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Before connecting a wallet to a presale, giveaway, or airdrop, verify the exact website through the project’s independently established channels and inspect every wallet request before signing. A professional-looking page, familiar brand, search result, or promised reward does not prove an offer is genuine. Never share your Secret Recovery Phrase, and do not proceed if you cannot explain what a requested permission or signature will do.
How crypto presale and giveaway scams work
Fake presales borrow a real project’s appearance
A scam may copy a legitimate project’s branding, imitate a familiar company, buy promoted placement, or publish an article that resembles trusted news coverage. The link may differ from the real address by only a small detail. Even if a token with the advertised name exists on-chain, that does not establish that it belongs to the project being represented. MetaMask describes these lookalike and hype-driven tactics in its guide to avoiding fake token presales.
Wallet requests can grant spending permission
A site may ask you to connect, then prompt you to approve a token or sign a transaction to “buy” or “claim.” A token approval can let a decentralized application move a specific token up to the cap you authorize. MetaMask notes that unlimited approvals can be convenient for repeat use, but they can also give a malicious site permission to take all of that token type. A wallet prompt is not proof that a sale is authentic; read what it authorizes and decline if the permission or transaction is unclear or broader than you intended. See MetaMask’s explanation of token approvals.
Free-asset bait can lead to phishing or harmful signatures
An unsolicited social post, copied account, or NFT sent to your wallet may promise free assets, returns, or allowlist access. Its instructions may direct you to a malicious site that asks for your recovery phrase or a dangerous signature. Ignore unexpected assets and do not follow instructions embedded in them. MetaMask’s scam-identification guidance explains that MetaMask does not give away airdrops or other assets.
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Prize claims that require payment are a scam signal
Some giveaway frauds promise to send back more cryptocurrency if you first send a deposit, tax, release fee, or verification payment. The Federal Trade Commission warns that a prize claim requiring cryptocurrency, a fee, or financial details is a scam: “There is no prize.” That warning applies to the purported prize being offered; it is not a claim that every legitimate airdrop is fraudulent. Read the FTC’s advice on “You’ve Won” scams.
Check an offer before connecting your wallet
- Find the project’s official site independently. Do not treat an ad, search result, direct message, QR code, or link in an unsolicited NFT as the source of truth. Navigate through the project’s established official channels and compare the full domain, including spelling and endings, with the link for the offer.
- Verify that the project announced this exact sale or giveaway. Check independently established project channels for the announcement. A recognizable name, polished site, social proof, paid promotion, or familiar-looking article is not proof of affiliation or a real token launch.
- Pause when the pitch tries to rush you. “Last chance” notices, countdowns, fear of missing out, guaranteed returns, and unusually generous free rewards are reasons to stop and verify—not evidence that the offer is legitimate. MetaMask lists urgency, unrealistic returns or airdrops, and impersonation among warning patterns in its approval safety guidance.
- Do not enter your Secret Recovery Phrase. Never type it into a website, form, or chat, and never give it to an unsolicited support agent. An unexpected claim that requires the phrase is a major red flag. MetaMask says it does not routinely need the phrase and will not give users assets; see its wallet-verification and scam guidance.
- Inspect each wallet request before approving or signing. Identify the requesting site and contract, the token involved, the amount or spending cap, and the intended effect. If a cap is offered, choose only an amount consistent with what you intend to spend. Reject an unexplained message or transaction; do not sign simply to “verify” your wallet or claim an unsolicited reward. MetaMask advises: “Make sure you understand the transaction before you sign it.”
- Stop if you cannot verify the request. Check official project documentation or contact support using a channel you found independently. Do not use contact details or “undo” prompts supplied by the suspicious site.
Connecting a wallet and granting permission are different actions. A connection prompt alone does not show that a project is safe, and it does not tell you what a later approval or signature will do. Treat every permission and signature as a separate decision.
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How to judge a wallet prompt
| What to compare | What to check |
|---|---|
| Website address | Compare the exact domain you received with the address reached through the project’s independently established official channels. |
| Claimed project and token | Look for confirmation of this specific sale, token, or giveaway on the project’s independently verified channels. A token’s existence alone does not authenticate the offer. |
| Permission and spending cap | Check which token the dapp can move and the amount it may spend. Decline a permission that is unclear or out of scope; avoid unlimited access when a smaller cap meets your needs. |
| “Free” claim | Be especially cautious if claiming requires a recovery phrase, payment, or an unexplained signature. An unexpected NFT or prize is not a reason to follow embedded instructions. |
These checks help you decide whether to stop, verify, or proceed; they cannot guarantee that a project or contract is safe.
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If you already connected, approved, or signed
You approved token spending but did not share your phrase
Use a trusted wallet interface to review existing token approvals and promptly revoke any unwanted or suspicious allowance. MetaMask notes that revoking an on-chain approval is itself a transaction and involves network costs. Do not return to the suspected site to revoke access through another prompt it provides. Revocation stops that allowance from being used going forward; it cannot reverse a transfer that has already completed.
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You shared your Secret Recovery Phrase
Treat every account derived from that phrase as compromised. Stop using those accounts, do not deposit more funds into them, and follow your wallet provider’s trusted instructions for creating a new recovery phrase and moving any remaining assets if it is safe to do so. A hardware wallet can keep keys offline going forward, but it does not make a malicious site or signature safe.
You lost funds or need to report the incident
Use official wallet-provider channels to report the scam, flag the public address with the relevant block explorer, and contact local cybercrime authorities. MetaMask warns that it cannot retrieve funds lost in irreversible blockchain transactions; see its instructions for identifying and reporting scams. Do not pay an unsolicited recovery expert or anyone promising to recover funds for an upfront fee.
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What giveaway-scam statistics do—and do not—show
A 2023 study of giveaway scams disseminated through Twitter lists reported that its system detected 95,111 lists during a collection period from June 2022 to June 2023. The authors estimated USD 872,000 in losses across more than 365 tracked victims and reported that the detected lists reached more than 3.7 million Twitter users. These are findings tied to that platform, collection period, and study method—not current estimates of all crypto giveaway scams, unique victims, or people who saw or acted on a scam. See the paper, Understanding the Cryptocurrency Free Giveaway Scam Disseminated on Twitter Lists.
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