HOW TO protect yourself from Scammers

[alex_gr_cc]

To protect against scams, you must comply, in fact, all the rules of security on the Internet. This is a long time known rules.

[wasaisi]

Be more careful in trusting others. Because we must prepare ourselves not to be deceived by people we just know and also we have to check what you really need because it's one way to avoid being tricked in this crypto world.

[portgas313]

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.

don't choose projects that are easy to understand, recognize skimmers in bitcoin, don't be easily fooled by fantastic promises, don't open strange link links, investigate the reputation of providing bitcoin services. and make passwords a little complicated.

I agree with you, the emergence of scammers projects has made new investors who do not know more about the world of Crypto, many feel disadvantaged. and in my opinion, the opinions you give are helpful enough for investors to be more careful in investing their bitcoin so they don't get hurt.

[yamete kudasai]

First secure your account from the hackers . Use 2FA security in gmail or any wallet accounts to protect it and to protect yourself from scammers you should thing to know is to interview them first and when there are something strange that they said will give you a huge amount that is totally not ignore them and blocked them .

[sneeze11]

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.

For me it is easy to protect yourself from scammers because you need only to hide all the information that they need to you. You also need to trust yourself only because others will take that opportunity if you trust them.

[Konffetka]

One of the best things to do to avoid ICO fraud is to learn and read all the information about this ICO. As they always say: "More knowledge is power." Secondly, the team had to communicate with the community. Thirdly, they should always have an update from their company. If you feel something suspicious, do not hesitate to ask them a question. Thus, you can confirm whether they are legitimate or just a bunch of scammers.

[Godpikin]

Thank you very much for this great enlightenment. Several malicious scams appearing in several formats have rocked the crypto world right from even it's infant stage. Although I personally take lots of precautions to avoid the basic ones especially relating to icos and airdrops, scammers now use more advanced and sophisticated means these days, and thanks to you I have more knowledge of this under my belt.

[normanderecho]

Thank you very much for this great enlightenment. Several malicious scams appearing in several formats have rocked the crypto world right from even it's infant stage. Although I personally take lots of precautions to avoid the basic ones especially relating to icos and airdrops, scammers now use more advanced and sophisticated means these days, and thanks to you I have more knowledge of this under my belt.

For me to protect your self on scammer don't trust people to show your private key or password and only you can know your password and private key so that your money or your bitcoin will safe.many people are scammer because of hard to gain a money so don't be trust  on people so that you and your money will safe.

[Devawnm367]

Pay very close to everything you invest in, follow them on all types of social media, and check with the community see who has worked with them and if they are trustworthy!!!!

[Xenophoto]

One of the best things to do to avoid ICO fraud is to learn and read all the information about this ICO. As they always say: "More knowledge is power." Secondly, the team had to communicate with the community. Thirdly, they should always have an update from their company. If you feel something suspicious, do not hesitate to ask them a question. Thus, you can confirm whether they are legitimate or just a bunch of scammers.

Or maybe just avoid ICO totally? You really don't have to invest in any ICO in order to make money. It's really risky these days because most of them are just scams. They all appear legit every time but only a few of the coins get listed to trading sites. Fewer are the ones that gets to ICO price since most bounty participants will be dumping the coin right away. Even fewer are the ones that gets a price higher than the ICO price. Even fewer are the ones where you can actually yield good amount of money. So save yourself from all the stress and troubles in investing in ICOs and do something else with your money. Simply keeping it is better. This might have zero gains but it also has zero risk.

You have to know that these people are prepared for your questions. Most of the time the team is unresponsive because they are "busy" according to them but those that are responsive are ready for your questions. Their unresponsiveness is simply a way of avoiding answering questions. You see ICO scams getting exposed by high rank members when they start asking the real questions. So what they do is put out enough valid information to not be noticed or questioned right away and to buy them just enough time to get it past the token sale.

[Yadamosan]

In my years in bitcoin my biggest weapon to avoid scam is keep my bitcoin wallet secret on me only, not even my family because we don't know that our neighbors is also a scammers or something and imagine that when your child knows your bitcoin wallet password and someone ask that on them.
But for me just keep it safe and avoid the free wifi or something and don't forget to deepfreeze your computer because there is so many hackers around the world using any viruses trojan etc... in just 1click your bitcoin will be gone and my advice when you don't want to be feel scam on the profit that you are getting from bitcoin is try to invest at the lower price and wait till the price is up and sell it.

[bajarang8668]

Do not share your private key. Do not install pirated software in laptop or mobile. Don't say everytime your friend and other I have bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. Use multiple addresses for trading and holding.

[Kovanyy89]

Thank you for your work here! You've said pretty much everything I think. To me personally it seems very important to care about personal information and see it as a kind of investment as well.

[Ekenegbu123]

You need to be very careful with scammers as they can do and undo. You need to store private keys well, activate all the security for your online wallets and many more. These are some tips to protect your account from scammers

[Jackolantern]

I think that to protect from scammers for 100% you need to avoid crypto market at all)) but if to be serious, you need to take part in icos only if making sure that the project is reliable

[RolandoBTC]

Yes only our personal informations and our private keys must only safe not to be given by anyone,because that is the source where scammers can overview all your personal details.,be observant and alert of all matters.

[daedalus8]

safeguarding privatekey is very important, if hackers know they can take your money whenever they want without you knowing it

[Lexurenn]

I think that in this plan you should become paranoid and always think that you want to be deceived! It is necessary to check all the details, correctly write each letter, do not store the password in an easily accessible place, do not store money on the stock exchange and so on!

[Bivonisenki]

You need to be careful. Very often try to steal personal data through other sites, throw you a link and you go through it and all the data from them! You need to be very careful and never show your passwords to anyone!

[mostpatientpp]

thank you for your useful sharing. For me, i will protect myself from scammer by keeping my private key as secret and won't let anyone know.