How to claim an airdrop without getting drained
The most dangerous week to be a crypto user is the week a big airdrop opens. Scammers buy search ads for '[token] claim', clone the official site, and drain every wallet that signs. The defense is boring and reliable: verify the URL, read what you sign, and never type your seed phrase anywhere.
Find the real claim site
Never search for a claim site. Get the URL from the project's official X account, Discord, or documentation, and check that the account announcing it is the one with the history, not a lookalike created last week. Airdropped.link lists the official claim link on every airdrop page in the directory, which is a second reference point if you're unsure.
Know what a claim should ask for
A legitimate claim asks you to connect a wallet, shows your allocation, and has you sign a claim transaction. It never asks for your seed phrase or private key, under any circumstances, on any page. It also shouldn't ask for payment beyond the network fee; treat any 'unlock fee' or 'verification deposit' as theft.
Before approving, read the simulation your wallet shows. Modern wallets preview what a transaction does. If a 'claim' wants approval to spend your USDC or transfer your NFTs, reject it.
Use a claim wallet if the stakes are high
For large allocations, claim from the eligible wallet but send tokens straight to a separate wallet that has never signed anything unusual. Hardware wallets help because signatures happen on the device. And check allocations by pasting your address on Airdropped.link first; checking eligibility this way requires no connection and no signature, so there's nothing to exploit.
Mind the deadline
Claim windows close. Pudgy Penguins gave 88 days; Jupiter's unclaimed tokens went back to the DAO. If you find an old allocation, check whether the window is still open on the airdrop's page before assuming the tokens are yours.