If you’re looking for a tech fad right now, NFTs, also known as nonfungible tokens, are at the top of the list. However, for the time being, they’re aiming to break into the mainstream. To put it another way, NFTs are digital assets that can be bought and sold on an online market. A strategy to make anything that could be easily duplicated and shared online more valuable to some.
NFT Market Grows the Potential for Scams
It’s a digital contract that’s maintained on the blockchain, a digital ledger of cyber-currency transactions. Consequently, if I were to acquire an NFT of the “Mona Lisa,” I would be able to point to a piece of code that declares that I own it.
Senior reporter Corin Faife at The Verge has kept tabs on this trend. He said he’s heard a lot of stories about people getting scammed on the famous Discord chat app. This is an edited version of what we discussed.
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If you’re trying to sell NFT initiatives, one of the most effective ways to do so is by creating buzz and getting people excited about the technology. When it comes to that, Discord has shown to be a great fit. Some issues have arisen because it wasn’t originally intended to be a secure communication platform. It wasn’t something they expected people to be doing high-value transactions, so there have been a number of security issues.
Kimberly Adams: That’s a good question. Let’s look at some real-world instances. Discord has been the scene of at least two major NFT scams, it appears.
It’s a scam known as phishing. These NFTs are not being offered at a discount on the market; instead, users are receiving messages in which they mistakenly believe they are being offered a promotional deal or some other type of sale. So they are duped into linking their cryptocurrency wallets to a fictitious website instead of actually using it. Once they’ve authorised these transactions, which can include moving money or NFTs from their cryptocurrency wallets to the scammer, they’ll be able to get their money or NFTs back.
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“Unfortunately, there are scammers everywhere,” Faife retorted. As a result, scams are taking place on Discord, Twitter, and Reddit, among other places. In any arena where cryptocurrencies and NFTs are discussed, there will always be some who want to take advantage of the situation.
Faife: Once a transaction has been completed, it can’t be undone because to the nature of blockchain technology. As a result, if you lose some of your bitcoin, ethereum, or NFTs, you have no one to turn to for help. In most cases, you won’t be able to get a refund. As a result, large sums of money are simply thrown away.
Faife: I’m not sure how much money has been taken. A lot of people are falling for the scams. As soon as I publish a post exposing these scams, I’m bombarded with requests for help. It seems to me that when it comes to the NFT area, security is approached in a completely different way than it is in other kinds of digital spaces. If you ask me about email security, for example, I believe that organisations like Gmail helped us secure the product. There is a lot of spam out there, but Google isn’t just going to wave its hands and say, “OK, but that’s your duty. You can’t just click on it,” he advises. Instead, they create all of these items to ensure the safety and security of their customers. Many people, especially those who are new to the area, are unprepared for the onus of security that is placed on the individual in the cryptocurrency world, where the mindset is that the end user must verify that whatever they are doing is correct.
What has been the most shocking scam that you’ve come across thus far?
Faife: There are certain NFT ventures that have risen in value significantly. Bored Ape Yacht Club is currently one of the most sought-after. NFTs that have been phished or stolen could be worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to the people who have been victimised by them.
We’ll link to some of Faife’s Verge pieces if you’d like to learn more about some of the scams he mentioned. When a bogus link was used in the Ozzy Osbourne NFT community, scammers collected more than $41,000. When it comes to investing in NFT, it’s important to know what to look out for to prevent falling victim to scams.
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