Scam Prevention Part 2 — Fake Copies of New Projects

3 min readJul 17, 2021

Jonas *WILL NOT DM FIRST*

You have likely seen this addition to many Telegram IDs. Most legitimate, popular new projects take these precautions because as soon as a project begins to take off, fake versions of that project begin to take off as well.

Crypto scams come in many shapes and sizes, and scammers are quick on their feet. They understand that the most effective moment to create a duplicate project is when the hype is first starting to build. That’s when the community and new community members are the most excited and least prepared. When the project hasn’t yet secured its place in the environment and familiarized itself with its members.

So what some scammers do is create a fake duplicate token with a similar name, a fake Telegram group, fake Telegram accounts for the founders, and start reaching out to people from the founder’s names. That’s why most founders will say “will not DM first,” because why would the founders reach out to random retail investors?

For example, what’s the difference between LITI and wLITI? Most of us may know the answer to that now, but as the project developed, many were confused. It wouldn’t have been very difficult for a scammer to create any variation in the alphabet. uLITI, vLITI, zLITI, etc.

In fact, there was a fake Liti Capital Telegram group with tens of thousands of bots as members and over $60k (of their own money) invested in the fake token on the Binance Smart chain, Wliti. Naturally, the Liti team found this fake group and shut it down in mere days before much harm was done. That’s what we do.

On one hand, it’s flattering for any new project to have a scam duplicate. It shows that they have real potential, and the scammers can see that right away. But, just like any other scam, it slows down the ecosystem and lowers investor confidence on a broad scale.

So what can you do to make sure you don’t fall into that trap? Follow a couple of simple steps and you won’t have to worry:

Never respond to DMs from people you don’t know, especially if they’re trying to get money out of you in some way. This goes for any business request of any kind. If someone reaches out about SEO services, go to their website and apply through the proper channels or go to a different website. You don’t owe anyone your business just because they texted you.
If you find a project you like and find yourself in their Telegram group, go to their pinned messages immediately. This is where you can find important information about the project so that you don’t have to ask the group. If you can’t find any relevant information, just exciting hype posts, either the token is a scam or it’s simply not a good project.
Follow the links to their website and social media accounts. The fake project may post real links to show legitimacy. If there are no links or if the links lead to fake-looking pages, stop. If the links are real, follow those links back to the Telegram group. You may find yourself in the same group or you got lucky and found the real one. Keep following links in a circle, from Twitter to YouTube to Instagram. After seeing the founders and legitimate content, you will be safe to assume that a Telegram link in those places is a good one.
Look up the company’s press release on Google. Type in the company name followed by “Announces” or “Press Release”. There, you will be able to find legitimate links to the company’s socials, website, and Telegram.

New projects can be exciting for the interesting, innovative concepts and the opportunity for a big investment, but you always need to do your own research (DYOR) and be absolutely sure before you spend your money. If everyone does their part, we can put the scam economy behind us.

If you have been a victim of crypto fraud or would like to learn more, please visit https://liticapital.com/fighting-crypto-fraud/ for more information.

Scam Prevention Part 2 — Fake Copies of New Projects

Written by Liti Capital SA

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