Scam Alert: Beware of fake token airdrop

Scammers will try anything to steal your money away from your wallet. Lately, I noticed my Phantom wallet has been periodically targeted for random tokens airdrop. These tokens usually are perfect replica of trendy legitimate trading tokens.

When a memecoin token is buzzing and heavily traded, these scammer see it as an opportunity to create a fake version and send it to targeted wallets. Their goal is to either make you buy more or trick you with the legitimate version that you may be holding.

When a fake token is sent to your wallet, it appear identical to the legit version. Look the picture below, you can a fake token identical to $Taitiko and $PAIN memecoin tokens.

If you pay much attention while trading the good version of the memecoin token, you could swap your $SOL for the fake one instead.

When you are swapping on DEX (Decentralized Exchange), you are shown your your current holdings from your wallet so you can easily pick what token you want to swap. See the picture below from Jupiter.

Notice the fake $Taitiko also appear here. So you could pick the wrong one during your swap. It look confusing because they have the same logo. But notice, the good version has check mark here. Not all good tokens are not verified in Jupiter, so it could be trickier if that was the case.

You can also check both tokens contract addresses and identify the fake one. The legitimate version of $Taitiko was launched on Pump dot fun. If you already aready familiar with this platform, you know that all tokens launched on there as “pump” at a the end of their addresses. Here, the fake $Taitiko address end with “xnYge”. But be cautious using this method, some fake tokens can be easily launched on Pump dot fun.

What should you do if you received a random token in your wallet

First off, you should be suspicious of any new tokens you see in your wallet that you did not purchase. Do your own research do make sure you are receiving a legit airdrop tokens. A hint is that most good airdrop tokens are claimed if your wallet is eligible, not sent to you.

If you see suspicious tokens in your wallet, you can copy its contract address and search for clue on Dexcreener. You can find the contract address by clicking on the token and look the Mint info.

Then paste the address in Dexsceener to see more infomation like token holders, buy/sell activity, liquidity…etc.

Here is screenshot on the fake $Taikiko and right off the bat, there are plenty of sign that this is scam token. The liquidity is not locked, the trading volume is only $16,000 and seem like the no one traded this in las 24 hours.

Clean up your wallet from these poop tokens

You should consider hiding any token that you suspect to be a scam. You can can do this by switching the toggle next the token. You can also go further and report this token as spam. This will help other investors to fall for the scam. To report a token, click on it, then go to “More” in the option. You should see “Mark as Spam