Airdrops are a popular way for new crypto projects to promote their cryptocurrencies, and hackers are trying to persuade unsuspecting people with fake campaigns, even simulating companies that don’t actually exist.
I have received another SMS on my phone, very similar to others I have received in the past, which most likely other people are receiving as well. “Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in the $DTX AirDrop. Follow the link,” the message states succinctly. I know that this is not something to pay attention to, but perhaps others are curious about the unfamiliar terminology. Because what is an airdrop, and what is $DTX? We explain.
The message refers to a cryptocurrency distribution. Those who are into the crypto world will know this when reading ‘$DTX’, since even though the words crypto or cryptocurrencies are not directly included, they will know that these digital currencies always have a short denomination of this style (like BTC for Bitcoin or ETH for Ethereum).
What is a cryptocurrency airdrop?
On the other hand, airdrop, which may remind us of the iPhone file-sharing system of the same name, refers here to a fairly common operation in the cryptocurrency sector. Any person, organization or small business can create and publish their own cryptocurrency project, but normally, this brings with it a problem: if the company or organization behind that cryptocurrency is not very large or well-known, it is logical that very few people will buy any amount of the new cryptocurrency.
To solve this problem, which can make a cryptocurrency fall into indifference and complete disuse as soon as it is launched, some projects resort to airdrops. This simply consists of the issuer of the cryptocurrency giving a certain number of its users a quantity of tokens of its crypto. Normally, the objective is not for the recipients to exchange this amount for fiat money instantly, but for them to keep it in their wallets and be able to use it for the purposes for which the crypto was created, providing movement and dynamism to a crypto that, otherwise, no one would have paid attention to.
In other words, it is a promotional strategy to raise awareness about a cryptocurrency, encourage interest, and build a proprietary user base from which to continue growing. The term airdrop is used because, after all, it is like getting coins from the sky.
Airdrop Scams
Knowing this, we can understand why hackers create fake airdrops and send such messages to people to get them to participate in them: airdrops give you free tokens or ‘coins’ from a crypto project, and if the venture is successful, the tokens could increase in value and you could get a good sum of money by selling them for euros in the future. Therefore, crypto investors pay attention to such airdrops and use them as an investment for the future.
If you have received a suspicious SMS or email like the one we are discussing here, it may be because you are registered on a crypto exchange and a hacker has found your leaked data, and knows that you are familiar with the crypto sector (this may not be the case, and they may simply send the message to anyone). Therefore, what you should know is that messages of this type arriving on your mobile phone are going to be a sign of fraud. Serious crypto projects do not promote themselves in this way, sending you an SMS without warning even though you do not know who they are.
Airdrops are usually advertised on social media or legitimate media outlets, as well as on the projects’ official websites. Before participating in an airdrop, you should have full confidence in the project, to avoid your wallet data ending up in the wrong hands.
Furthermore, in this case, if we enter the website indicated in the fraudulent SMS, we are redirected to a poorly designed website where, wherever we click, a pop-up window opens asking us to connect our crypto wallet, without first providing us with any other information about what cryptocurrency “$DTX” is. Clearly, a scam.
