Sounds familiar: "First they stole $300 as a GAS fee, then they asked me to pay $500 as a registration fee, and when I paid them to mint the artwork, they charged me $1000 as a Pin payment requested. I stopped paying there and have since asked for my money back."
If so, then you are one of the victims of the growing number of artists who have little experience in the crypto world, but who can hardly resist the temptation to generate unexpectedly high proceeds with their artworks as NFT. Fraudsters shamelessly exploit this and use various scams to rip unsuspecting artists over the table. In the case described above, someone was offered a large sum for their picture published on Instagram - on the condition that it would be mined and offered on a special NFT marketplace.
Great caution is required here and it is advisable to check the Internet address of the required marketplace carefully before embarking on such an adventure away from the standard marketplaces such as OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation etc. A quick check, e.g. with the Scamadvisor, can save you from the worst.
It is piling up with me at the moment. the coaching registrations of artists who would like to mint their works as NFT, since they have already received excellent offers from allegedly interested parties in the social networks or directly by e-mail. The scams that may be practiced here are different, but are currently particularly efficient. multi-level concepts.
- Method 1: The inexperienced artist is offered the opportunity to mint the desired NFTs
- Level 1.1: If an artist has published works, e.g. on Instagram, he unexpectedly receives a message from a prospective buyer who would like to buy two of his exhibited works as NFT. Purchase sums per NFT in the five-digit euro range are also offered.
- Level 1.2: If the artist agrees, but has no knowledge of NFT, mints, etc., he is also offered the opportunity to produce the NFTs - for four-digit euro amounts. If the artist agrees, the fraudulent prospect is off with the amount paid.
- Method 2: The artist is lured to an NFT fake marketplace
- Level 2.1: An artist is again offered high purchase prices on Instagram to purchase the NFTs of two of her published artworks. The tone of the messages is extremely friendly and respectful. If the buyer accepts and asks for details, she will be given a marketplace where she should mint her NFTs. This marketplace looks deceptively real and the possible fraud can only be recognized at this point with the appropriate level of knowledge.
- Level 2.2: The artist informs the prospect that she would not mint in this marketplace. The interested party is very understanding and now suggests making the NFTs available for them on the undoubted NFT marketplace OpenSea.
- Level 2.3: The NFTs are minted on OpenSea and, as agreed, the interested party receives the links to the NFTs in order to purchase them.
- Level 2.4: The interested party writes back that he has tried to purchase the NFTs but there is a problem with the artist's OpenSea account, she should contact OpenSea customer support directly. The interested party is kind enough to give the artist a (fake, of course) e-mail address.
- Level 2.5: The artist writes to the fake OpenSea support email address and asks for help.
- Level 2.6: (Real answer so keep an eye out for this email address!)
The fake OpenSea support writes back within a short time:...
From: opensea.iohelpeddickcenter@gmail.com, To: XXX, Date 2023-03-31 09:47:14
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We understand that you need help with the error your potential buyer is experiencing. We have made a review and it shows clearly that this account is not yet valid to make sales thanks for contacting customer support.
To activate your account you need to pay a gas fee of 0.2ETH to complete the auction.
N.B without payment your account will not be valid to make sales and for every other transaction this fee will be deducted after the sales.
Also note that if this payment isn't made then the clients payment might likely burn
PAYMENT PORTAL
Fee: 0.2ETH
ETH WALLET ADDRESS
0x2E826A1B938294043936d5896c6941AE2690f80e
The Opensea team will take action in the event that you do not confirm the transaction
and your buyer loses their money, your OpenSea account will be subjected to verification,
and will be disabled from future sales opportunities.
...
Method 3: Methods 1 and 2 are mixed, because once you're in the conversation ...
Methode 4: As in the cases above, you are approached on social media and praised for a featured photo that the scammer is keen to buy as an NFT. Here's a related dialog I just had on Instagram:
Betty Collins: "Hey, whats up? Saw your NFT and I would like to buy it for my collection Give me your correct link to profile Opensea or Foundation."
My answer:"Hi, thank you for your interest. This link brings you to rarible: https://rarible.com/token/0xb66a603f4cfe17e3d27b87a8bfcad319856518b8:70148419656509234851691845286953392320543619229727924547246195647379327156235 But you can also check my collection on opensea."
Betty Collins : "I saw your NFT -«Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego» and I am willing to buy for 4 eth, as it deserves. Can you tell us about the idea of your collection? I am interested in"
My Answer:"Thank you for your interest in my NFT Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. The entire collection consists of 100 NFTs. They belong to special photos from 100 countries and regions in which I have carried out photo projects over the past decades. Each NFT features my best photo from that country/region. The originals of the photos are all in IPFS. The NFTs are all minted on the rarible marketplace on the Ethereum blockchain."
llins.nfts Betty Collins:"Amazing, Done! ✊ I paid NFT «Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego» for the amount of 7700$
Scan it and open transaction page in your browser. I hope that would really help you to keep going and you would be more motivated in your endeavors."
And the scam starts with her QR-Code:
(Warning: Do not try to read the covered QR code after all!!!)
My final answer:"Thank you for this lesson!"
If you now scan the QR code, you will get to a fake OpenSea account and you will be asked to log in with your wallet.
Then you get the message that you don't have enough ether to receive the amount and you should first transfer half of it to your account - of course this amount doesn't end up in your own account.
Greed is being played with here again - in the above example, my NFT was offered for 1 Ether and Betty Collins wanted to pay me 4 Ether for it, since it was worth it...
Method X: ....
There are still several current scams, some of which are very subtle. What they all have in common is that they offer an artist an extremely high sum, e.g. €12,000.00 in Ethereum for the NFT of an image that could otherwise be sold for perhaps €200.00. With such a high chance of winning, one or the other protective shield will have holes and you don't want to miss this chance ... it could be real after all.
So far, everyone who found themselves in one of the above situations and contacted me was saved from harm. In the coaching we get to know the methods of the NFT scammers.
However, once you have transferred money, EURO, Dollar, Ether, Bitcoin or similar, any help will come too late!
If you want to protect your cryptocurrencies, consider a hardware wallet from Ledger or Trezor.
