Phantom, a wallet provider based in Solana, has introduced a new burn function that enables users to delete spam non-fungible tokens (NFTs) supplied by fraudsters.
The new function, which users can access through the Burn Token tab in the Phantom wallet app, allows them to earn a little deposit of Solana (SOL) every time they utilize it, as stated in a blog post from the Phantom team published on Thursday.
The blog post noted, “We’re still in the Wild West days of Web3. As the crypto ecosystem grows, so have the number of bad actors looking for ways to steal user’s funds. The rapid growth in popularity of NFTs has led to an increasingly prevalent method of attack for scammers – Spam NFTs.”
Because of Solana’s cheap transaction costs, Phantom stated that the problem has been particularly pervasive there, with malicious actors frequently airdropping large numbers of seemingly free NFTs that really include harmful links.
Spam NFT often asks the recipient to click a link in order to mint a free NFT. But, if they finish the procedure, their wallet is emptied of its funds. Otherwise, the link will request the recipient’s seed phrase, which will have the same effect.
“These scams are becoming increasingly more sophisticated. For instance, after a contract address and domain are identified as malicious, scammers can change the metadata of an NFT to try to avoid being blocklisted. It can feel like an endless game of whack-a-mole,” Phantom said.
The effort is a part of a larger Phantom strategy to combat spam NFTs and malicious actors in the market. By alerting users to fraudulent transactions that could endanger their funds or permissions after clicking on suspicious links, the team claimed to be fighting fraudsters as well.
The blog post also mentioned that Phantom and Blowfish are working together right now to strengthen the way they notify users to phishing attacks.
Phantom said, “While we’re introducing NFT Burning today, we’re not stopping there. Users can look forward to more automated spam detection in the future. Using providers like SimpleHash and our own internal reporting, we will be able to gauge if an NFT is likely to be spam”.
With over 2 million active users per month, Phantom ranks among the most famous Solana-based wallet providers for NFTs and decentralized finance (DeFi), according to the company.
Beginning in August, a rival wallet company called Slope experienced a security issue that caused an approximate $8 million worth of assets to be lost on the Solana blockchain.
Austin Fedora, Solana’s Communication Head, conducted a post-mortem investigation and discovered that, although the attack was a Slope problem, 60% of the victims were Phantom users.
As per data from CryptoSlam, Solana hosted the second-largest NFT sales volume in July with $56.1 million, following only Ethereum, which recorded a remarkable $535.6 million.
