Random token in your wallet with value? It may be a gas fee scam trap

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

I can remember a long while ago there was a casino I did a wallet connection with and I used trust wallet back then obviously because It was temporary. I used it for a while then until I can remember there was a time I received a couple tokens I've never heard of I no longer have connection to the wallet anymore though.

Nevertheless what I'm trying to say is reading this your post now it seems a lot like this is exactly what they wanted to pull but I doubt it would have been successful as I barely had anything there or even used it.

[DYING_S0UL]

If anyone isn't aware of how to check the tax of a token, then usually they will fall into that scam.

They say you never stop learning, so yeah this thing is entirely new to me. I don't recall hearing about such scamming technique, nor do I know about this 100% TAX rule. Would you be able to provide me some links about this tax thing? I tried google searching, but it ain't coming up on my search (I'm im using the wrong keywords). 100% TAX? That even possible? This feels ridiculous as hell. Moreover, how can we figure out whether a token has 100% tax? Are there any tools/extensions of sort?

[Patikno]

I heard about a new type of scam, at least new to me. I am not sure if you are already familiar with this type of scam; I haven't noticed something similar on the forum. So I think it should share with the community in advance to avoid such scams.

First of all, a scammer will deploy a mintable token with a maximum 100% tax, including transfer tax in the main chain. Like if you transfer tokens in Binance Smart Chain, then you have to pay the $25 equivalent in BNB as transfer fees. This means when you are going to sell, that transfer tax will be applied. However, the scammer will organise a token sale somewhere in a decentralised launchpad. Then they will accumulate all the tokens from the launchpad. If someone bought during that time, never mind.

I have heard about this scam several times, and as far as I know, the creators of these shitcoins are using smart contracts to enforce these unreasonable taxes. Furthermore, I still hear about several honeypot scams involving shitcoins, and some people still complain about them. Even though these cases are commonplace, it is strange that there are still victims. So, I think beginners should pay closer attention to this discussion to avoid becoming the next victim. Don't be easily tempted by unknown shitcoins in your wallet, verify it first, check the smart contract, and make sure it is true.

I have a few hundred dollars in my wallet, but it is all scams, if I rush to exchange/swap it (without checking the sc, and its authenticity), and then I will lose money. The point is, don't be greedy.

If anyone isn't aware of how to check the tax of a token, then usually they will fall into that scam. So be aware if you receive something like these tokens that show a lot of value. You have to think first: why have you received that token when you haven't done anything? Consider it a red flag when you receive tokens that show value on the chain. Check the tax; it's not hard, and you may check on the appropriate explorer. Otherwise, you should learn.

I have created a thread about checking smart contracts, and some of them also support checking sc (smart contract) on other networks. So, I hope you will visit it to check it out, and I hope you find it helpful.

Reference :  bitcointalk.org - Several Platforms to Make It Easier to Check SmartContracts

[CryptSafe]

I was a victim of this back in 2022 or 2020; I can't recall correctly. What they did back then was just that there was no a transfer tax added to the token, but there was a high slippage set on PancakeSwap, where you need to have a specific amount of fee before you can swap. I first spent the fee gathering the token into 1 wallet, then I tried to swap it into BNB or the next pair, and I was told it could not go through. I had to increase the slippage up to 30% or more, and my fee of more than $5 was deducted the first time, and the transaction after a few minutes showed as unsuccessful. I had to try it a few more times until I ran out of gas. Only then did I remember to run a search and notice a few people were complaining on Reddit and Twitter, now known as X.

I had a similar experience a few years ago, where I tried swapping on a DEX and the transaction kept failing, but fees were deducted on the tries I made. I lost $12 for that swap. After experiencing it concurrently, I had to check and see what people were saying about the token and the DEX, only for me to realize that it was a scam coin and was programmed to function in such a manner while deducting fees that are not refundable.

[avp2306]

That's dusting and still popular attack nowadays, people need to be more careful dealing with this attempt because their wallet might get compromised by said attack.

If they want to know more about it there's site discuss about this topic.

For ETH https://99bitcoins.com/news/altcoins/ethereum-dust-attacks-fusaka and this is for Bitcoin dusting https://bitcoinmagazine.com/glossary/bitcoin-dust

Also this is good to read and learn more about this attack https://www.tools4crypto.com/scams/dusting-attack

Crypto became more popular and expect lots of scammers will continue to use that to stole the funds of people.

[sokani]

The scam is not new to me. I have read about it, and what prompted me to look it up was the day I opened my MyEtherWallet and saw an unknown token with an outrageous value. I felt something was not right, and when I did some research, I got to know it's a scam. The tokens are a honeypot, and you could lose your funds when you try to transfer or swap them.

[taufik123]

If it's a junk token that you may have been involved with the token project in the past and suddenly the price goes up,
then it's possible that it could be sold, but provided that the project is still alive or in development.

But if you find a random token in a wallet that comes from nowhere, don't try to sell it, it's a trap to start draining your wallet,
if you agree where the wallet should be connected, all your balance will be drained.
A lot of scams like this happen, it's a trap and don't easily trust any token that has never been involved in the project.

[Powerjumboo]

All these posts are very awareness-raising and everyone who has posted here has written very important things. When we open our wallets, we see that there are many worthless tokens, which have no value and there is no place to sell them anywhere. Those who do not understand the matter, newbies can get a lot of joy from seeing such tokens and can happily enter there and fall into the trap of fraud, but of course we should be aware and be careful not to transfer such tokens if we see them. I avoid everything, which is why I have not fallen into the trap of fraud. Everyone should be aware, if you are aware, no one can trap you in fraud.