NFT scams are about to reach a new level – here’s why

Hey guys so we gotta talk because i’m Out here trying to defend nfts against All the haters that are saying it’s all About scams i’m dodging bullets i got The nunchucks out but then i turn around And i see a bunch of you actually Getting wrecked left right and center so For example just last week we saw Squiggles make eight million dollars From his dutch auction despite a 60-page Dossier having been released earlier That day showing a very likely Connection between squiggles and a team That had been behind several other rugs We also saw jacked ape club price their Mint at an expensive .15 each and then Tweet that the collection was sold out Despite only actually selling about a Third of the supply and then they Immediately sent out 1.4 million dollars To team wallets and a bunch of Influencers that helped market the Project and then on solana you had Balloonsville which came out publicly to Admit that they were yes indeed a rug And used fake actors to make it seem Like they were doxxed all in the name of I guess teaching people a lesson so now The scammers are getting pious as they Rob you it’s like getting your wallet Stolen while being taught about the Dangers of walking the streets at night And guys this all happened in a period Of like 10 days and it’s just a small

Sample of all the rugs that don’t get Called out on social media but as bad as It seems i think it’s just a sneak peek Of what’s actually coming and i think it Probably gets a lot worse from here so Today we’re going to talk about all this Shady stuff that’s coming our way and Why it’s accelerating then i’m going to Take you into my twitter inbox to show You how these scams actually work and Then i’ll give you some tips on how to Avoid getting rugged in the first place So first off let’s answer a quick Question which is are there more nft Scams happening right now than ever Before now in terms of the number of Scams i think it’s hard to answer but in Terms of the amount of money that Scammers are extracting from the Marketplace i think the answer is 100 Yes we’re probably at an all-time high Right now the reason is simply because Acceptable mint prices have gone a lot Higher and because we have a lot more Newbie buyers than ever before so for Example back in august 2021 yes we did Have a lot of scams but generally the Mints were between .03 and .06 each and So if you came with an nft with a 1 eth Mint price you’d be laughed out of the Room because there weren’t that many Nfts even trading above that level even Including blue chips and so yes the rugs Would hurt but they wouldn’t inflict

That much damage now today after this Most recent bull run we’ve seen an Inflation in the prices of top Collections and so it’s not that Uncommon to see an nft trading in the Three to six eath range and because of That these scammers can sell bigger Dreams this means setting up a mint Price of 0.2 or more or setting up a Dutch auction that starts above one Eighth so while in the summer of last Year a good scammer could maybe squeeze Two million dollars out of a project Nowadays we’re seeing that they can get Maybe as much as 10 to 20 million Dollars or in some cases it might be More now the reason i said earlier that It’s hard to estimate how many scams we Actually have nowadays is because of the Growing popularity of soft rugs you see When most newbies think about rugs they Think about these really dramatic Episodes where the creator mints out a Project and then immediately shuts down The twitter kicks everyone out of Discord and runs with the money now These definitely still happen and they Do get all the publicity because you Know the fraud is so obvious but in Truth these hard rugs are going out of Style they’re like the late 90s bowl cut Of the scammer world and that’s because There’s really no need to pull the plug On a project immediately because you can

Actually still continue to make money on Secondary royalties and in some cases Depending on how long the scam goes on Before people catch on you can actually Make more money from these royalties Than from the original mint and so Because of that it’s much more likely That a scammer would prefer a soft or Slow rug because they’re not even that Expensive to maintain right you just Hire a couple mods maybe a community Manager you chime in every now and then Say that you’re working on the road map And you’re good and from the outside the Challenge with calling out a soft rug is That there’s always a little bit of Doubt that maybe it’s not a rug at all You basically need an open and shut case To confidently call out a rug and that Makes sense because you don’t want to Ruin some honest builders project and on Top of that the nft space reminds me of That phrase that goes no good deed goes Unpunished because when you call out a Scam you not only get attacked by the Scammers you also get attacked by the People who bought into the scam in some Cases this could even mean getting Banned on twitter like in the case of Nft ethics which claimed that they were Banned due to false impersonation Reports after threatening to point out a Scam this makes people think twice Before calling anything out because they

Feel it might just not be worth it and That opens the door just a little bit For these scammers to exist longer than They should but okay let’s go back to Talking about these soft rugs because Ladies and gentlemen they’re now doing It out in the open with a variety of Different ways that gives the creator Some cover from criticism for example Coffeezilla pointed out how lana rhodes Abandoned her project because of quote Negative and rude comments okay that’s a Soft rug then we have space yetis where The creator got hacked and had their Treasury emptied out but first the Hackers actually found dms in the Creator’s inbox that showed they were Going to rug yetis anyways i mean Literally the founders were caught Saying so we rugged yetis eventually yup Then they later came out and said no They weren’t really intending to rug This was just a conversation when they Were both really stressed out you be the Judge and then finally galactic geckos Is another example where the founders Came out just a few months after launch Basically said that they were not Aligned with the community and that they Wanted to have the collection managed by A dow moving forward while still keeping Some of the royalties for themselves now You can debate whether this one was a Rug or not but to me it just doesn’t

Feel right when the creators peace out This close to launch but anyways these Examples show a new playbook that Creators can use to bail out and you Know they can say that they’re stressed Out that they’re not aligned with the Community or that they’re spending too Much time liking and subscribing to my Videos okay so that’s a rough picture of What we’re seeing today but now why do i Think these games are actually going to Get a lot worse in the coming months Well there’s a couple of reasons number One like we said scammers are raising a Lot more money than ever before and when You see these news articles it might Disgust you but other people are reading It and sensing an opportunity so until We can show that as a community we can Reliably avoid these scams it’s just Gonna attract more of the same and this Leads me to point number two which is That we’re gonna keep struggling to Avoid these scams because we’re in a High growth stage where the number of Buyers is growing by about 30 a month This means that the nft audience will Basically double every three months if We keep the same pace and not just that But there’s reason to expect that the Growth rate is actually going to Accelerate in the coming months because We have so many catalysts coming up you Know we have gamestop coinbase robinhood

All these companies trying to make it Easier for people to buy crypto assets You have social media companies like Facebook and twitter committing to nfts You have brands like bud light pepsi and A million other companies introducing Nfts to brand new audiences and then we Have nft gaming which is just getting Started and we’ve barely cracked into Music nfts which is also going to be Huge so basically even if everyone That’s currently in nft space woke up Tomorrow with perfect spidey senses for Detecting scams we’re still going to be Seeing millions of new buyers in the Next few months that don’t have the Experience needed to avoid becoming a Victim and so take the fact that many of Them are coming in to spend money as Fast as possible they just want to get Into the game combined with a pretty Lackluster training system that we have And it’s a perfect recipe for disaster Not just that but it seems like all the People who are capable of teaching Others you know these crypto ogs they’ve Chosen twitter as their home base and They’ve basically conceded instagram and Tick tock to all these scammers that are Running unchecked and so just recently Mark cuban had an instagram account Banned after funneling people into pump And dumb projects many of which are down More than 50 to 80 percent from their

Mint now obviously i’m not saying Everything coming out of those platforms Is scammy okay we have very serious Creators with large audiences on Instagram but i do also see a lot of Misinformation and we don’t have enough Crypto ogs on those platforms to call Them out so anyways with all that said Let’s now focus on how to stop getting Wrecked okay how can you spot a scam Early before it’s too late my first tip Is to understand how these scams work in The first place and the summary is that You’ll get a team where the creator is Usually not the artist themselves and so They’ll hire this out and you know they Used to be just these fiverr copy paste Projects that were easy to spot and Actually they’re still making them right So if you go to rarity tools and head to The upcoming page you’ll still see that A lot of those are still stuck in that Summer 2021 copy paste meta but these Guys aren’t trying to score big in my Opinion they’re just trying to make a Little more than their cost however the Big scammers have upgraded their art Because that’s their main event right They’re not really focusing on executing A road map they’re just dedicating all Their efforts to making the front end of The project look as flashy as possible Now once they have the art the next step Is just to run up the follower numbers

And they can do this pretty easily by Just straight up buying big accounts or Followers directly and there are Services out there that let you do this Or they work with influencers and this Can be just a basic pay-per-tweet model But a more sneaky way nowadays is to Offer whitelist spots in exchange for Marketing because a lot of people don’t Consider this to be a sponsored ad even Though in many cases it’s basically free Money if the mint has enough demand Where it’s almost guaranteed to be Profitable just looking at my inbox for Example i don’t go more than a day Without someone offering me whitelist Spots in exchange for marketing and look I don’t think there’s anything Inherently wrong with this because it’s A currency just like any other but Everything should be transparent and Have disclosures if you’re marketing an Nft in exchange for whitelist and you Might say okay giancarlo but at least These whitelists are getting into the Hands of actual supporters but you might Be surprised how many of these giveaways Go to wallets that are actually Controlled by the influencers themselves Or their friends now at this point the Scammers have the fomo engine running And it’s mid date but they still have One more trick up their sleeves which is Buying the end of tees themselves

Basically putting money from one pocket Into the other to perhaps create the Illusion of demand okay so once we know How these scams work we can move on to Tip number two which is stop being Obsessed with mints look i can tell when Somebody’s new in the space when all They’re focused on is the next drop Right the next mint and sometimes when i Do a video where i showcase a project That is already on openc i always get a Comment from someone going hey bro why Don’t you tell us next time before it Launched as if the only way to make Money in this space is by getting on a White list i can tell you from my Experience that almost every big win That i’ve had so board apes cool cast Doodles they came from secondary Purchases and in fact if you look at the Top collections in the past couple of Months you’ll see that many of them did Have slow starts so you have mfers which Have been trading in the two to three Eth range but which spent a lot of time In the 0.2 to 0.3 range crypto covens Which is trading near 2 eth but which Also spent a couple of months at around Point 1 and you basically see the same Thing with smiles verse which had a low Floor for a couple of months and so on And so forth personally i love letting Collections breathe because you know it Shakes off many of the short-term

Speculators and it also shows you if the Creators are dedicated to the vision After that initial adrenaline wears off Trust me this tip alone will heavily Reduce the chances that you get scammed Okay tip number three is master the team Page now this is one of those topics That i’ve covered a lot on this channel And so i’m not going to go too deep here But just know that you know the team Page accounts for 80 of the research That i do in any project ideally i find A docs creator with a track record and In a perfect scenario they have social Proof from other people that i trust so If i go to their twitter page and find That i don’t know anybody who’s Following them i do take that as a red Flag even if maybe you know we’re in Different social circles because you Just have to work with what you have and Then finally tip number four is keep Your mind open when red flags occur look We all make mistakes and even the best Of us will be caught slipping at some Point but the worst thing you can do is Double down and stick your head in the Sand when you start seeing red flags yes There are people who fud projects for x Y and z but if you just assume that Everybody who’s criticizing your project Is because you know they’re jealous then You’re setting yourself up to be a Professional bag holder so please just

Be willing to change your mind alright That’s all i got for today thanks for Watching and i’ll catch you at the next Video