourself from these attacks by

1. Moving your funds into an offline open source/noncustodial wallet.
2. Find a book and write down your favourite dApps URL, I do this a lot and it has helped my for years.
3. Avoid using search engine to find your dApps.
4. Avoid clicking on random links and Ads.

Cyber attacks or something like that would easily be avoided by simply using the offline wallet and also prioritize the use of QR code as a means of sending unsigned transactions this way even when the device is contaminated the wallet it self will be protected, some of the other hint there are just normal things that can be avoided with the use of this offline wallet.

The most common end of the year scam I will advice people to avoid most especially the newbies is those fancy giveaways or airdrops most especially as they are common now this are usually just phishing links which can lead to wallet drain or things like that

[albon]

I would also suggest using an ad blocker to completely block those sponsored results in your searches. From my experience, they're mostly filled with scams. I would recommend ublock origin, see: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Also available in firefox mobile for your handheld devices since not all phone browsers support extensions. Some browsers have built in ad blockers as well tho I'm not sure how reliable they are.

Adding an ad blocker is a really useful add-on in preventing these annoying, intrusive ads,, as search engines and other websites are not free of these ads that may appear as pop-ups and could lead to phishing sites or contain malware. In fact, even without this extension, it is better not to trust these ads at all, as they are an easy tactic used by scamers to succeed in their strategies targeting crypto iinvestors.

Dynamic redirect options are among the widespread malicious promotional tools, so everyone should ease their minds and avoid putting their assets online, and be cautious before trusting any unofficial site.

[Ultegra134]

I don't think it has anything to do with the end of the year, scammers will steal your funds anytime if they get the opportunity to do so, don't give them that chance by using a hardware wallet or an airgapped wallet to store your funds. Managing your funds in an online wallet is too risky, and even if you believe you are very careful, you might make a mistake sooner or later. Online wallets should only store funds that you need for spending on the go.

That's correct, I don't think the time of the year has anything to do with the surge of scams happening. Unfortunately, what the OP mentioned is a well-known scam on the paid ads of Google, appearing on top of the organic results, confusing potential users. Phishing scams are the oldest one in the book, and it seems they're still finding victims even though the whole internet has adviced to double check the links we're clicking.

[BlackBoss_]

Protect yourself from these attacks by

1. Moving your funds into an offline open source/noncustodial wallet.

Open source and non custodial must exist together in a good wallet software, so it has to be AND, not OR. If a wallet is only non custodial, but not open source (close source), it is not good; if a wallet is open source but custodial (not non-custodial), it is not good.

2. Find a book and write down your favourite dApps URL, I do this a lot and it has helped my for years.
3. Avoid using search engine to find your dApps.

With dApps, you will interact a lot with smart contracts, risk is from this practice.

How to revoke token approvals
https://etherscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker
https://revoke.cash/
https://app.unrekt.net/

4. Avoid clicking on random links and Ads.

It is basic of basic. Be careful with any link.

With ads, you can use ad blocker.
Modest privacy protection proposal

Protect your internet privacy

You’ll also want to protect yourself from various online activity trackers such as advertisers and social networks. I recommend installing these browser extensions:

Privacy Badger
uBlock Origin
HTTPS Everywhere

[joniboini]

If you interact with dapps regularly and revoking every time you finish your business is not an option due to high fees or other reasons, it's a good idea to make sure every approval has a volume limit. IIRC you can do this on every popular dapps. If the platform you currently use doesn't allow that, move to other platforms asap. I believe it's still a good idea to revoke regularly, especially when you don't have to interact with the apps every day. CMIIW.

[Coyster]

The most common end of the year scam I will advice people to avoid most especially the newbies is those fancy giveaways...

Quite a lot of people fall for giveaway scams because they believe crypto is a money doubling scheme and these scammers get a lot of victims when they manage to hack the social media account of a prominent or popular person and use the account to make the giveaway post. Scammers also make use of the deepfake technology to impersonate people on YouTube and promise to double any amount sent to them, newbies should be careful about all these, nobody is going to double your money for you, they'll only steal it from you.

[tabas]

Scammers and hackers are doing it nonstoply. So whether this year ends, they'll always come from each angle of the internet. We have to raise awareness among others about these techniques. Others might find it too simple about phishing but this is where many have been victimized. When they're too confident that the websites they visit often aren't bookmarked and they typically type and search it through search engines, they'd fall to these top results. If someone isn't into dApps or that kind of smart contract apps you'll have to connect your wallets, you're good, and nothing to worry about. But just for the sake of safety, always verify the websites and results that you search.

[SamReomo]

I would also suggest using an ad blocker to completely block those sponsored results in your searches. From my experience, they're mostly filled with scams. I would recommend ublock origin, see: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Good suggestion mate, it's much better to block those sponsored ads as those are mainly used by scammers to transfer internet more specifically the crypto users to phishing sites.

Google wants to earn money from those sponsored advertisements, and they don't really care if scammers use those advertisement spaces for phishing others, and that's why it's our duty to be safe from those phishing sites and whatever you suggested is going to be very helpful.

I also use Ublock origin myself and it's quite helpful in blocking of non-wanted elements on sites, and also advertisements that are present on all sites these days.

[Zigabel]

This is a very nice step you have put out there which if followed will become very helpful to users, some of these Links sometimes could literally be such that wouldn't be noticed and not having suspicious looks so unsuspecting persons would click on the link only to later become victims of situations they aren't prepared for, let's all take caution because this period in the bid to make some more money before the Year runs out we may want to engage in so many activities at every opportunity we find only to become victims at some point so the call to be careful is very important.

[tvplus006]

We have three more months before we say goodbye to 2024 and both pros and beginners are gearing up for the coming uptober like many people are calling October, even if we failed to get a uptober, one thing is certain, a full blow up top is coming. ...

It doesn't matter if the year ends or a new one begins, but in any case, you must take responsibility for the security of your assets. This is your money and you must first save it so that you have the opportunity to multiply it.