People are looking for opportunities everywhere. We search for it in the real world, and we do the same online. Now that Web3 is the buzzword that speaks so much about opportunities, it sure isn't a surprise that people are also looking for opportunities in Web3.
Whatever the case may be, anyone who looks well enough will see opportunities out there. There are several opportunities in the space for anyone who wants them.
- Investors have an endless pool of Blockchain, tokens, and projects to invest in.
- Builders and entrepreneurs also have a long list of opportunities here.
- Artists and writers can monetize their creativity in the Web3 ecosystem.
- Marketers already carved out a niche for themselves in Web3.
Just think about all that for a moment.
There sure isn't a shortage of opportunities in this space. However, while there are so many opportunities out there, our focus isn't going to be on those opportunities.
Let's talk about the fake opportunities in this ecosystem.
It would be nice to just say that Web3 is all good and flashy, with genuine projects and people who want the best for each other. However, the reality is that there are a lot of bad players in real life. These bad players are also in Web3.
I've had a lot of encounters with these people, and it's never a good experience to become their victim. People get rugged in shady projects and they end up losing all the investment they made in the project. Others get hacked and lose all the crypto assets in their wallet.
I will tell you about my experience with scammers.
My experience in a Web3 project that got rugged.
This was back in 2021 when we were still in the process of recovering from COVID-19 and the shitshow it brought to our doorstep. I was still a complete newbie to Web3 and it was my very first time getting involved with anything that had to do with Cryptocurrency.
I explored the platform, accumulated thousands of their token across 6 - 8 months, and focused on the whole idea of holding tight to a project you believe in. I believed in the project. I enjoyed being part of the community and I naively believed the founder of that particular project.
Long story short... Bullrun came and the founder froze everyone's wallet. We couldn't do any transactions. Instead, he dumped his tokens, killed the liquidity of the token, and that was the end of everything we all had during the months we spent trying to grow the project.
While the financial loss did huge damage to me and a lot of people, the worst part of the experience is that some other people who faced that loss completely decided to quit Cryptocurrency.
My Experience with hackers and scammers who post fake Web3 Jobs.
This particular one happened 6 months ago. I never really needed a job because I've been busy in Web3 since 2020/2021. However, my finances took a huge hit in January, this year. I struggled financially, and when it became obvious that I needed to explore an alternative route, I decided to search for other Web3 jobs.
I cleaned up my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and also explored Discord and Telegram channels in my Job search. During that search, I came across a particular Job that was posted on Twitter. It was an in-game moderation role for a Web3 gaming project. I saw that and sent my application.
DASHVERSE is the name of the project. Their game is on STEAM.
I got feedback from them and we took the conversation to Telegram. I weirdly didn't suspect any foul play in the whole hiring process. The pay was $18.5 per hour and I easily found myself doing some weird maths about what I could be making from pulling several hours on the job.
My desperation for a job blinded my eyes to the red flag that was popping up in the hiring process. I ended up downloading the DASHVERSE game and in the process of being walked through the in-game moderation role in their project, they juiced my laptop with malware.
That was exactly how I got logged out of my Twitter account and my Discord account. That's the exact Discord account I built for the past 4 years. The Twitter account is also about 8 years old. My email was changed for both accounts so, any attempt to recover them is out of the way.
As if that wasn't enough, they started posting the same job advert on my Twitter account. They also tried to scam my Discord contacts with cooked-up stories.
On my part, I had to get into crisis management by making multiple reports to Discord and Twitter regarding my accounts. I also reached out to as many people as possible to help me spread the word about the hack of the account.
Thankfully, no one fell for the scam after what I experienced. That's pretty much the only positive I could take away from that horrible experience I had.
Most Recent Experience with Scammers and Hackers.
At some point last week, I got a job offer from someone who said he was building a Decentralized Freelance Platform. He reached out to me on Twitter and wanted me to join his team. It was an interesting offer and a Web3 freelance platform is surely the sort of project that has really good potential because of the utility it offers.
We had to schedule a call and the dude said he only uses one particular "Hive App" for his calls because of a referral package he has with the software builders. He said I have to install the App on my PC so we can schedule a call.
This time around, I was a lot more careful.
I did my research about the App and it sure wasn't a surprise to realize that this same app is being run by a bunch of hackers who target Web3 folks. I also came across two people who were their recent victims. One of them is a young lad that lost $11,000 because his account was hacked after installing the software.
You see the point, right?
I just want each of us to be mindful of the fact that bad actors are also in Web3, and there's so much we can lose by being hacked, especially when it puts our crypto wallet or our digital reputation at risk.
I would hate for anyone to become a victim of these folks.
So, y'all should stay safe. If an offer seems too good to be true, it's probably a lie.
Image is free-to-use, taken from Unsplash.
