I’m a noob & not claiming to be otherwise.
I’m not new to the Crypto space but new to NFTs, Discord & Telegram communications. So I was shocked to less than an hour ago, get scammed for the very first time.
I spent the past 30 mins after dinner watching youtube videos about certain NFT projects and just listening about why or why not it might be a good one. Nothing crazy just for fun really. Then I went into Discord.
It’s not that I didn’t know about scams like this. It’s that for that one fucking moment, I just turned off my brain. It. Fucking. Happens. But yeah I clicked a link that looked exactly like the project I was just watching about. Then connected my PHANTOM wallet & boom, it sucked out all my SOL. Thankfully it was not a large amount, about 800 USD but it was an annoying experience for somebody like me mainly because I’ve always been fairly careful with Crypto-related things.
Lesson learned.
Just wanted to highlight a few weak factors that are high barriers of entry into the world of Crypto & NFTs for people in the near future. Regardless of the high fees, people still gravitate to platforms like Opensea. Not because it’s better or whatever but because there are just slightly more/better layers of security before leading to a purchase.
Another issue is Discord. Fantastic as a whole, the ability to community build is amazing. BUT their inability to have any form of security for their users is astonishing for a platform like theirs. They remind you sure, but it’s shark infested waters for anybody without experience in this space. Anybody above 40 would almost 100% get scammed while someone fairly young like myself is guilty as well.
This is one reason why I feel Discord has never blown up. I’ve always heard of it, assumed it was just for gamers and now NFT projects but damn do I have a bad impression. 100% my fault, but you have to be switched on and alert all the time.
After doing some research post-scam, I realized that I’m not alone. Thousands of people are getting scammed by the hour and sometimes for ridiculous amounts. Having just read about somebody who lost 40k is shocking to me because of the lack of protocols to protect users. Especially since the “security” & “support” platforms are open communities that use Telegram or Discord as well leading to more scammers capitalizing on this loophole to “Double scam” users. <-This point alone to me is why it will never be mass market. Which is too bad because of the massive potential in the space.
Anyways, a micro-rant. More pissed off with myself really but hope that it helps anybody who might face this. You are not safe. You cannot get your shit back. It’s gone forever. Never put all your eggs in one basket.
Stay safe & happy buying everybody!
