New to the Crypto/NFT space? Here is some Not-So-Average advice.
So just to be clear as an introduction, a year or so ago I got scammed, phished, and lost possession of my seed phrase, gave a fake support tech a link that also gave them my full control of my Trust wallet, sent crypto to the wrong addresses and went through a few other nasty learning lessons on my journey through crypto and NFTs, and this is a START to what I have learned.
Regardless of the lost but not forgotten:
- .5 $ETH
- 500 $XRP
- .01 $BTC
- 100 $MATIC
- 25 $RARI
- 80 $CAKE,
- 500 $ENJIN
- 1000 $SAND
-200 $THETA
The necessity for some clear and concise instructions on the in’s and out’s of the wild wild west could have saved me a lot of my favorite tokens. In hindsight, all I needed was some sound advice. So coincidentally I am now a moderator for a few dope NFT projects that I love, and hopefully this reaches some one one along the way and saves their asses from getting REKT!!
For starters, Crypto Tokens don’t do “Social Media Support” very well. It is almost “Anon” existent and they still have yet to get back to me on twitter. That’s party of being Anon and “It is what it is” I guess but this time with puns intended.
As someone who had never used Telegram before, I was a small fish in shark infested waters showing up in ANKR Telegrams #main-chat at the time asking for help staking my node with a bunch of crypto. Of course my private messages started blowing up, and even got a phone call from who a scammer pretending to be the Web 3 Infrastructure Developer from ANKR. It wasn’t until the scammer started getting very demanding and pushy about connecting my wallet (that had no assets in it) that I realized what was going on.
Even after blocking the scammers, I couldn’t even keep up with the fake accounts that were contacting me. At one point it was just sheer dumb luck timing I missed a reply from the official rep saying they would contact me via official email. Regardless of the $ANKR team being cool with helping through my problems, it still did not resolve my scammed/phished assets, in which the reality hit that there is nothing that can be done about that, except this. Blockchain transactions are immutable and NO account can reverse that. (RIP .01 $BTC to those hacker tools on the dark web)
—> So here is my initial attempt to try and guide people in the right direction, and for starters please learn from our mistakes and save yourself the headache.
1.) TURN YOUR DMs OFF EVERYWHERE!
No official admin or mod will actually DM you to talk about trading NFTs, passwords or private keys. These are huge red flags, but unfortunately scammers can be VERY convincing. That’s what they do what they do. I have even talked to fake accounts on Quora that were even voted-up to the top based of feeds algorithmically by naive community members believing the copy pasta content. The only way I knew it was fake, was a reverse google image search. Sadly, once you’re in the Private message and out of the public eye’s though, that’s GAME — OVER.
For Discord:
Click the Settings → Privacy and Safety → Turn OFF Direct Messages. Scammers will use fake accounts to spam your DMs with nefarious links. Click those links and connect your wallet to a malicious website and lose you crypto, NFTs and ownership over your wallet. If someone is DMing you trying to trade you can @ a Mod and they will ban the scammer. Just ENSURE that they are actually official by verifying their roles and clicking their name to ensure they were given the correct roles to change their name color.
2.) FOLLOW OFFICIAL LINKS ONLY!
Make sure to only follow #🔗┃official-links Stay away from NFT trades and set ups like Yaww where unverified tokens can be traded. If you are new to the space scammers try and trade fakes as most people do not know how to verify tokens yet. (Working on something for that rn actually)
There is also a huge problem with fake websites that pretend to look like the one you are looking for. Most look close but will force a wallet connect and authorization through a nefarious method unlike your typical Phantom or Solflare, or Sollet wallet integrations
3.) DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!
Don’t FOMO buy anything, don’t chase pumps and ALWAYS Do Your Own Research. People always shill what they want you to hold. Trust Facts/Product Incentive not (Hype and Paid Promo) and don’t be afraid to ask questions!!! When you overextend yourself, you aren’t going to want to hold that NFT much longer.
Even concept of chasing whitelists are conceptually problematic because that makes people believe that all these projects are worth the time when they aren’t. False promises suck, and a project with no developer is a rug waiting to happen. Don’t fall victim to over-promised projects and only buy what you have taken the time to read up on and believe in.
- I hope this gives you a small idea of the importance of NEVER showing anyone your seed phrase, ensuring it is written down and saved elsewhere, and keeping your passwords safe and secure.
- I will aim to do a series of these through The Piggy Bank as a first DAO initiative of the Barnyard to take action upon aiming to educate the new communities along side the Not-So-Average Joes.
- As part of the JOEDAO and founder of The Piggy Bank, I am hoping to work with the JOEDAO and grow the commitments of core projects in the space by implementing a standard of security measures across the board to ensure the safety, growth and expansion of all surrounding community.
Love your Not-So-Average Mod:
— Chopp_Joeyy aka. Chopp_Sueyy
