I’ve always been excited about crypto airdrops—they’re a great way to discover new projects and receive free tokens. One day, I received a message on Discord announcing an exclusive airdrop for a project called TokenX, which claimed to be launching its mainnet soon. The message came from what seemed to be the official account of a server I was a part of, so I didn’t think twice.

The airdrop required participants to connect their wallets to the project’s portal and sign a transaction to verify eligibility. The portal looked professional, featuring TokenX’s branding, a countdown timer, and testimonials from users who had supposedly claimed their tokens. Without hesitation, I connected my wallet and signed the transaction.

Nothing seemed unusual at first, but within minutes, I noticed my wallet was completely empty. All my funds, including $4,500 worth of ETH, had been transferred out. It turned out the transaction I signed granted the scammers full access to my wallet.

Devastated, I reached out to the Discord server admins, who confirmed that their account had been hacked and used to spread phishing links. The scammers had designed the portal to look legitimate, tricking users into signing malicious transactions.

This experience taught me to never connect my wallet to unfamiliar platforms or sign transactions without verifying their legitimacy. Always double-check announcements on official project websites or social media accounts. Use a separate wallet for interacting with new platforms, and keep your primary funds in a secure, offline wallet.