How do I avoid and identify scams?

[Promocodeudo]

We know that scam coins are everywhere, mainly advertised on social media, I spent time trying to know the exact way to fish out scam coins but to no avail, despite how inquisitive we could be to generate more funds for ourselves through Cryptocurrency investments and to try new things, we should also be much aware of the scam coins and their possible pernicious damage.

I agree that there are a lot of choices to make regarding cryptocurrency but early dictation of this proposed scam needs to be checked.

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

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[Hyphen(-)]

Trust is the main problem in cryptocurrency, that is why any altcoin cannot be trusted as it may result to scam due its centralized nature.

To avoid scam in cryptocurrency, invest in Bitcoin only because it is one of the coin that is decentralized and trusted.

[BD Crypto]

This is a common problem for every newbies also for some of the experts and about this topic in this forum here are several discussions you should check them.
These are:

1. [Guide] How to detect fake token and spot scammers.
2. How to detect scam token on Binance Smart Chain
3. What tips you will give to a new investor to identify scam projects early ?
4. How to check a Scam token on BSC.

Try to read these threads, and replies hope you learn a lot from it. Also try to use search option in this forum that will help you to find out more useful discussions about crypto scams. Or you can search by Google and read articles about crypto scams and how to detect them. Obviously try to read from trusted sources. Best wishes for you.

[Faisal2202]

If you are referring to get knowledge about how can you identify a scam in the field of crypto then i jave a latest thread in my mind where the OP has shared many scams and other people too Have you ever been scammed ?. If you wanted to identify that either the project or coin in which you are investing will stay for longer period of time or not then you should try to check their partners and the history of their partners.

And you should avoid to join such project which looks ponzi because huge return is not a real thing. They will scam you by luring into huge return promises. You have to avoid projects that rug pulled, such projects are hard to identify until they did it. But some red flags might help you like see if they are active on all social media accounts like telegram, discord and Twitter etc. Because if they do not have any platform where a user could discuss with them then its a red flag.

See, if such projects are late in completing their tasks according to their roadmaps. Because this shows their laziness and less interest toward the development of the project but more focus toward in getting fund collecting.

[ImThour]

If someone is providing you some monetary benefits or giving you any coin which he says is worth millions if you trade it on a random DEX, that is a complete scam.
No one gives out free money to anyone in this world except MrBeast. Also, there are various topics already on this forum discussing various different types of scams going around.

Make sure you read more and type less, that way you learn more. Good Luck!

[Solosanz]

Make sure you avoid all centralized coins, that's the first step to avoid scam.

Then you should check about decentralized coin, check the use case, the current circulating supply and maximum supply, how long the coin has been exist and check this site https://www.crypto51.app/ to know the probability the coin could be attacked with 51% attack. The lower the %, the better the coin is.

To avoid scam in cryptocurrency, invest in Bitcoin only because it is the only coin that is decentralized.

Incorrect, Bitcoin is one of the good decentralized coin, there are other good decentralized coins e.g. Monero and DAI.

[yudi09]

-snip-

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

A strong reason why people are not so interested in involving themselves in cryptocurrency is because there is no guarantee that the money invested will return as desired (scam).
Perhaps 2017 and 2018 may be the years that make people undo their intention to withdraw from investment activities in the crypto world because there are some of the most severe cases of fraud such as BitConnect and OneCoin.
The almost weekly birth of crypto projects in the crypto space seemed unstoppable.
Investors who have opted for Bitcoin since then have never experienced scams like other cryptos.

Know who the team members involved in the crypto project are because from my experience since being active in altcoins, many team members and devs have run away in the middle of the road.
Look for coins that have a clear purpose and have a large community and a strong foundation.
For me it is in Bitcoin.

[Poker Player]

For starters, what you would have to do is to study Bitcoin a bit and realize what makes it essentially different from the rest of the cryptocurrencies, which in the forum we usually call shitcoins. There are some less bad than others but they are shitcoins after all. Then you will realize that apart from some being pure scams, which are created as pump and dump schemes, the others are not worth it especially compared to Bitcoin.

A general rule to detect if an economic offer is a scam is that it has a too attractive profitability. In traditional assets, anyone who guarantees you more than a 10% annual return is probably trying to scam you, let alone if he offers you 50% per month and the like, as it is sometimes seen.

In the crypto world the returns are higher but there is no guarantee of anything and it is subject to extreme volatility.

[jrrsparkles]

Trust is the main problem in cryptocurrency, that is why any altcoin cannot be trusted as it may result to scam due its centralized nature.

To avoid scam in cryptocurrency, invest in Bitcoin only because it is one of the coin that is decentralized and trusted.

"Trustlessness" is the main goal of decentralization so we no need to trust anyone based on the reputation, popularity, years of existence, etc. We simply can analyse the decentralization level via the diversification of miners which completely control the confirmation process and all the nodes verify and validate the blocks so each individual can do it on their own.

[Cantsay]

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

You can't identify all the scam projects out there, you can only identify those that are obvious or display some red flags because some projects can start solid but as time goes on they'll pull out their scam card and disappear into thin air.

Whenever a project promises you returns that are too good to be true, then just know that they are most likely to scam you. If a project comes into the crypto space and starts promoting its project claiming that they have some remedy to a certain problem or that its project offers a certain utility without proof, then it's most likely a scam.

Another red flag is, using a fake team, most scam projects I have seen always make use of stock photos to create fake team members, you should also look out for those. If they aim that they have a mechanism that will help them main a steady price and so make the proof of their coin/token rise just know that they are only BSing and they have nothing of such nature.

[boyptc]

There are many ways but IMHO the few basic ways are these;

~ Checking if the website is professional made. At first impression that the website made cheap and like a grade school project, that's one sign. But even with professionally made websites, you cannot be sure with them as well as they can still be a scam but as I have said, that's the basic one.

~ Look at the people that are working for that project. Most cheap and scam likely projects don't even think of the people they'll put as the developers of the project. Like grabbing of photos and name that are obviously copied and invented.

[Lucius]

It seems to me that many see cryptocurrencies as some kind of easy way to profit and in some rare cases it can really happen, but in 9 out of 10 cases the ones who will profit are the owners of these projects and a narrow circle of people around them. But in order for them to profit, they have to successfully "sell" the idea and dump mostly premined coins at the right moment and take the money of all those suckers who got caught on the hook.

It's a game of cat and mouse, only the mouse gets the short end of the stick almost every time and I don't find it particularly interesting so I decided not to play that game a long time ago. Of course, it's not up to me or anyone else to tell others what they're going to do with their money, but if you're already investing in various crypto projects, be aware that most of them are pump&dump schemes, and that means you need to have the perfect entry and exit if you want to profit.

[electronicash]

you can avoid scam tokens if you don't buy them at all somewhere. just buy the top 10 coins and you save yourself from getting scam. just ignore those meme coins, there's already one among the top 10.

don't look for new coins, thats the bottom line. just stick to the olds ones that are already being listed on different exchanges.

[Nheer]

We know that scam coins are everywhere, mainly advertised on social media, I spent time trying to know the exact way to fish out scam coins but to no avail, despite how inquisitive we could be to generate more funds for ourselves through Cryptocurrency investments and to try new things, we should also be much aware of the scam coins and their possible pernicious damage.

I agree that there are a lot of choices to make regarding cryptocurrency but early dictation of this proposed scam needs to be checked.

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

The best way to avoid cryptocurrency scams is to stay away from alternative coins altogether Since alternative currencies are the main vectors for cryptocurrency fraud. Bitcoin is the only trustworthy currency. 

Reading the project materials, spotting errors in the white paper, looking for promises of rapid currency growth, and other indicators are some ways to spot a scam coin.

People fall victim to cryptocurrency scams in a variety of ways, but newcomers to the field are frequently seduced by initiatives that provide free tokens. Since they are inexperienced and lack knowledge, they just fall into their trap because they want to own a coin. People I know experience this; all they want is to wakeup and see a number of tokens in their wallet. Beware of airdrops because most phoney projects utilise them to defraud their victims as it is the easiest way to attract a bigger number of victims. Participating in an airdrop is a quick way for people to get cheated in cryptocurrency.

[348Judah]

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

Don't expect someone to come here and tells you this is the coin or crypto project to invest on and this one is to be avoided, things aren't done in such manners, you have to engage on making research about them and take the risk after you would have been satisfied enough with your findings about them, there are few additional information i will like to let you know are needed when searching for a crypto coin for an investment.

1. Run a background check on the people behind the coin or project
2. Try to understand their aims and objectives for the project work they developed
3. Try know there liquidity pool, market cap and those major investors of the coin project.
4. Research on their precious projects and success made in recent times on same field.
5. If it appears to be too good to be real then it may just be too bad for an investment.

[hugeblack]

Perhaps it is better to confine yourself to how to invest in good cryptos, so the currency may not be scam, but it is dead, as its value continues to decline for long periods without achieving a return from it.

Invest in Bitcoin until you have the technical background and the basics of technical analysis to know what may lead to a rise in the prices of altcoins, and then limit that your investment to short-term investment is driven by events. I can infer that XRP and PEPE, both of which attracted investors, for nothing but that their value increased in a short time and if you ask them about the reason for the investment, you will find them say i invest because the value may reach $ 100 or $ 10 which is a bad investment.

Identifying scam coins is not as important as Identifying good coins for investment, and definitely avoiding bad currencies for investment means that you will avoid scam one.

[ultrloa]

We know that scam coins are everywhere, mainly advertised on social media, I spent time trying to know the exact way to fish out scam coins but to no avail, despite how inquisitive we could be to generate more funds for ourselves through Cryptocurrency investments and to try new things, we should also be much aware of the scam coins and their possible pernicious damage.

I agree that there are a lot of choices to make regarding cryptocurrency but early dictation of this proposed scam needs to be checked.

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

You already have good pointers coming from people posting your thread created so much better to read up those suggestion since you can get an idea about those possible scam tokens.

But you can also easily spot if they are obvious scam and that is where those tokens use similar name of successful /hype coins or tokens in the market and if you read their site there's no context or clear path on where they are heading so consider to read all the informations available so thag you can avoid scams.

[Zlantann]

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

I am always careful when I see coins that the creators engage in massive advertisements. When huge funds are spent to promote a coin, it's a red flag for me. Any coin that is hyped by celebrities is not also for me. I see these actions as a means to attract people. A coin should grow generically and not attain a high price overnight. Coins that come with guaranteed and huge profit also looks suspicious.

You will not get a black-and-white answer OP because the crypto space is complex and unpredictable. It all depends on your goals for venturing into the crypto space. If you want a long-term investment, Bitcoin remains the best. But if you want to engage in trading and make fast returns, consider altcoins. Always remember that trading needs some skills and is risky.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

OP, one way to avoid crypto scams is to avoid altcoins. Truly, you can try your best to DYOR about any Altcoin project before investing, and it's possible that the project can be doing great at that very moment or for a few months, but the only question is: how long do you think the project can continue? Every month, there are different Altcoins coming to do promotion here on the Altcoin board, and before you know it, after the forum here, you will not likely hear about the coin anywhere; it will not even be listed on any exchange.


I was going through the bounty board here, and I have come across hundreds of projects that did some campaign here, but those tokens are no longer in existence. Imagine if people who invested that time knew that the project would not exist to date; probably nobody  would not have invested back then. Most of those projects, then, look real; you would not even think that they would fail, but a lot of them do fail.


So, the best way to avoid scams is to be diligent in your Bitcoin holding and investment; don't reply to any offer trying to assist you in multiplying your Bitcoin holding; don't share your wallet security with anyone; and don't go online and click on different links that you are not really sure about. Look out for news updates or trends in the crypto space, wallet security, and privacy. In the crypto space, let security and privacy become your priorities.

all that 👆, and you will be very free from scams.

[dimonstration]

Am not much familiar with cryptocurrency, and that's why I need more guidance so that if eventual I see one, I will know how to handle it, this will help me to have a good knowledge on the path to settle for.

Don’t click random links given by stranger or anyone that you don’t trust. Most cases of scam is through clicking a malicious link that gives access to your wallet for the scammer.

Avoid too good to be true offer and never believe on a passive income without doing anything in exchange for your money. All offer that is too good is a scam. Don’t be tempted to try on this kind of sweet offer if you want to be safe on crypto.