As awareness of Andiami grows, it is very likely that bad actors will attempt to take advantage of Andiami community members. Education and awareness are the best defence against scams, so we've put together the following tips to help you protect yourself.
Common scams
Scams are rampant in the digital world, and they continue to increase. Community members can help protect themselves by learning how to identify scams and by staying alert to potential risks.
1. Phishing scams
Many scams are phishing scams. Phishing is an attempt to trick people into thinking that the scammer represents a trusted entity like a project, company, financial institution, or even a government. Scammers that use phishing have proven themselves to be creative and relentless. They impersonate projects and products on multiple platforms, including fake websites, support sites, advertisements, and social media accounts. They also impersonate company employees or pose as representatives of projects or organizations in emails, phone calls, or other communications.
2. Airdrop scams
Airdrop scams are an attempt to either 1) trick you into compromising the security of your cryptocurrency wallet or 2) confirming a transaction or activating a smart contract that sends funds to a scammer's wallet. Both involve a fake project "airdropping" (sending) a digital asset into your cryptocurrency wallet.
3. Giveaway scams
Giveaway scams involve scammers tricking people into thinking they will receive something if they complete an action like sending money somewhere. Giveaway scams are common on social media.
What Andiami will do to protect community members
1. Apply what we've learned & share our knowledge with you. The team behind Andiami have been building cryptocurrency wallets for ten years. Over the years, we've learned a lot about scam mitigation and how to help community members protect themselves. Your best defense against scams are education and awareness.
2. Take action to report and take down scam accounts, apps, & websites. Inevitably, scammers will attempt to defraud Andiami community members through fake websites, support sites, advertisements, social media accounts, apps, emails, etc. We will do our best to find and report these scam accounts and websites in an effort to have them taken down. But we can't police the internet. At the end of the day, it is up to you to protect yourself.
Things Andiami will not do
1. We will never call, text or DM you, or ask you to call, DM, or text us. If someone calls or texts you, or sends you a direct message on any social media platform, it is a scam.
2. We will never ask for your crypto wallet's security info. We will never ask for the 12-word backup phrase or private keys for your crypto wallet.
3. We have no plans to do any type of airdrops. Should our plans change, we will notify community members through our official sources.
4. There are currently no active Andiami giveaways. We may do giveaways in the future. If and when we do, we will notify community members through our official sources.
What you can do to stay safe from scams
1. Only trust official Andiami sources. For now, there are only three official Andiami communication channels: our website (andiami.org), our social media (Twitter, Instagram, & YouTube — all @ANDIAMIproject), and email (andiami@decentral.ca).
2. Safeguard your device. Keep your device up-to-date, use trusted antivirus/malware software, avoid opening suspicious emails or websites, don't click on links or download files that seem suspicious, set a password on your operating system, and add a PIN to your device.