2026-04-18 · Mara Quinn

Recognising Wallet Drain Scams Before You Connect

Recognising Wallet Drain Scams Before You Connect

Drain scams usually arrive as urgent direct messages: a fake support agent, a too-good airdrop, or a mint link shared in a Discord you joined yesterday. They share a pressure tactic — connect now or lose access.

In our workshops we print anonymised examples and mark the tells: mismatched domains, approval requests for unlimited token access, and sites that load wallet connection before explaining what they do.

We teach a pause ritual. Before any connection, read the URL aloud, check when the site was shared, and ask whether the same request came through an official channel. If a stranger DM is the only source, stop.

A separate browser profile for experimental mints keeps daily funds isolated. We help participants set that up in private sessions, using a small devnet wallet first so mistakes are cheap.

Reporting matters too. We maintain a local log of scam URLs (sanitised) that Glasgow attendees can reference. Community memory beats fighting alone.

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