The anticipation for the Merge event was at its all-time high that Google launched a countdown timer, recognizing Ethereum’s transformation from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus.
Isn’t it great to see the long-awaited Ethereum merge event finally has happened!!!
Ethereum merge is fondly celebrated by users wide across for many reasons like hyperbolic transaction speed, shrinkage in carbon emissions, ETH growth curve that is set to follow the merge, etc.
Alternatively, the hacker population are prying around the user’s excitement to make a big deal out of it. Therefore it is truly required to stay aware of the different forms of scandals to keep the risk at bay.
This blog intends to bring out all the possible instances of scams surrounding the Ethereum Merge and security tips to stay vigilant in any case.
Scam Designed Around Ethereum Merge
The Fake Hard Forks
There will be few No’s amidst huge reception for Ethereum’s move to Proof-of-stake consensus. The naysayers are very well the target for scams that presents a fake hard fork of Ethereum, tricking users into believing into making profits from mining through Ethereum PoW.
The hard fork invite could be in the form of phishing links with a message to recover the fake tokens.
To put it straight, right from this merge, Ethereum mining is completely ruled out, and anything that invites you to enjoy the benefits of mining is clearly a scam.
Airdrop Scams
Airdrops are launched as promotional events to gain traction for the project. Users also should understand that they can be tricked into snatching away assets from their wallets.
ETH merge is one good reason for scammers to announce fake airdrops and giveaways to celebrate the grand event. What do they gain from this?
Access to wallets is supposed to be confidential. In the excitement to avail for the airdrop (which ofcouse is fake), the users provide their privacy details like the wallet’s secret key that endows the rights over the financial assets in the hands of bad actors.
False Upgrades
“The merge did not change anything for holders/users.”
Source: The Merge | ethereum.org
Per the official guidelines, there is nothing the user has to do with their digital asset in the merge. The history of assets from the genesis block is unaltered and intervened by the transition to proof-of-stake.
That proves that any promises on upgrading your ETH token to proof-of-stake or alerts seeking your immediate action on upgrading to the proof-of-stake network are only scams.
As such, there isn’t much the user got to do with the update as everything is done internally. The only thing user has to do is know about the Merge to avoid falling into the trap of losing their assets to fraudsters.
Fake Accounts
There are innumerable fake social media handles disguising the profile of Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders and a figurehead of Ethereum.
Vitallik’s official account goes in the name of @VitalikButerin, and anything other than that is a fake profile, even the ones that have the symbol of a verified Twitter account.
Vitalik’s official Twitter handle: vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) / Twitter
Vitalik has cleared out that there are no giveaways or airdrops and asked users to stay out of the scams.
Source: Cointelegraph
Believe Not The Promises On ETH2 Tokens
As mentioned previously, there is not much the user got to do with the ETH merge upgrade. That makes it clear there is no swapping or upgrading to ETH2 tokens. Any such approaches are acts of scams.
Have a keen lookout for anything that’s suspicious, and never share the seed phrase or wallet password at any cause.
Catch The Phishing Messages Right Away!
Phishing links are the most adopted way with different messages meaning the same intention of laundering assets from the users.
How do you spot phishing links?
- The unofficial email address might be Gmail or any other but not the company address.
- Messages demanding urgent action that panics user making them act out on impulse
- Asks for confidential information such as password or seed phrase
Beware Of Staking Pools Trying To Fool
PoS shift bid goodbye to mining. But the catch here with PoS consensus is that the user would require to stake 32 ETH, which is $47,017 at the time of writing.
To be a stand-alone validator, the user needs to have the required resource; otherwise, join a staking pool. This presents an opportunity for miners to introduce fake pools with enticing rewards that captivate users to hand over the control of their ETH into the pools.
Investors have to be extremely careful of high reward-yielding staking pools and make sure to interact with the project supporters before investing.
Suspicious staking pools can cause rug pull of user tokens or compromised user credentials.
Shield Assets Through Due Diligence Services
Finally, here’s a piece of news that you might have been longing to hear. When experts are within reach of crypto enthusiasts, investors don’t have to worry about the rising scams.
There are particular issues that involve intricate details that a common user might not be aware of, but an expert does!
Renowned firms such as QuillAudits offer due diligence services to research about the project and find a safe haven for investors.
Be smart in choosing us to make smarter investment decisions in cryptos.
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