Many new people coming into Web3 through #redditavatars, here are some security tips and warnings of common scams 🧵
People creating fake NFT collections to pretend to be real popular ones. Always check a few things: The volume, holder count, activity, and cross reference vs known official links, look for blue checkmarks. Fake links could come from discord, DMs, twitter, opensea search. 
People will DM you asking to trade. They may advertise on twitter or discord. They will try get you to send NFTs or crypto first. They may send you a fake trader website, or fake collections.
There is a way to officially do OTC Trades, this is person to person trading through a smart contract. Most popular is twitter.com/nfttrader (works on polygon) , and also @sudoswap
Common methods to scam on OTC Trading websites are : #1 send them a fake trading website. This can steal all of your NFTs/Crypto. Create a fake NFT that looks the same and is named the same, but is just created by the scammer. Create an NFT and called it "WETH" i.e Wrapped Eth.
I recommend staying away from these till you learn more, but if you want to, please verify the contract address of the NFT, which can be found in the opensea page when viewing. You can also see the 'id' at the end URL, which is sometimes different to the # of that NFT edition.
Scammers will send you fake NFTs to your wallet. If you look at your opensea and see a random NFT you never have seen before, there is a chance it's a scam. If it tries to direct you to a website, do NOT go there. Even if it has a WETH offer, chances are it's fake.
Do not try to do anything with scam NFTs, don't send them, don't try sell them. Just ignore. Opensea will usually hide them eventually, although u can do it manually too.
If there is an 'airdrop' or 'free mint' or 'claim' of an NFT, there is a chance it is fake. Go slow, talk to people who know more. This can result in total loss of your crypto or NFTs.
Never write down the 12 words that are your 'seed phrase'. This is the keys to your wallet, and anyone who has it can steal everything. Do not go into metamask and export keys if anyone asks you either, it will result in total loss. Do not let anyone take control of your computer
Anyone who says they are help support is 99.9% a scam, ignore. Go only to fully trusted people you know, or admins in verified discords. However, also assume that any announcement by a mod in a discord could ALSO be a scam.
Most discords/twitter/instagrams of popular NFTs have been hacked. Assume anything that sounds too good to be true IS A SCAM. expect a reddit discord or twitter hack, do NOT FOMO. Expect admins discord accounts to be hacked.
Do not click on any random links OR download any attachments from websites or email. PDFs, word docs, google sheets all have a chance to be compromised, resulting in your PC being under full control, and crypto/NFTs stolen. Don't answer requests to test games by downloading exe.
Before you do a transaction on metamask, read what it says. If it says you are giving control to this contract, ensure you are on official opensea, else you could lose all your NFTs of that collection. Warnings can be in orange/red.
Consider buying a hardware wallet. A @Ledger or @Trezor . I recommend sending these to a PO Box under a fake or non full name. Expect these details to be leaked online one day. From there, learn about how these work (no time to fully discuss)...
In effect, you will have a small USB device, which is needed to approve your transactions. Even if someone hacks your PC, they can't steal your things. There are still some more advanced methods, but they are rare. Consider one if you are getting a large portfolio of NFTs/crypto
Never save your 'seed phrase' words to the computer, or even a picture of them online or on any digital device. BUt know if you lose them, AND The hardware device is lost/you forget the pin, your assets are gone. SO consider backup methods also.
This was just a quick thread and braindump of common scam techniques you are about to encounter in Web3 🫡. Start researching and take it serious, scammers want your NFTs and Crypto badly!
Also there are tokens (not NFTs), similar to Matic and ETH that can be sent to your wallet. If you see any, especially if they direct you to websites, IGNORE. Similar to the NFTs, interacting with the token or website likely will result in large losses.
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