Watch out for scam airdrops like the recent MonaCoin airdrop!

If ICO was one of the most used words in the crypto-world in 2017 and at the start of 2018, then the new “hit-word” in the crypto world might be airdrop(s). 

In 2017, we could hear and experience loads of people getting “rich” as they invested during ICO’s, and once the currency hit the market, it was valued 2-3-5-10 times as much as it was worth during the ICO. There have been some examples of similar projects in 2018 as well, for example, Wanchain and Quarkchain. But, most of the ICO’s in 2018 have ended up in big minus, and people would have done far better waiting and investing their money afterward, instead of buying tokens during the ICO period.

As people want to avoid losing money, much attention has been taken away from ICO’s, and instead, we keep looking for great airdrop opportunities. There are bots and Telegram channels sharing news about airdrops every single day, and those willing to sign up for all of these, will for sure be able to earn some free cash. But, you better be careful as well as you hope for glory and riches during the sign-up process.

Watch out for scam airdrops
Watch out for scam airdrops – Source: Pixabay

Watch out for scam airdrops

There are lots of scam airdrops out there, and one of the most recent scams was the MonaCoin airdrop. It seems like a brilliant airdrop, and they actually promised every person signing up tokens valued somewhere around 50 USD. It is almost too good to be true.

Well, it is too good to be true. First of all, notice that you sign up to follow a Twitter profile that was created in June 2018. That is quite strange considering that MoncaCoin has been around for a long time and that they have an official Twitter profile that warns against the so-called MonaCoin airdrop.

There is no harm in signing up for a scam-airdrop, unless…

If you have signed up for the so-called MonaCoin airdrop or some other scam airdrop, it will not hurt you at all. You will not get any free tokens, so that is a pity, but besides that, no harm has happened, hopefully! But, if you are one of those persons using the same passwords everywhere, then you might be in trouble. You often have to register as you sign up for an airdrop, and during this process, you also create a password. You will also sign up using an email address. Imagine that you sign up for an airdrop using your very own email address, and then you create a profile during the sign-up process of the airdrop using the same password for the airdrop account. It will most likely not happen, but what if the scammers try to log in to your email account using the password you just entered for the airdrop account? If it is similar they can now access your emails.

To make things worse, maybe they can start resetting passwords on websites you visit by pressing “I have forgotten my password.” If you use the same email address for exchanges (and you haven’t activated 2FA), then they might even be able to steal your crypto investments.

This is a worst-case scenario, but it could happen. That is why you need to be careful as you sign up for airdrops. Do a quick background check before you sign up, and even more important, use different passwords for the different accounts here and there. It will help you a lot, and you never know when scammers will get hold of password lists from scam-airdrops sites and later use these to extort you in some way.

Watch out, be wise, and take care of your values and your privacy!

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