Okay, folks, this is going to be a very simple article.
It boils down to this: NFT platforms offer the ability for direct person-to-person sales. Whether OpenSea or AtomicHub/Nefty/NFTHive wax-based platforms, they all have it. And these offers go directly to the seller for an existing item listed or in their visible inventory.
A new (but old) painful tactic is going around which involves swapping out a decimal point for a comma. It works like this:
Seller lists an NFT for 10,100 WAX.
Buyer sends a private offer for 11.200 WAX
Looks like a great offer, right? Look closely. What happened?
The comma in the value is swapped for a period dot, and the amount is increased to make it even more attractive. What happens? Sellers who flip and move a lot of inventory don't look twice, and they literally hand away for almost free an NFT for 0.0001% the going market value.
Think this is made up? See a real time example. Here's a land plot in AlienWorlds where the lowest price is easily over $260 USD.
It was lost for 9.655 wax.
That's right, you read correct, that plot sold for 9.655 wax versus a value of 7,400 wax. Or in USD terms, something around $0.35 versus $286 USD.
The offer comes in from the tricky buyer with a direct transfer request through AtomicHub's trading tools. It looks like this:
In this case, the offer is made for my own land. Note the price I think I'm offered on quick glance, and what I will actually receive. That is 9.464 wax. If I clicked on this deal, like the one above, I would have been the next "victim."
Now, people might wonder, why didn't I show the character's name who is involved? Well, first, it's probably more than one person doing this. Second, it's technically not a scam or theft, even if the impact feels like it. He or she is smart enough to make an offer that, upon quick glance, looks great. But it is the seller who is responsible to check the details. If approved, the transaction is a valid sale.
So folks, please please please, read what you are clicking carefully before accepting an NFT offer. This is a very old trick, and it's catching people again by the dozens, with the losses being brutal in the NFT world right now.
