HOW TO protect yourself from Scammers

[Pemburu dollar]

I can protect it by for not talking on strangers in social media or other website. And protect my wallet using hardware. And you need to be knowledgeable

In my opinion to avoid scammers never giving anything. Don't share your actual social media account with random people, save your email address for yourself and if you have to use it make sure to have an email burner. Is that a burner? Emails are not necessarily made for every forum and project. Only emails that don't contain your personal data and that you don't use for online shopping, banking, and so on.
You must first realize what they want from you. In the end it's always your money, while in the process they may want some personal data, telephone numbers, whatever they can enter.

[Roy11]

There are many scam ICO schemes that pretend to be best to invest in it and ask us by giving good offers.Anybody even an experienced man is not sure that the ICO is real.It only declares truthful when the scheme is over.The best way to protect from ponzi schemes is to stay away from schemes that give too much good offers.

That is correct. Only at the time of listing it will be clear whether you will end up with a profit or not. I have seen a lot of very good ICOs failing at the time of listing. It is tragic, actually.

ICO that looks good sometimes scam, especially now many people are not responsible, so we must be really careful not to get caught in the ICO scam.

[insurgent]

I was making a list for my team on how to stay away from Crypto scammers, and thought I would just share it here as well.

Here are the type of Crypto scammers that I have encountered

Type 1. ICO as a SCAM - (More info contributed by: tosindesign)
There are ICOs that are only designed to get your money. Once the ICO is over then the pages are taken off the net and the makers of the ICO disappear with the money. The last case we reported was LoopX, but this is not the only case.

How can you protect yourself?
1. (by: tosindesign) Generally there is no 100% protection here. A good indication for a scam is there is no team mentioned on the website or whitepaper. Although everything is very superficial and promised a lot, but after reading the white paper is not clear how that should be possible.
2. (by: GeckoTrader) One of the best things to do to avoid ICO scamming is to learn and back read all information about that ICO. As they always say " More knowledge is power"
3. (by: GeckoTrader) The team should have been communicating to the community.
4. (by: GeckoTrader) Always they should have an update from their company. If you sense something fishy do not hesitate to ask question from them. In that means you can confirm whether they are legit or just a bunch of scammers.

Type 2. Scammers who sell FAKE COINS (name / coin code is same but coin generating contract is different)
How to protect yourself: Check the contract address of these coins, if it came from the same contract address

Type 3. Social media scammers - Would post like "I will send you 50 ETH if you send me 5"
How to protect yourself: This is an easy one, they all are scammers. Dont even respond.

Type 4: Identity theft scammers - These guys will contact you as CEOs of ICOs or Social celebrities, usually banking upon the names of a famous person
How to protect yourself: Try pinging them from an another ID of theirs (say if scammer pinged you from Telegram, drop them a message over their facebook ID) and ask them to check that message. This would work as a Two-Factor-Authentication for that personality.

Type 5: Malicious code Trojans - Like Wordpress or Chrome plugins, that would use your machine to mine for crypto currencies, using your machine for the same
How to protect yourself: Try not to do plugins or replace them with cloud powered services, OR, Install only trusted plugins, with loads of reviews maybe. I wont be surprised if these trojans take shape of free downloadable games or cracked softwares downloadable for desktop or your mobile.

Type 6: Online Seed Generators (contributed by: tosindesign)
For some wallets (eg the IOTA Wallet) you have to set your own seed. In the case of IOTA, this is an 81-digit password that must consist of uppercase letters and at least one 9. Since some did not want to generate a password themselves, they resorted to online seed generators. These generate you by mouse click an 81-digit seed. However, as it turns out later, a few of these seed generators also stored the generated passwords, The stored seeds were then later used to steal the assets of the investors concerned. You have to know that the seed is something like the master key that allows all credits to be transferred. A thief does not even have to have access to your computer on which the wallet is installed. The seed is enough to access your balance on another computer.

How can you protect yourself?
Never use an online seed generator! When generating an 81-digit seed, all you have to do is push 81 random keys on your keyboard.

Type 7: Phishing website attempts (contributed by: tosindesign)
Scammers would copy exact replica of the websites (wallets, exchanges) and try to get you to login, thereby recording you password. For example, the page Blockchain.info was copied to get the logins. You have to know that Blockchain.info also offers a wallet service where Wallet could save your bitcoins. If Google users searched for “Blockchain info” in some countries, they ran a Google ad that led to Blockchaina.info, a cheat site that has nothing to do with Blockchain.info. The site was a 1: 1 copy of Blockchain.info and was only designed to get login information from users. There are also similar attempts to MyEtherwallet.com and other sites.

How can you protect yourself?
Never click anywhere on a link to a page where you want to log in. The best way is to bookmark the pages and just go over the web pages. In addition, you should always look for the SSL encryption. There will not be a page that stores important data from you and is located at http: //. All pages should now be encrypted SSL and have a https: // domain (although the pages can also be accessed at http: // they will redirect to https: //). The SSL certificates will also show you every browser, for example by a small lock symbol.


Type 9: Used Ledger Nano (contributed by: tosindesign)
At ebay and in other marketplaces there are always offers to buy the Ledger Nano a bit cheaper. This is particularly interesting now, where the Ledger Nano S is sold out and will be available again in one month. There have been cases in the past when users bought a used ledger on ebay and the seed from the ledger was already filled out. Anyone who has not owned a ledger to date will hardly register the difference. Of course, the previous owners have also noted the seed in these cases, which then allows them to get access to the crypto currencies that the new owner stores on the Ledger Nano S.  

How can you protect yourself?
If you want to use a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S, buy it directly from the manufacturer and make sure that it is still original packed. The enclosed note on which you can write down the seed should never be filled.

Type 10: Airdrops that ask for personal information (contributed by: StarKay)
There are hyped up airdrops that may ask for KYC information, that may end up being used by scammers / hackers.

How to protect yourself:
Think of your personal information as an investment as well. Research who you are giving your information to and why that ICO will need it

Type 11: Identity theft via Social Media - (contributed by: darkangel11)
You have to realize what they want from you. In the end it's always your money, while in the process they may want some personal data, a phone number, whatever they can get into.

How to protect yourself: Never willingly give anything. Don't share your real social media accounts with random people, keep your email addresses to yourself and if you have to use them make sure to have burner emails. What are burners? Not necessarily emails created for every forum and project. Just emails that don't contain your personal data and that you're not using for online shopping, banking and so on.

Please add more below, or share your story.

Dont ever share anything to anyone. Sometimes holding is one of the best choice to avoide scammers. Dont fall for some unbelievable offers because sometimes its a scam. Thats why we reaaly need knowledge when it comes to bitcoin so that we are aware of everything.

[military]

Best of all - think with a cold head. Learn well a coin or project in which you want to invest. I made many mistakes before I realized something. And most importantly, I realized - I'm only learning from my mistakes:( but sometimes no:(

[Maame Esi Sergio]

I was making a list for my team on how to stay away from Crypto scammers, and thought I would just share it here as well.

Here are the type of Crypto scammers that I have encountered

Type 1. ICO as a SCAM - (More info contributed by: tosindesign)
There are ICOs that are only designed to get your money. Once the ICO is over then the pages are taken off the net and the makers of the ICO disappear with the money. The last case we reported was LoopX, but this is not the only case.

Type 3. Social media scammers - Would post like "I will send you 50 ETH if you send me 5"
How to protect yourself: This is an easy one, they all are scammers. Dont even respond.

That is really true. I have  had an encounter with this two points you just raised. Scammers and Hackers are really smart. My first ICO campaign had not ended yet I received a message that I have been rewarded my token and to claim that, I need to send my private key. Thanks to the one who introduced me to blockchain. I almost made a fool out of myself. These are really good points to note especially when you are new to crypto. Its quite unfortunate that ICO managers too do not keep their promises and the keep monetizing our personal data to scammers.

[ASHLIUSZ]

With cryptocurrency quite often it is possible to find the term scammers. People easily get trapped by scammers if the users were new to the cryptocurrency network. To get away from scammers people always need a strong connection to the cryptocurrency usage and a continued learning without which it is impossible to keep us secure from scammers.

[myrionhymn]

Since Bitcoin became known in the market.
So many scammers became abusive using its name for scamming.
Most especially to the newbies.
Others use it for onpal scheme that leads only to Ponzi Scheme.
Many people became a victim of it including me when I don't really have much knowledge about bitcoin.
That's why other people says bitcoin is a scam
Since they don't know much about bitcoin.

Anyway, thanks for those infos to protect ourselves from scammers. 👍

[P60]

Best of all - think with a cold head. Learn well a coin or project in which you want to invest. I made many mistakes before I realized something. And most importantly, I realized - I'm only learning from my mistakes:( but sometimes no:(

Another way to protect yourself from scammers is through research, do asking to other people and make everything they said as a guide before investing to a particular project.

[Supremacy1]

First don't be greedy yourself , scammer will offer lucrative deal so as to strike , u need to be watchful and caution greed , before it caution you

[Ailmand]

In my years of experience with bitcoin there is only one effective way to avoid scammers. In joining ICO even if you do your research you will not know that they are scammers until the ICO is over. Even if how many preparations we do or make in the end we still end up being a victim to scammers. The best way to avoid scammers is to no invest your bitcoins. Just hold it in your wallet and hold it for a long time and when the price is right you can sell them and you will have a good profit.

That's right. I think although it was useful to keep those above-stated means of protecting yourself from scammers, the best way to actually do it is to be disciplined and aware enough of what to avoid and stay away from. As this market is a big profit-giver, then it would be subjected to schemes and scammer attacks just for them to get some of the profit of people who won't be careful enough to guard their investments. Therefore, one should always be vigilant with every move he makes to make sure that before doing any act, he is secured.

[WellDogeo]

The best protection for you is knowledge. Only if you have more knowledge of this market will you protect you from fraud.

[Cryptominia]

This page really helps me a lot on how to avoid myself from scammers.The info are worth reading .
Scammers are everywhere here so lets be careful and do believe easily .Do a research and educate yourself for the platform and projects  you joining.

[Hanazawa]

A great work with this! Yes we need to become more aggressive ans aware when it come to joining and participating in ICO and bounty campaign. Because the time, money and hardwork we spent in participating become worthless if we are joined in scam Ico. So it is better to become knowledgeable in choosing bounty campaign and uci projects to avoid being scam.

[biskitop]

this is just an anticipation that does not guarantee whether in the end the ico is a scam or not. namely by looking at several aspects of ico, such as whitepapers, investors, the development team, manager bounty, and the ico rating.

[Crystal24]

You can protect yourself from scammers by being smart and contentend with the little you have, because most at times people fall victim of scams by being greedy.

[lester04]

Today crypto world is getting popular in many countries and so scammers have another method to scam peoples so always be aware in some ico or investments always have a proper research before joining in any crypto activities cause crypto is risky and bad peoples are getting aggressive just to earn money even in a bad way.

[Crafts12]

it's easy for you to scam if you're offered to invest or pay for a profit making sure that the info is good for you who offers you just not to believe and if you can ask any friends you know for not being threatened

Knowing the basic information about the investment is the most shallow one but also the essential to. If you want to avoid being scammed by others I suggest that make sure you have a plan to do. Do some little research regarding to the background of the investment and then think a lot of times before performing or joining. If you have doubts, ask someone who is professional in terms of this and if you don't feel it will be successful or worth it then do not invest because sometimes our guts or intuition is correct.

[Yarsk]

I was making a list for my team on how to stay away from Crypto scammers, and thought I would just share it here as well.

Here are the type of Crypto scammers that I have encountered

Type 1. ICO as a SCAM - (More info contributed by: tosindesign)
There are ICOs that are only designed to get your money. Once the ICO is over then the pages are taken off the net and the makers of the ICO disappear with the money. The last case we reported was LoopX, but this is not the only case.

How can you protect yourself?
1. (by: tosindesign) Generally there is no 100% protection here. A good indication for a scam is there is no team mentioned on the website or whitepaper. Although everything is very superficial and promised a lot, but after reading the white paper is not clear how that should be possible.
2. (by: GeckoTrader) One of the best things to do to avoid ICO scamming is to learn and back read all information about that ICO. As they always say " More knowledge is power"
3. (by: GeckoTrader) The team should have been communicating to the community.
4. (by: GeckoTrader) Always they should have an update from their company. If you sense something fishy do not hesitate to ask question from them. In that means you can confirm whether they are legit or just a bunch of scammers.

Type 2. Scammers who sell FAKE COINS (name / coin code is same but coin generating contract is different)
How to protect yourself: Check the contract address of these coins, if it came from the same contract address

Type 3. Social media scammers - Would post like "I will send you 50 ETH if you send me 5"
How to protect yourself: This is an easy one, they all are scammers. Dont even respond.

Type 4: Identity theft scammers - These guys will contact you as CEOs of ICOs or Social celebrities, usually banking upon the names of a famous person
How to protect yourself: Try pinging them from an another ID of theirs (say if scammer pinged you from Telegram, drop them a message over their facebook ID) and ask them to check that message. This would work as a Two-Factor-Authentication for that personality.

Type 5: Malicious code Trojans - Like Wordpress or Chrome plugins, that would use your machine to mine for crypto currencies, using your machine for the same
How to protect yourself: Try not to do plugins or replace them with cloud powered services, OR, Install only trusted plugins, with loads of reviews maybe. I wont be surprised if these trojans take shape of free downloadable games or cracked softwares downloadable for desktop or your mobile.

Type 6: Online Seed Generators (contributed by: tosindesign)
For some wallets (eg the IOTA Wallet) you have to set your own seed. In the case of IOTA, this is an 81-digit password that must consist of uppercase letters and at least one 9. Since some did not want to generate a password themselves, they resorted to online seed generators. These generate you by mouse click an 81-digit seed. However, as it turns out later, a few of these seed generators also stored the generated passwords, The stored seeds were then later used to steal the assets of the investors concerned. You have to know that the seed is something like the master key that allows all credits to be transferred. A thief does not even have to have access to your computer on which the wallet is installed. The seed is enough to access your balance on another computer.

How can you protect yourself?
Never use an online seed generator! When generating an 81-digit seed, all you have to do is push 81 random keys on your keyboard.

Type 7: Phishing website attempts (contributed by: tosindesign)
Scammers would copy exact replica of the websites (wallets, exchanges) and try to get you to login, thereby recording you password. For example, the page Blockchain.info was copied to get the logins. You have to know that Blockchain.info also offers a wallet service where Wallet could save your bitcoins. If Google users searched for “Blockchain info” in some countries, they ran a Google ad that led to Blockchaina.info, a cheat site that has nothing to do with Blockchain.info. The site was a 1: 1 copy of Blockchain.info and was only designed to get login information from users. There are also similar attempts to MyEtherwallet.com and other sites.

How can you protect yourself?
Never click anywhere on a link to a page where you want to log in. The best way is to bookmark the pages and just go over the web pages. In addition, you should always look for the SSL encryption. There will not be a page that stores important data from you and is located at http: //. All pages should now be encrypted SSL and have a https: // domain (although the pages can also be accessed at http: // they will redirect to https: //). The SSL certificates will also show you every browser, for example by a small lock symbol.


Type 9: Used Ledger Nano (contributed by: tosindesign)
At ebay and in other marketplaces there are always offers to buy the Ledger Nano a bit cheaper. This is particularly interesting now, where the Ledger Nano S is sold out and will be available again in one month. There have been cases in the past when users bought a used ledger on ebay and the seed from the ledger was already filled out. Anyone who has not owned a ledger to date will hardly register the difference. Of course, the previous owners have also noted the seed in these cases, which then allows them to get access to the crypto currencies that the new owner stores on the Ledger Nano S.  

How can you protect yourself?
If you want to use a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S, buy it directly from the manufacturer and make sure that it is still original packed. The enclosed note on which you can write down the seed should never be filled.

Type 10: Airdrops that ask for personal information (contributed by: StarKay)
There are hyped up airdrops that may ask for KYC information, that may end up being used by scammers / hackers.

How to protect yourself:
Think of your personal information as an investment as well. Research who you are giving your information to and why that ICO will need it

Type 11: Identity theft via Social Media - (contributed by: darkangel11)
You have to realize what they want from you. In the end it's always your money, while in the process they may want some personal data, a phone number, whatever they can get into.

How to protect yourself: Never willingly give anything. Don't share your real social media accounts with random people, keep your email addresses to yourself and if you have to use them make sure to have burner emails. What are burners? Not necessarily emails created for every forum and project. Just emails that don't contain your personal data and that you're not using for online shopping, banking and so on.

Please add more below, or share your story.

The first thing that protect you from being scam is by not being too greedy and easy giving out personal detail online if you can protect your self from this two aspect then you will be on the part of overcoming scammers.

[Ezenwanyi]

To protect yourself from scam icos, you must read the whole details pertaining to the ico from the team members information, etc.
You should also note that an ico that has already working product is not likely to scam exit.
You need to know if the problem the ico is trying to solve is a genuine problem or just those rhetorics put up to collect people's money.
Greediness is one major reason why people get scammed, you should also chun greediness and irrational thinking.

[2408AAY]

Projects may seem so good that if you aren't careful, you will be scammed because scammers are everywhere just beware. I think the best way to avoid scammers is to be knowledgeable. You need to read more about the project you will participating instead of listening to other people.