You’ve heard the horror stories and many of them are true. The crypto market is filled with scammers champing at the bit to steal the digital assets of anyone daring enough to trade them. To stay safe, don’t trust: verify.
Treat with skepticism anyone claiming to be from popular sites, such as the crypto exchange Coinbase or wallet app MetaMask. When searching for crypto websites, remember that the first result may in fact be a paid advertisement from a scammer pretending to be the actual website. Always double check every site’s URL before logging in or sending funds.
Never—NEVER—reveal exchange account passwords or wallet seed phrases. Anyone holding a wallet’s seed phrase can drain it of all funds, no further questions asked. And in crypto, there’s no consumer protection or government bailouts. Ignore Twitter offers.
Do not assume two-factor authentication (2FA) is foolproof. Text messages are at risk of SIM swapping, where attackers convince a victim’s phone company to link a cell number to a fresh SIM card. Try not to share cell phone numbers online and, for 2FA, your best bet is a password authenticator like Authy or Google Authenticator.
Treat crypto exchanges with caution. They are only as secure as the integrity of their teams, or the soundness of their security protocols. As for DeFi, security risks do not vanish on decentralized protocols—they mutate. The $50 billion-dollar decentralized finance industry might run on code, but that code frequently contains bugs that allow for multimillion-dollar exploits.
Sometimes developers intentionally include security vulnerabilities. This allows for “rug pulls,” where developers siphon much of the token supply and quickly sell it on the open market, tanking its price. Stick with audited and trusted DeFi protocols to reduce that risk.
Despite all this, it’s still possible to explore and participate in the world of crypto without getting fleeced. Just err on the side of caution.
Go deeper:
Rekt Leaderboard (DeFi exploits)
See also:
Crypto investing 101
What is Ethereum?
Memecoins
Try it:
Authy—two-factor authentication