NFT Ads Scams: The Dark Side of NFT Marketing

Twitter is a den of NFT and crypto freaks and influencers. I wrote about influencers coaxing X (Twitter) users to rug projects and dumping on their community. If you want to market your NFTs and bypass these influencers to reach a wider audience, Twitter Ads are the most efficient way
to win more impressions – or we think so.

The wild west nature of crypto and NFTs is already a fertile
ground for deception and this NFT marketing strategy of using Ads is the new
believable trick and almost all the advertisers are pulling it to trick X users.
These fishy ads were already over-promising and I had to give them a try so I
clicked 114 ads and each NFT ad was a sophisticated scam and a ruthless tactic to drain
wallets.

NFT Ads Scam of X (Twitter): The Believable Lies

As I said earlier, this comes from someone who actually
clicked the Twitter ads only to discover a new way of scamming investors and
those looking to mint an NFT to swap for profits. So here’s the story directly
from the person who actually experienced it.

My experience: I clicked 100 NFT Ads

I happened to be connected with the crypto community a lot.
Since X (Twitter) understands my interests and records my online behavior like
all other users, it started showing me ads related to my interests. When the
algorithm bombarded my timeline with NFT ads, I got curious so I clicked some
ads, connected my wallets, and approved the transactions.

Disclaimer: Since I knew what was going to happen so
I only used burners (fake tokens) and a virtual PC (to avoid any unnecessary Adware).
Do not try it with a real wallet or personal PC.

I clicked 114 Ads:

• 109 were Drainers
• 36% used the interface of Magic Eden launchpad
• 5 weren’t drainers, just worthless, or call it Rug Pull
• 0 (ZERO) NFT Ads were legit

But hang on, there’s more:

95% of the time, the ads tried to drain my wallet and I
tracked the wallets behind the malicious ads.

Surprisingly, only a small group was behind those ads as most of the wallets were similar. Almost one-third of
the ads used the interface of Magic Eden so users can trust the platform and
connect their wallets.

Even if you don’t connect your wallet and you are on your PC
with JavaScript turned on, there’s a higher chance of getting adware that will
turn your computer into a mining machine for them using the crypto-jacking
technique.

How X Could Have Done Better:

Though it is very hard to check every ad and know the
intentions of the advertisers, X still can do better than giving them a free
hand.

I personally have been advertising my games on Meta and
Google Ads and none of these platforms care if I’m putting actual visuals to
lure players or not – still, there’s a line. You cannot advertise fake crypto
projects on those platforms.

X’s Community Notes are a major plus to the platform and
help users rectify such Ads. I have seen ads for different games with Community
Notes saying the “Gameplay is different than advertised”.

Playing a fake game is no loss compared to losing your
assets but Community Notes seem to not work for the malicious NFT Ads.

Identifying NFT Ad Scams:

It’s better to not click on these NFT advertisements on Twitter

or any other platforms because if they were any impactful or profitable, you’d
see the people talking about them.

If you click those, you must know how to differentiate
between a legit and a scam NFT marketing. It doesn’t take an expert to identify
such ads as there are some red flags you can look for.

Since the scammers behind these ads want easy money, the project
being marketed will use poor graphics.

In another scenario, if you see very legit-looking graphics,
you can reverse-search those images and, in most cases, you’ll realize that
those graphics belong to another project.

Here are some additional red flags to avoid being scammed:

• Lack of Project Details:
  • Scam NFTs often lack clear information about the project
  • Look for whitepapers, roadmaps, and project goals.
• High Unrealistic Returns:
  • Ads promise unreal returns
• Copy-Pasted Content:
  • Copied or Poor Ad Content
• No Community Engagement:
  • Low community engagements
  • Look for active discussions
• Fake Celebrity Endorsements:
  • Be skeptical of NFTs claiming endorsements from celebrities
• Unusual Payment Requests:
  • Scammers may ask for payment in cryptocurrencies
  • Try the ad with a burner wallet
• Rushed Launches:
  • NFTs with sudden and rushed launches.
• Too Good to Be True:
  • Trust your instincts.
  • Investigate further before investing

Play it Safe:

X under Elon Musk is getting more traction, no doubt,
however, it has become the favorite place for hackers to show their tricks. Now
that verification and a blue badge are available to anyone, it has become easier
to scam and phishing users.

To protect your assets from these scams, do not click the
ads. If a project seems convincing and legitimate, you can directly
visit the marketplace and search for it manually. Also, don’t forget to check the
teams behind the project, the project profile, and the community engagements.

Alternative NFT Marketing Strategies:

The best approach to market your NFT project is to boost
your organic reach by building a community around your project. This takes time
but adds credibility to your NFT project and brings you loyal members. You can approach a blockchain marketing agency to do it for your project if you own one.

Here are some alternative NFT marketing strategies that you
can use besides NFT ads:

• Engagement Farming
• Influencer Collaborations
• Virtual Events and Webinars
• Exclusive Drops and Pre-sales
• Community Contests and Challenges
• Collaborative Art Projects
• Participate in NFT Marketplaces and Galleries
• Content Marketing and Blogs
• Email Newsletters
• Offline Events and Meetups

The most effective of these is engagement farming. In this
marketing strategy, you assign the community different tasks like post
engagements likes, retweets, and mentioning other people in return for a reward.

This reward can be anything from a whitelist promise to a
small giveaway. The X algorithm encourages engagement and shows the post to
other people as well and in that way, you get more exposure and expand your
community.

Hiring a social media team or using SEO Optimized Content
Marketing by utilizing freelance services can be an affordable option to get
direct traffic from search engines.

Clicking 100 NFT ads was time and if it wasn’t burner
wallet, it could cost me dearly. However, the experience gained is invaluable. Watch
out for these red flags and avoid clicking ads that seem fishy to you. NFTs are
meant to be a space of creativity, innovation, and secure ownership, free from
the shadows of deception.