Introduction:
With opportunity comes risk—or at least a system that is unregulated! Most likely, if you’ve seen a bright and exciting NFT project only to disappear overnight, that was a rug pull or scam. In 2025, the best way to avoid an NFT scam is to remain educated. If your goal is to avoid NFT scams and rug pulls, learn to protect yourself and learn to participate in the NFT Ecosystem without losing money.
What Are NFT Scams and Rug Pulls?
An NFT scam is any fraudulent activity to deceive an investor in the intentions to steal investors crypto. A rug pull can be classified as a scam because it involved major fraudulent activity, but it is somewhat its own scam in that it involves developers who are engaged in developing hype around a given project, take money from that project development, disappear, and leave holders with useless tokens.
Some of the tactics/scams we see frequently:
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Fake minting websites
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Copycat or similar NFT collections
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Social media bots, fake accounts, and fake hype
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Promised utilities that never launch
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Disabling comments right after the launch so no hate can be posted about the project
1. Always Conduct Proper Research on a Project
Before putting any money in any NFT collection, you need to look at more than the art or hype.
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Team transparency: Is the team doxxed? Are their social profiles legitimate and active? Verified founders with a crypto or web3 history show credibility.
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Roadmap and utility: Make sure the roadmap is feasible to complete and the NFTs provide a long-term utility (staking, membership, gaming use, etc.)
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Community: Join their Discord or Telegram. A real community engages, converses ideas, and does not hype the project like a bot.
🚩 Red Flag: Anonymized teams, absence of team background, and fake roadmap items like “Free Lambos for holders” are classic rug pull indicators.
2. Research the Project through Official Marketplaces
Scammers will create fake versions of legitimate NFT projects and sell them for profit.
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The best way to find the collection is to manually search for it via the verified badge, not random tweets or DMs.
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Search for smart contract verification and metadata transparency on platforms like Etherscan or Solscan.
Pro Tip: Bookmark official sites and social links of the projects you’ve researched.
3. Be Mindful of Social Engineering Scams
Many NFT rug pulls and scams take place via social channels especially Twitter, Discord, or Telegram.
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Be wary of “Giveaway” or “Airdrop” links asking for wallet access.
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Never share your seed phrase under any circumstance—even if someone is an admin of a project.
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Be cautious of “fake support” bots that appear to help you resolve issues, especially after minting an NFT.
4. Review the Smart Contracts Before You Interact
It is common to have rug pulls happen due to shady or poorly written smart contracts.
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Use tools like RugDoc or TokenSniffer to scan the contract and look for vulnerabilities or backdoors.
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Always look for prior gas fee estimates—extremely high or extraordinarily low gas could indicate manipulation.
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Never mint directly from unknown or shortened links.
⚠️ Warning: Never approve unlimited access to your wallet’s tokens unless you trust the contract entirely.
5. Be careful of FOMO and hype-driven mints
Rug pulls often target people who get excited by hype and the fear of missing out (FOMO).
Don’t just follow influencers blindly, because many of them are paid to promote things and may not do their own research.
Don’t mint NFTs that promise unrealistic returns, like “10x in 24 hours,” or make you feel like you need to act fast, such as “only 5 minutes left.”
Take your time, and ask questions in the project’s Discord or Twitter spaces before you mint.
Think FIRST: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
6. Use cold wallets and best practices for minting
Keep your high-value NFTs and tokens away from hot wallets (like MetaMask in your browser) and store them in hardware wallets instead.
Use a Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet to keep your assets offline as much as possible.
Mint using your hot wallet for small trades, and move your assets to cold storage afterward.
Check your wallet regularly for approvals and use tools like Revoke.cash to remove unnecessary permissions.
Bonus Tip: Consider setting up a separate burner wallet just for minting.
Conclusion: Get Smart, Stay Safe
The NFT space is an exhilarating world—rich with innovation, creativity, and opportunity—but it also comes with risks. By staying vigilant, thoroughly researching every project, and following best security practices, you can enjoy the experience of collecting NFTs while effectively protecting yourself from scams and rug pulls.
