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Investing in NFT: 7 Smart Safety Tips to
Avoid Common NFT Scams

The rise in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) kick-started a new era for the artists. They got the platform to sell their artwork globally through digitization. However, there’s a risk associated with NFTs for artists and those investing in NFTs.

Since the NFT artwork is not physical, it becomes easier for scammers to create copies and fake NFT projects. With increasing investments, the NFT scams are also becoming more common.

But you don’t need to fret and rethink your decision to invest in NFTs only because fake NFTs exist. If you know how to avoid counterfeit collections, you can safely continue investing without worry.

7 Tips to Recognize the Common NFT Scams

These 8 expert tips will help you recognize and avoid the fake NFTs like a pro!

1. Spot Fake NFT Profile Collections on Open Sea

On Open Sea, you must’ve seen popular NFT projects such as Bored Ape, Doodles, Cool cats, etc. But do you know numerous fake NFTs are created in these names on this marketplace? These are the common NFT scams that are run by minutely changing the project name, which can easily go unnoticed.

For instance, there can be some unnecessary punctuation at the end of the name, an alphabet could be written in lower case, or a number could be added to the project’s name. So look out for these suspicious characters in the profile name to avoid fake NFTs.

2. Run a Check on the Platform

Whenever you spot a platform for NFTs, run the following checks to ensure its authenticity:-

• The moderator: It’s better if the moderator is a human.
• Artist verified or not: Check for the verification icon or any other sign of verification given to the artist by the platform.
• Who’s selling the NFT collection: If the artist or someone verified is not selling the collection, they are likely selling the fake NFTs.

3. Stalk the Artist

Stalking is not a good practice in general. But stalking an artist whose digital artwork you are about to buy is legitimate. It is to prevent one of the most common NFT scams, which is selling someone else’s artwork. So go through all the social media profiles of the artist to check if there is any recent sale announcement or promotion done for the painting.

Also, see if any link to the collection is available on their profile. You can also DM the artist to confirm the sale and avoid fake NFT.

4. Check the Active Interactions on Social Media

Check if the team of the NFT project you are considering is active on VoIP and social media platforms such as discord. If they are not actively visible and the engagement is lower than 2-3%, it’s a red flag! The engagement ratio is the proportion of the number of followers engaging on a post.

A low engagement ratio indicates that the followers or subscribers are bought and not genuine. Check all these numbers before investing in any NFT. Also, ensure that the contact address on discord is the same as the item’s contact address.

5. Check the Roadmap on the Website

The roadmap on the website is a complete guide to the seller’s profile. Before investing in any NFT, check if it’s showcasing a roadmap on their website or not? What is that roadmap showing? If they have any utility? Is there mention of any items they are developing other than NFTs? All these questions will give you a fair idea about the authenticity of the project.

6. Look for Blue Tick

One of the first and foremost things you must check is verifying these projects and sellers. Thankfully, Twitter and Open Sea give you first-hand information regarding their authenticity in the form of a blue tick. There may be genuine unverified collections, but that is exceptional. Check other factors in case of unverified collections before investing in NFT.

Also, look at the number of NFTs in a collection. Fake NFTs mostly showcase fewer numbers than the original collection.

7. Search Image on Google

One of the smartest ways of spotting and avoiding fake NFTs is to search for the image of the artwork on Google. A reverse image search on Google will reveal if any NFT scam is going on, and the copies of a particular artwork are circulated on the internet. Even if you are searching with an image of a fake NFT, you may find the authentic one through this search.

You can also search through the link of the image to see if it is authentic or not. But always perform a reverse image search on Google before investing in NFT. It hardly takes a few minutes but can save you from being cheated.

In a Nutshell

Check the following things before investing in NFT to avoid fake NFT:-

1. Spot Fake NFT Profile Collections on Open Sea
2. Run a Check on the Platform
3. Stalk the Artist
4. Check the Active Interactions on Social Media
5. Check the Roadmap on the Website
6. Look for Blue Tick
7. Search Image on Google