These days, scammers are always looking for new tactics to steal your money, and the massive growth of cryptocurrency has created plenty of opportunities for scams.
According to a report by blockchain data firm Chainalysis, fraudsters stole over $14 billion of crypto in 2021. Below are some things to keep in mind to prevent that from happening.
Crypto wallet holds the crypto holdings of a user. Decentralized wallets allow their users to store private keys without the intervention of a centralized organization.
However, one of the tricks of some unscrupulous elements in the crypto space is to either create a fake wallet or try to gain access to the wallets of others.
When searching for a crypto wallet, let's say, Trust wallet on a search engine, there is a great chance that one would come across ads at the top of the search result. Ignore those ads because they may be phishing attempts and use the first website from the search results. Google tends to bring out the genuine website as the first result.
Scammers program bots on social media, especially Twitter, asking people to input their seed phrase into a website, stating that they will help solve any issue linked to their crypto wallet.
For instance, typing the term 'Trust Wallet' on Twitter will unleash a bandwagon of bots stating that they work for the Trust Wallet support team while encouraging the user to type in their seed phrase in a website that they provide. Inputting your seed phrase will give them access to your crypto wallet, allowing them to empty the digital assets in it.
When trying to download a crypto wallet app on your device, check the URL of the website. Is there a spelling mistake in it? Does it look strange? If you notice a misspelling, it is a scam.
A DeFi protocol may not have a wallet designated for its activities, and some may use that to their advantage to float a fraudulent crypto wallet. Though Google Play Store has an impeccable security policy to reduce the chances of scam apps getting into its ecosystem, these apps may bypass the strategy. Hence, it is crucial to confirm from the protocol or platform's official channels if they have a wallet or not.