Collecting NFTs safely

On all uncurated platforms there is the problem of scammers who sell art that is not their own – often labelled copymints. If you collect this art, eventually it will become ‘banned’, ‘restricted’ or otherwise labelled as fake, and will have no value, either monetarily or art-wise.

Teia and other platforms have methods in place which attempt to remove these copymints, but some slip through and it can take time to find them, so it is also the collectors’ responsibility to do checks.

Here are some things that should make you take more care, and do some checks before collecting: Anonymous artist? Well-known artist with very low price? Artist never seen on the platform previously? Wallet set up in the last hours or days?

Checks you should make:

1. Do you know the artist? (Is the name of the profile accurate? Some scammers try to impersonate popular artists by using very similar names, changed letters in the name or punctuation. eg artist != arrtist artist. != artist artiste != artist

2. Is the artist identified in the description of the artwork? Do they include links to twitter, instagram, website? Follow those links and it may become clear that they are a legitimate artist producing work that is in similar form to what you are looking at collecting.

3. Is the artist identified in their profile? Do they have a bio? Do they have social media links and/or tzprofile (squarish icon)? Again, you are looking to identify the artist and link them with similar work or other indicators that they have made the work you wish to collect. Here you can see an artist bio with wallet address, twitter and tzprofile links.

4. Is the artist already releasing work on this platform? Does their social media make it obvious that they mint on the platform (references to the platform and/or links to other work on the platform).

5. Do a reverse image search on the artwork – in many browsers you can right-click and ‘search by image’: this will often show up images that have been stolen and reused.

6. Is the rest of the artist's work stylistically similar? Most artists produce work that has a recognisable style, or a collection that varies gradually, or by series. A profile that has single works with wildly different styles raises suspicions.

7. Is the wallet they use recently set up? On teia and other platforms you can click the wallet address and be sent to a blockchain explorer which will show you details about the wallet activities. If the wallet start date is within a few days, be suspicious; within a few hours, be very suspicious.

8. Is the work in the public domain? Related to 5) some people resell works that are freely available. While this is not always copyminting (because permission may have been given, or the license gives permission), the people reselling free work for profit often don't check the license thoroughly and the account is later banned.