An investigation by the Bolster fraud prevention platform warns that scammers are setting their traps as interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) grows.
In a recent report, the company revealed which are the four forms of scams that are attacking the NFT ecosystem.
According to the survey, these variants include possible phishing attacks and promises in exchange for something disguised as airdrop.
There are also cases of promise of free distribution of tokens and other scams launched on social networks.
1 – Identity theft from NFT trading platforms
As the report highlights, those who operate with NFT must be aware of the main modalities used by cybercriminals.
After all, the DeFi market has been arousing the interest of scammers looking for economic benefits in the midst of “NFT Mania”.
First, the report highlights the scam known as IP spoofing or identity theft via IP. This violation occurs when a cybercriminal, or a group, is able to replicate a web page with the idea of impersonating the website that the user tries to visit.
In this case, attackers generally attempt attacks from phishing to steal users’ personal information. They mainly look for login passwords or credit card details.
Particularly in the case of NFTs, Bolster warns of possible attempts to spoofing trading platforms.
In addition, the company suspects that a wave of attacks using this modality is already occurring. This is because there are already several domain registrations with names of sites already known, such as Rarible, OpenSea and Audius.
The search also found a considerable increase in the registration of suspicious domains using related words, such as crypto, nft, market and trading.
According to the report, the registration of these domains increased considerably in March compared to the previous month. However, the company estimates that the number could double by the end of April.
2 – Imitations and plagiarism
On scams involving imitations / plagiarism, the report cites the case of a Banksy NFT that was not created by the original artist.
According to Bolster, this is considered a precedent for fakes or imitations that may apply to NFTs.
In fact, the investigation revealed that some new website domains, such as banksynft.com and banksynfts.com, have already been registered.
3 – Free gifts and launches
Another fraud tactic has to do with airdrops. It is an attractive marketing strategy commonly used to launch a token or cryptocurrency. The report indicates that airdrops can also be used by malicious agents.
In these scams, scammers target cryptocurrency enthusiasts. They offer users free cryptography / NFT / tokens related to the NFT markets.
Recently, such a scheme involved the NFT Rarible market, when a fake platform encouraged users to send their RARI tokens to a specific criminal-controlled wallet.
The ad promised gifts in exchange for encouraging the adoption of cryptocurrencies. However, such an offer was nothing more than a scam, the report notes.
4 – False communities scattered on social networks
Finally, among the scams that spread on social networks, Bolster identified the fake communities on Telegram and Discord.
“Scammers have created fake groups related to almost every brand in the cryptocurrency space. Most of these groups claim to be the ‘official supporter’ or ‘official community’ of the target brand ”, detail the researchers.
Thus, these fake communities spread on social networks to trick users into selling fake or non-existent NFTs. Many of them claim to belong to the Rarible community.
The Bolster team recommends that, to avoid this scam, it is better to check if this is the official forum of the brand.
“In most cases, a simple Google / Twitter search can help you find the right community or group,” add the researchers.
Read also: Exchange token values 3,300% and exceeds Binance Coin
Read also: Bitcoin rally on the way: investors increase BTC purchases
Read also: Bitcoin beats gains on all Wall Street assets, report reveals