Safety#
If you are new to cryptocurrencies, the most important change to understand in comparison with the traditional banking system is that transactions occur directly between two parties without any central authority to facilitate the transaction. This also means that you are responsible for your own security - there is no bank or credit card company to reverse a transaction if your funds are stolen or lost. If you forget or lose your wallet file, recovery phrase or PIN, you will permanently and irrevocably lose access to your funds.
Dash is designed from the ground up to be fast, secure, fungible and private. In this sense, it is similar to cash or gold, but cryptocurrency can be spent locally and internationally with equal ease, if you are confident you are sending funds to the right destination. For these reasons, the Dash documentation has a strong focus on safety and understanding the concepts and features that drive the Dash ecosystem.
A few general safety guidelines:
Do not trust any online service or person because they sound or look reputable. Always use an escrow service if you are buying peer-to- peer.
Store your Dash on a hardware wallet if possible. If not, then store your coins in the official Dash Core Wallet or the official Dash Electrum Wallet.
Do not use exchanges as wallets. Exchanges are for trading, not for savings.
Mobile wallets should be used for day-to-day purchases, but do not keep large amounts of funds in them. Transfer funds as necessary.
A list of known scams, fake wallets and Ponzi or pyramid schemes can be seen below. Do NOT trust them.
Impersonation#
Scammers may attempt to impersonate well-known community members and manipulate you into granting them access to your system or wallets. This is usually done via private messages on the forum, Discord or email. The attacks are often targeted against masternode owners. If you require technical assistance, it is best to ask in a public channel/forum or go to https://support.dash.org and open a ticket. If you engage in personal chat with a well-known community member, verify their identity by their chat history or through their publicly available cryptographic keys. All community members and Dash Core Group staff will be able to verify their identity using signed PGP messages. Identities can also be verified on Keybase:
Scams#
There are many “fake” Dash/Darkcoin pages on the internet attempting to trick users into sending Dash or other cryptocurrencies or “open a wallet”. Other scams include selling fake mining hardware, fake Dash or altcoins with a similar name, and Ponzi schemes (see below). Please be careful and do NOT trust any third parties listed here!!
List of known Dash-related scams:
dash-wallet dot com is a known scam!
electrumdash dot org is a fake clone of the official site!
dashcoinmining dot com is not affiliated with Dash!
dashcrypto dot info is not affiliated with Dash!
onclooud dot com is not affiliated with Dash!
as-shop dot su is selling fake Baikal miners!
minershop dot biz is selling fake Baikal miners!
dashcoinclub dot com is a Ponzi scheme not affiliated with Dash!
dash-coin dot net is a fake web wallet, do not send them money!
coinvert dot io is a fake exchange!
dashcash dot io is not affiliated with Dash and may be distributing a compromised wallet!
dashdaowallet dot com is a mydashwallet clone and confirmed scam!
mydashwallets dot com is a mydashwallet clone and confirmed scam!
Beware of fake Twitter accounts impersonating Dash! The official Twitter account is: https://twitter.com/Dashpay
Beware of fake communication from hardware wallet vendors! Ledger maintains a documentation page detailing a range of scams.
Please report these and any others scams you encounter as follows:
Report phishing and scams to Google: https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/
Look up the registrar of the domain and send a complaint: https://www.whois.com/whois
Report phishing to Netcraft: https://www.netcraft.com
Report scams to the BadBitcoin Project: https://www.badbitcoin.org
If in doubt, use Crypto Scam Checker to see if already report and report there as well: https://isthiscoinascam.com/
Feel free to report any new scams you find on the forum in our “swat team” thread: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/www-dash-wallet-com-is-a-scam-website.8267/
Ponzi Schemes#
A Ponzi scheme, Pyramid scheme or Multi-level marketing are a fraudulent investment operations where the operator provides fabricated reports and generates returns for older investors through revenue paid by new investors. More and more users must constantly join the scheme in order for it to continue operation, with ever greater numbers of people losing money to the originators of the scheme.
If you encounter a Ponzi scheme, follow the same reporting steps as for scam websites!
List of known Ponzi schemes (there are many more - stay vigilant!):
- OneCoin
- SwissCoin
- The Billion Coin
- E-Dinar
- DasCoin
- BitConnect
- HashOcean
- CryptoDouble