Using the Internet these days is a hard time when people are trying every method to pick your pocket, especially when you’re in the cryptocurrency/NFTs market. The lack of market understanding won’t just kill you when doing NFTs trades but will even kill you before you try to do anything!

The newest scamming method recently gets involved a lot with your e-wallet (MetaMask, Coinbase, C98...) which requires you to use Chrome Extension - the key tool for scammers to exploit e-wallet users.

To avoid being scammed when using Chrome Extension here are some tips which are summarized and have been made easy for readers to understand by Trait Sniper.

1. How you will get scammed using Chrome Extension? - Giving Permission blindly.

Here’s are some of the functions that Google Chrome can use on your web browser if granted permission:

Read and change all your data on the websites you visit
Read and change your bookmarks
Read data you copy and paste
Modify data you copy and paste
Change your settings that control websites' access to features such as cookies, JavaScript, plugins, geolocation, microphone, camera, etc.
Access the page debugger backend
Read and change all your data on the websites you visit
Block page content
Capture content of your screen
Manage your downloads
Detect your physical location
Read and change your browsing history
Manage your apps, extensions, and themes
Communicate with cooperating native applications
Display notifications
Read and change all your data on the websites you visit
Change your privacy-related settings
Read and change all your data on the websites you visit Identify and eject storage devices
Read and change all your data on the websites you visit
Read your browsing history
Read a list of your most frequently visited websites
Read all text spoken using synthesized speech

There’re an enormous amount of things that Chrome Extension can control when you give permission blindly. Most of it seems to be harmless, but some of it can cost you a lot if you’re not aware of it.

For example, one of the most dangerous permission scams that seem harmless in the NFTs market is when you allow Chrome Extension to ”Read data you copy and paste” and “Modify data you copy and paste”. There’re coincidences where NFTs owners lose their NFTs when trading or transferring because the hackers modify the wallet address of the receiver and steal the NFTs by adding their address instead. Another popular coincidence is when hackers steal users’ secret passwords for e-wallets if they saved the password online and try to copy it in use.

Other than these well-known coincidences, there’re also many that you can not predict so you must be very careful when giving permission to the chrome extensions, especially those that are not used widely and not recommended by many people.

2. How to protect yourself from chrome extension scams?

A. Define which to give permission.

To be able to protect yourself, first off, you have to define the level of risk for what you’re going to use. Here’s the list of low, medium, high alerts that you should know:

Low alert permission

These requests access to:

Medium alert permission

These alerts may request access to:

Your data on all the websites you visit gives access to read, request or modify data from every page you visit (bank account, Facebook).
Your data on a list of websites gives access to read, request or modify data on pages you visit on a list of specified websites.
Data you copy and paste: The app or extension can access the information you've copied and pasted

High alert permission

When the permission requires access to all data on your computer and the websites you visit, it means that the app or extension can access almost anything. This could be your webcam or personal files, inside or outside of your browser.

REMEMBER: Optional permissions will ask you to deny or allow permissions after the app or extension has been installed. When you allow optional permissions, you can't change them after.

B. Choose the right Extension to give access

Besides the fact that you can define the risk of what permission you’re going to give in, it’s a great thing if you can do your research on what the chrome extension will actually do when you give them permission. Only trust ones that are widely used with no bad reviews!

For example, when using rarity ranking tools such as Trait Sniper, by giving the permission above, we can access your metadata and add in the data for snipers to have better data, information of the NFTs such as ranking, floor price, ID,...

And if you find out what Trait Sniper does on your browser more than ranking NFTs, help you buy NFTs, you know that something’s aight right.

But with a quick look at the reviews and current users of Trait Sniper’s Chrome Extension, you will know the risk of being scammed is quite low and can be used with trust. You can also look for its privacy practices to know if your data is safe or not, which in the case of Trait Sniper, you’re completely safe to use!

In conclusion, it’s crucial for anyone using online tools such as Chrome Extension, especially for those who use it in the cryptocurrency/NFTs market to do your own research! You can either find out a really helpful and god-like tool to help you make a lot of profits or end up using a scamming tool that will risk you losing it all.

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To whoever is concerned about our latest permission updates, it can be restricted to certain websites that you choose to read data from. Here's how to do it:

Trading tips: How to smell a rug?

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Don’t get SCAMMED when using Chrome Extension!