Projects give tokens away for reasons that are rarely charitable. An airdrop distributes ownership quickly, rewards people who used a product before it had one, seeds a governance base, or simply buys attention. Eligibility is usually decided by a snapshot, meaning that at some past block the project records which addresses did which things, and the list is settled before anyone is told the criteria.
This is where the danger lives. Because everyone expects a claim page, attackers build convincing ones and push them through sponsored search results, replies from lookalike accounts and links in chat announcements. The page asks you to connect and sign, and the signature is not a claim at all but an approval letting a contract move the tokens you already hold. Our guide to <a href="/toolkit/how-to-spot-crypto-scams/">spotting crypto scams</a> walks through the tells. Reach claim pages only through links you found yourself from the project's verified channels.
Tokens can also arrive uninvited. Anyone can send anything to any address, so unfamiliar <a href="/glossary/token/">tokens</a> appearing in your wallet mean nothing about their value or legitimacy. Some are bait, where the token's name links to a site that harvests approvals, or an attempt to sell it triggers a malicious contract. The safe response to an unexpected token is to leave it alone and hide it, not to investigate by clicking.
Keep expectations modest even for genuine ones. Many airdrops are farmed heavily by automated wallets, which dilutes real users and produces immediate selling when the token starts trading. Depending on where you live, receiving tokens may be a taxable event at the moment they land. A sensible habit is to visit claim pages from a separate <a href="/glossary/hot-wallet/">hot wallet</a> that holds nothing you would miss.
How to Avoid Crypto Scams: The Playbook
Key takeaways
- Eligibility is decided by a snapshot taken in the past, so nothing you do after the announcement changes whether you qualify.
- A claim page that asks for approvals or a recovery phrase is an attack, and paid search results are a favourite delivery route.
- Unexpected tokens in your wallet are unsolicited mail at best and bait at worst, so do not interact with them.
Airdrop — frequently asked questions
Is a free airdrop really free?
The tokens may be, but claiming usually costs a network fee, and the real price is the risk taken to claim it. Many people have lost far more than an airdrop was worth by signing a malicious approval on a convincing fake site. Treat the word free as the marketing, and the claim process as the part that needs care.
Someone sent tokens to my wallet that I did not ask for. What should I do?
Nothing. Anyone can send tokens to any address without your consent, so their arrival is neither an endorsement nor a windfall. Do not visit sites linked from the token, do not try to swap it, and do not connect your wallet anywhere in order to investigate. Hide it in your wallet interface and carry on, because the funds you already hold are unaffected.
New to crypto, or filling in the gaps? Work through the essentials in Learn, browse every term A–Z, or see live prices for the coins these concepts power.