Beware of ICO Scams

The ICO crazy poses lots of unforeseen dangers even for experienced investors. This article aims to inform about the most common scams in relation to tokens sales. Don’t lose your digital funds!

Phishing websites

You may come across messages in which links to phishing websites are shared. They may look very similar to wallet sites like MyEtherWallet or to exchanges  – but clicking the link will take you to a website where entering your details will be stolen once you enter login and password.

Fake ICO sites

These websites may look almost identical with the original ICO with a slightly changed address. For example, the recent successful start of the HydroMiner ICO attracted phishers, and one of the fake websites was HydroMlNER. Can you tell that there is a L instead of the i in miner?

Be extra careful with such websites. If you get a wrong ICO address from there, your funds will be lost. Unfortunately, you have to stay vigilant all of the time, as Dave Appleton’s recent experience shows.

Check out the address of the website you are willing to visit correctly or even enter it manually for extra security, as it is sadly a common practice among the scammers to buy similar domain names in order to mislead ICO investors.

Social media messaging

Slack and Telegram messaging are often used by scammers these days. Be extremely skeptical of the messages from unknown senders or somebody claiming to be a member of anICO asking you to send any funds to an address provided in the message. Do not visit websites that these messages contain. You’ll find more information on how it works here. To prevent yourself from frauds, it is recommended to use the EtherAddressLookup extension for Chrome browser to check if the site was blacklisted.

Security checklist

Below we have outlined a checklist of the tips helping you to stay secure:

• Enable 2FA (two-factor authentication);
• Use a strong password;
• Avoid auto-saving your login details including the password on the ICO websites;
• Don’t share your login information with anyone and keep it in a safe place;
• Don’t open any messages from the unknown senders received via Slack, Telegram or email;
• Don’t send any funds to Ethereum addresses provided via Slack, Telegram or email;
• Make sure the website your are visiting is the legit and official ICO website

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