Guide to "How not get Scammed"
1. Fake Profiles 🔗
Fake profiles impersonating TEAM (support) members First rule in crypto: Admin NEVER! message you first!
If you interested in any project and have some questions/issues/problems you ususlly look for their social media to find their support channels. Then you go there (Discord/Telegram etc.) and write in general chat. And now most important part: NO ONE from support/Admin/Moderator or TEAM will write to you first! There are no exception from that rule. Scammers are actively looking for people asking for help and then they are sending private messages (DMs) from their fake accounts. Fake accounts looks almost identical to original TEAM members. Here are two profiles from Discord, one is real TEAM member, other one is scammer (impersonator). Can you tell which one is which?
Usualy profile pic, background, account information (bio or About me), Display name are exactly the same. Let me show you little differences that should tell you that it is scammer.
- Display Names: The original display name (1) and the scammer’s display name are usually identical.
- Usernames: Usernames (2) are almost identical. Since the scammer can’t have the same username as a TEAM member, they create a very similar-looking one to deceive their victims. The original (TEAM member) is: “etcecho”. The scammer created: “.etcecho” (with a dot at the beginning). Normally, there is no easy way to spot that difference. Other common ways to cheat include using “0” instead of “O”, “I” instead of “l”, “4” instead of “A”, “8” instead of “B”, and so on. Also, using a hyphen (-), dot (.), comma (,), underscore (_), apostrophe (’), or any other special character is a common method used by scammers to create similar-looking names. Often, scammers use them at the beginning or end of their names, but sometimes they appear in the middle. When many different characters are used in nicknames, it becomes very hard to spot the difference.
- Channel Membership: Scammers are often banned from official project channels (like Discord in this example), so that information is missing here. All TEAM members (support, admin, moderators) will be in the same channel or group. If they are not, it is a clear sign that it is a scammer, not a TEAM member!
- Account Age: Very often, fake accounts are new accounts, or at least much newer than the original account. This is used to hide the fact that the scammer provided false information by claiming their account was created on the same date as the original account. If you compare both images, you will see a difference between the original and the fake profile. In my example, the original profile (TEAM member) is the one on the right-hand side (etcecho), and the one on the left (.etcecho) is the scammer.
- Roles: If you share the same Discord server, you will see that the original profile has some roles.
But be careful, very often scammers can make fake Roles too, as you can see in that example:
This scammer is NOT Moderator although his profile is suggesting that he is.
Another example of two profiles:
You can see what profile is genuine (left one), because that user is in the same Discord server with me. Profile on the right is a scammer, and he is already banned on Tangem Discord and that is why he has no servers shared with me. Also original TEAM member will have more than one (member) Role in shared server. But be careful as scammers will try to make fake roles as per example earlier. Please also check Mutual server list, as usually it is clear signal if person that messaged you is scammer.
Here there are two profiles from Telegram:
Again: profile picture and Nickname are exactly the same. The only difference between original profile (on the left) and fake one (on the right) is that original profile have Username: Hypno020 where fake profile have Hypno020 but written in bio instead of Username. But at first glance both profiles looks exactly the same.
@ETCeho (on the left) is the original, @etc_echo (on the right) is the fake. The scammer added a fake website link, which is not present in the same (official) groups.
That is why I remind you again: Admin, support, TEAM will NEVER write to you first!
Even though part of my nickname contains that information (I NEVER DM first!), some people were still scammed because fake profiles messaged users first. If you know a TEAM member never DMs first and they personally message you, you should see that as a big red warning sign! I use that nickname for a reason.
If anyone DMs you first, the first thing you should do is go to the official channels (like Telegram or Discord), find that person in the Admin (user) list, and once you are sure you have found the real TEAM member, write to them by clicking their profile in the official support channel. If it was a scammer who wrote to you first, you will have a different private window for the scammer and another one for the official TEAM member. This way, you will know someone is trying to scam you.
2. Fake Websites 🔗
Very often scammers impersonating support or TEAM members will ask you to click on link that they provide and connect your wallet on their website to provide any support! Quite common in Discord is that scammers are sending fake links to other Discords. Here you have 3 examples:
All of the above are scammers fake Discords – do NOT go there!
There is no need to connect your wallet anywhere to get any support! For support TEAM to be able to provide any support it is enough if you give them your wallet address, there is no need to connect it anywhere to receive any support!
And here comes most important rule in crypto world:
Also be careful as many platforms allows to hide actual link under different display name. Scammers are using that method to trick others:
On picture above you can see scammer impersonating TEAM member that posted link that look like genuine link for ETCMC project. But when you hover your mouse over that link you will see that actual link is different than link it is displayed.
And that link leads to fake website that will ask you for your seed words so scammer could clear your wallet. That is why everyone should be careful with clicking any links even when they looks like geniune links! I will now provide some screenshots from fake scammers websites to show two of many examples how scammers are trying to stole your crypto.
In order to stole your crypto scammer impersonating support or TEAM member will ask you to connect your wallet. They will give you many different, fake reasons, like “We have to check/verify your account”, “Your wallet is compromised, we need to secure your crypto”.
After you click on “Connect” or “Connect Wallet” often fake website will give you some options to choose one of many wallets. But it is not always like that, sometimes fake websites skip next step.
It does not matter what wallet you will choose here. If you choose wallet that you don’t have or wallet that you have fake website will do the same:
Regardless of what wallet you choose it will ALWAYS give you fake error! ALWAYS! Bear in mind that there is nothing wrong with your wallet, that fake error message is only for scammer so they can get your private key (seed words) in next step:
Fake (scammer’s) website will give you few options to „import” your wallet. Whatever method you will use after pressing „Proceed” button you will give full access to your wallet to scammer and you will loose all your crypto! At this point scammer will try to make you do it as quickly as possible, often by saing that your wallet is compromised, that you will loose all your crypto if you won’t cooperate and by saying that „time is of the essence”. You should NEVER make any financial decision in hurry, NEVER! That’s quickest way to loosing all your crypto!
3. Other Info 🔗
Many people have different wallet for different projects. That way if something bad will happend with one wallet other wallets should be safe. If you participate in any airdrops – having separate (from your main) wallet is a must! There are very often fake airdrops and once you connect your wallet with them – you will loose all your crypto. If you have separate wallet for airdrops – you might loose only a bit, not whole your crypto from main wallet.
Scammers are also sending fake NFTs to multiple random wallets. If you received something that you don’t know or expect – DO NOT touch (interact with) it! Do not try to sell those fake NFTs or send it to any other address, just leave it and ignore it.
Before connecting your wallet to any website, take a moment to double-check everything. If you connect your wallet to a malicious site, it could empty your wallet in seconds, and there's no way to undo it.
Always make sure the contract you're signing is legitimate and exactly what you intend to sign. Avoid signing anything from random sources, especially if it promises huge rewards for little effort, like fake giveaways or NFTs. Stay cautious!
4. Examples of Communication 🔗
Fake emails are one of many methods. You can see on the photo on the left that even when it looks like genuine email it was sent from fake email address. This time difference is huge, but often it is just one character (in email address), which could be difficult to notice.
General rule with any email should be: verify via official channels. NEVER reply to that email!
If you have any doubt – find support email in official channels and send new email to that official email address, NEVER reply to suspicious email!
Both messages are fake. One on the left with fake link. One on the right is well known SCAM. Send me something and I will send you double/tripple/x time more. No one is doing that, your first thought should be:
If something looks too good to be true then it is probably scam.
Fake text messaage (SMS) with fake links are also quite common. This one is impersonating one of UK bank. But it could be anything. Bear in mind that you can receive text message (SMS) where instead of sender number there will be something else, like your bank name. Scammers can do that! They can sent text message (SMS) with fake senders name.
ETCMC Hypno