We all have times in our lives where we do something so embarrassingly stupid, that we just have to laugh at ourselves and chalk it down as a lesson learned.
As you know if you've been reading these past few NFT & Me articles, I have only recently jumped into this fairly new and exciting world.
One of the main challenges has been to navigate the very cluttered and often confusing tangle of projects spread all over the web.
Unlike the rest of crypto, there are few centralised hubs of information you can find out about all of them. They're all on various chains and there are projects popping up all the time.
The best way to check out the projects are by scouring Twitter and using tools like How Rare Is, but even that tool is not fully up to date because of the sheer numbers of projects launching every minute of every day.
Just like anything involving money, there will always be the proverbial bad actors lying in wait, ready to scam you the second you let your guard down.
The Rug Pull
As I was preparing to enter into this space, my unofficial NFT mentor @bleepcoin warned me of something called a rug pull.
A rug pull is whereby a project will release a bunch of NFTs for mint and then after all the tokens have been sold, they simply disappear leaving the holders with a bunch of NFTs in their wallets which they have no way of selling because they're not listed anywhere.
Bleep told me of a coin he bought on Magic Eden which literally got delisted just after he hit approve on his wallet button.
Unfortunately for me, being warned about something will not prepare you as well as experiencing for yourself.
A Comedy Of Errors
Working Hard
So it all started with Bleep shooting me a bunch of tweets in my DMs, no biggie, he does this each day and they are usually a collections of competitions, interesting sounding projects and mints, either upcoming or already underway.
However yesterday I was fairly busy, I had a creative writing lecture I needed to watch on Youtube, there was more work on a short story I needed to do, plus I had yesterday's NFT & Me article to write.
On top of all my writing commitments my daughter's last day before the holidays meant that she finished early from school and I said I'd help out my friend, seeing as he couldn't get back to work on time and pick up hiss kid as well.
Between writing and feeding children and taking the odd break to play some chess, it was safe to say that over ninety percent of my day was spent in laser focus mode.
I had a chat with Bleep after dinner, he told me about the DMs he'd sent me and especially told me to check out a particular one from Flying Monkes called Rug Relief, that promised to send a free NFT to anyone who'd been the victim of a rug pull.
Sweet!
I said I'd check it out after dinner and once I'd wound down a bit.
Checking Da DMs
So after watching some meaningless shit on Youtube and Netflix, I decided that my brain was suitably unwound enough to explore the tweets from Bleep.
I logged into the Twitterverse and after checking a few notifications and general farting about, it was time to check out the DMs.
Obviously the one about getting a free NFT was the one I wanted to see first. I read the instructions and saw that there was a linked Google doc that needed to be filled out.
Completing the form required a bit of copy and pasting and uploading a screenshot of my rugged NFT, which by the way is the Solana Bored Ape club. Ironically I did not pay for this one, it is the one Bleep gave me, however he suggested that I should use that one as there is no longer a website or a discord and so it's obviously been rugged.
The form required a bit more brain power than I would have liked, as I'd had enough of hyper focussing for the day. Anyway, it was over now and I just switched off and went back to look at the other DMs.
I saw the next one he'd sent me was a free mint that was going on, a project by the name of Lana Homes.
Perfect, just the sort of low brain power decision I needed.
Click on the link go to their Twitter profile.
Ugh, why isn't the mint address linked on their profile or a pinned tweet?
sigh Okay, maybe it's a stealth mint.
Google Lana Homes mint.
Oh man, where the fuck is it?!
Go back to Twitter, scan tweets.
Ah, there it is, right go.
Click on website.
Hmm, seems basic, why isn't there a connect wallet button?
Oh fuck it, just press mint.
Wallet connects, 0.04 Sol to mint.
WTF?? This is meant to be free. Oh fuck it, I think this is a good one, hence the secrecy. It's only 8 bucks. Go.
Mints one Lana Home.
Hmm, they're a bit basic, don't even know if I like them. Nah, they're crap actually.
Stares at screen.
I'll just get one more in case they do blow up, it'd be nice to keep one and sell one.
Mint.
Right, let's go and check out the Discord and Twitter and all of that jazz.
Hmmm, there is no Discord.
Oh, not many replies to the tweets, in fact not many tweets. Let's read some of the replies.
Oh fuuuuuuuck.
This is a rug pull.
This is definitely a rug pull, got to message Bleep about this one.
Go back to Twitter DMs. See new message from Bleep.
Huh, was that there before?
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Due Diligence
So yeah, that's how it happened, I bought into such an obvious bloody scam because I simply didn't want to use my brain for any decisions more taxing than whether I should have another beer or not (I should).
And no, the irony is not lost on me that straight after applying for a free NFT because of my involvement in a rugged project, I go and buy two more from a project that will almost definitely get rugged.
Bleep has apologised to me for sending it, saying that after he sent he realised it was a bit dodge, hence the follow up message. However I either didn't see the DM or he sent it after I'd already started down the rabbit hole.
But whatever the case, it is always up to you to do your own due diligence and usually I do, even on the ones that Bleep gives his seal of approval, I still check the thing out myself.
The thing was, I just couldn't be bothered, it was free and therefore I felt like it was a classic no-brainer.
Even after finding out that it wasn't free, I still went ahead and pressed that button. Even though there was a little voice in my head telling me:
Hey you know you rejected Yama Yetis because they said it was going to be free and it turned out being 0.05, which is not much more than this.
Shut up brain.
Yeah so, only myself to blame. I actually found it quite funny, the signs were there, dodgy website, no discord, no useful information, really crappy art.
What a bozo!
Oh well, at least I only bought two (TWO!) and it only cost me roughly $16, annoying but not the end of the world and hopefully my story will help one of you to avoid a similar scam.
Saved By A Flying Monke Angel
Less than 24 hours later, my faith has somewhat been restored in the space. After filling in their google doc and then pasting my Solana wallet address in their discord. The wonderful guys at the Flying Monke project sent me a free NFT!
I'm so happy as they seem like a cool little community who've had successful NFT projects in the recent past, I might even buy one once they're listed.
Moving On
It would be a pleasant and rather funny surprise if I'm wrong about the Lana Homes and they turn out to be a legitimate project that everyone wants a part of and people pay stupid money to get one. But I'm not holding my breath.
In a way it's good that I have experienced a rug pull first hand. Bleep told me about the ones he was involved in at the beginning of his journey, but it's not quite the same as being scammed yourself. So I'll just put it down to a valuable learning experience, that thankfully I didn't have to pay too much for.
Anyway for now it's simply a case of upwards and onwards, let's see where this NFT journey takes me next!
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED A RUG PULL YET? OR PERHAPS YOU HAVE BEEN CAUGHT BY ANOTHER TYPE OF NFT SCAM?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Cryptogee