10 tips to keep your NFTs safe

1. Write down your secret recovery phrase and don’t share it with anyone. 

One of the biggest dangers in crypto is losing access to your wallet. Make sure you don’t lose your NFTs by writing down your secret recovery phrase twice and keeping copies in at least two separate safe places offline. 

Then don’t share it with anyone you don’t want stealing your NFTs.

There is no valid reason why anyone, including a company or platform or support team or whitelist, would ever need to know your secret recovery phrase. The only reason anyone would ask for your secret recovery phrase or private keys is to steal your funds and NFTs. 

If you share your secret recovery phrase or private keys, including entering them into any type of online form, most likely your NFTs will get stolen. 

2. Store valuable NFTs in a hardware wallet.

The safest place to store valuable NFTs is in a hardware wallet. 

3. Watch out for fake mint pages. 

Never click on unverifiable links. Double check URLs, because scam websites often only differ by one character. It’s best practice to only click on links from the official collection’s Twitter or Discord.

4. Watch out for NFTs sent to your wallet. 

Scammers will send NFTs to your wallet. They want you to interact with the NFT to try to obtain your personal details. It’s best to ignore strange NFTs unless you know for sure where they come from. 

5. Don’t fall for fake influencer or brand accounts. 

Scammers impersonate influencers or platforms to gain your trust to get information out of you, including your secret recovery phrase.

Remember that having lots of followers doesn’t mean the account is real. Followers can easily be bought. 

Always check Twitter handles and see who’s following the account. If you find a fake account, report it to Twitter.

Also be careful of scammers (on Twitter and Discord in particular) creating profiles to offer support to victims of hacks. 

6. Watch out for fake links. 

Scammers will email you fake offers to OpenSea or other legitimate platforms, and ask you to click the view button. Similar scams are common on Discord.  These links will often take you to a page that asks you to enter your secret recovery phrase in order to get on a whitelist or mint an NFT.

If you enter your secret recovery phrase, the scammers will steal anything you have your wallet.

7. Enable 2FA (two-factor authentication) whenever possible.

If you have the option to secure an account with 2FA, do it. You can use apps like Google Authenticator or Authy, or a hardware authenticator like Yubikey.

Avoid using your mobile phone number for verification because of the risk of SIM swapping. 

8. Only ask trusted friends or official teams for help. 

There are a lot of people who pretend to be helpful online (and maybe in real life) in order to steal your funds or NFTs. Only ask trusted friends for help. If you’re reaching out to a team on social media or Discord, make sure you get a reply from an official source. 

9. Use strong and unique passwords.

Protect your wallet, and all your accounts, by setting strong passwords. Use different passwords for each wallet and account. If you have trouble remembering passwords, use a reliable password manager.

10. If it seems too good to be true, run in the other direction.

Unfortunately there are a lot of scams in NFTs. Scammers are really good at making it seem like you are getting an amazing deal. If you are super excited about the amount of guaranteed money you will make, or how cheaply you’re getting a prized NFT, do yourself a favour and make sure you’re not being scammed. 

If you want to learn more about avoiding crypto scams, please visit: What are crypto scams? 10 signs of a crypto scam.