How do you avoid scammers?

[Rengga Jati]

...Just as what I have used on my title I want to know the possible ways to avoid scammer and phishing sites because I have came to understand that for one to excel in this forum and in bitcoin investment / holding at large, one needs to be very mindful with the ways we click on sites, where we store our funds and the techniques scammers often use to scam beginners like us.

Somethings that are easy ways to avoid scammers, both through phishing link fraud and various other types of fraud, is:
- Never trust anyone, there is no free money that you can get easily, never trust that person.
- Don't just click on any link sent by a stranger, or any other type of link in your email, your Bitcointalk account, social media and others. Be careful.
- Never believe anyone who contacts you if they say you will get money by blah blah blah...forget it and just block them
- Don't trust anyone who offers to help you do something, whether claiming prizes, investing, etc., even with sweet promises of very high profits, they are scammers.
- Don't do things that you don't understand, avoid them, it's better to learn first before taking action, especially investing.

[oktana]

Well, you have to guard your private key/mnemonic phrase like your live depends on it. Do not let anyone see it because anyone who has it has access to your funds. Additionally, be careful on what apps you download on your phone,  what software you download on your laptop, what browser extensions you use, even the websites you visit. Don’t store your private key/mnemonic phrase online. If you must, you have to encrypt it and store it where it’ll make no sense if anyone saw it (doesn’t mean you should show it to anyone). These are common ways that they use to get access into your wallet and the next thing emptying it for you.

Also, I’ll like to add that the forum isn’t just for Bitcoin and Altcoins; we have other boards too.

[Bitcoin_people]

When a newbie is brand new to cryptocurrency and his journey there are many hurdles. An example of caution for that time in particular, is when you are a new user to be exposed to many scams. There are various websites and there are various Telegram groups where fraudsters will try to cheat you by messaging you with the hope of earning money and greed.  This is the most important time for you to stay away from these fraudsters, as they say if you try to invest in any site, you will definitely lose that money. That's why you should first take advice from good experienced people in forums and stay away from those people so you don't get scammed. Scammers will usually tell you to invest in different coins and if you invest in them, your money will fail. That's why you need to see the volume of the coins before investing and you can go to coinmarketcap and you can see how far the coin is and what number in the ranking you can invest after seeing everything. Also most of the altcoins are more likely to be scams so don't invest in these coins on the word of people rather you invest it will be good for you and there is no chance of being scammed.

[HajiBagi]

When someone messages or emails you that you've won big money but you can't remember that you have joined any promo then that's an obvious scam.
Another scenario is when someone wants to give you money out of nowhere and you are just randomly picked, there's no free money anymore coming from a stranger nowadays unless that person is a content creator but usually they do it in person. So, going back with these unusual messages to you that they're generously going to give you $xxxxx money, that's already a sign that you have to ignore and delete their message and never respond to any of them.

But I'm starting to believe that some of the people who scammers have conned into believing they have won money are also the ones who led to their own connasion. The first thing you should do when you hear you have won money is figure out how you won it and how to get it. If someone asks you to send them your wallet address in order to get your money, you can be sure they are a scammer. Many people become confused when they hear they have won money because they don't know any different than how to quickly become wealthy on social media.

This typically occurs to newbies because, in my opinion, they are the only ones who will not be aware of the scammers. The reason I say this is because I have seen numerous posts on this forum discussing scammers, and I assume that everyone who is not a newbie will come across them. If someone reads the post and is still scammed, I believe they are the ones who should be held accountable because, after witnessing how scammers deceived others, you still go ahead and get involved in it.

[terizla]

Most of scammer always find target who think they are greedy in crypto. Don't trust any giveaway in social and that giveaway linked any fake websites. Scammer always find target and do tag or DM the target. If you have any problem with any official project don't ask in their group chat like a Discord or Telegram. Just call CS/ call support in their project ( better you send with email ). Because if you ask your problem in chat group, fake admin from that group will send you private message.

[Zanab247]

Be satisfy with what you have as a newbies because, if you are not satisfy with what you have that is were scammers use to come in to scam people with fake information that will make them believe that they want to become a great woman or man, not knowing that he or she is in the hands of the scammers.  Don't allow other people achievement to make you feel that you are not making progress or you are not doing the right thing in the Bitcointalk platform when you know you are doing the right thing just that the results is delay but just be patience everything will surely come to reality.

Never you discuss your private issues with strangers in the platform because, the people you are sharing your progress with or the person you are sharing your details can be your enemy tomorrow and he or she will use all those things against you in a way you will regret why you involved yourself in such relationship.

[Jegileman]

There are many things to look out to spot out a scam, most of them could be offers which seems too good to be true. Many of the scams comes with an enticing offer that makes you feel persuaded to believe in them. When you expose your secrets that are meant to be kept secret, scammers use that to lure you into revealing more of them so that they can scam you of your money. This is a public place and everyone here has a reason that brought them here so you should be able to detect scammers when you see one.

[bayu7adi]

Many suggestions have been given by members in this forum, and that's something to be mindful of. When you're well-versed in the online world, the signs of scams are easily detected based on your gut feeling. You might fall into a harmful scam, but it will increase your awareness of strangers so that you don't easily part with your money without a logical reason.

As a guy, your brain's logic should work well. But as a newbie, you can heighten your suspicion towards everyone you know or don't know. That way, you should be cautious when it comes to paying for something with an agreement that seems a bit unbalanced.

[Nheer]

I am new to Bitcointalk and I have been around my local board since from my sign up yesterday, I wanted to asked this question over there but need a general knowledge from the community at large not only from my locals. Just as what I have used on my title I want to know the possible ways to avoid scammer and phishing sites because I have came to understand that for one to excel in this forum and in bitcoin investment / holding at large, one needs to be very mindful with the ways we click on sites, where we store our funds and the techniques scammers often use to scam beginners like us.

The local board is also a good place to start your journey here since it will be easier for you to comprehend things in your native language better than English language used in the general board but it is also wise to visit the general board once in a while even when you are new until when you have understood a whole lot and can visit the general board more often because the knowledge shared here covers more scope than that of the local board.

Avoiding scammers and knowing how to safe guard your assets is the most important thing to learn as you start your crypto journey. While you seek to know how to avoid scammers, you need to know that avoiding scammers involves two steps
1. Knowing the best precautionary measure to take and understanding how to apply these measures: The crypto world is full of scammers and everyday they come with new strategies to deceive people so they can steal from them that’s why knowing some precautionary measure is essential. Reading through your post i noticed some members have already shared with you some ways to avoid scammers and some red flags to take note of in order to identify scam attempts.

- Wallet selection is also one the most important things to consider to avoid scammers, there are lots of programmers who develop new wallets with the intention of scamming people. In selecting best suitable wallets you need to consider how reputable the wallet is and how long it has been in existence, don’t just see a wallet online and start using make sure you carryout proper research on them before using and make sure to use a non-custodial open source wallet.
- Avoid clinking links from an unknown source.
- your personal details are meant to be personal so avoid people who ask for them.
- Peowill come to you with Investment opportunities that they will claim will make you massive profits in a short time, never believe them they are all scam attempts. The list keeps going but to understand the crypto world properly you need to Research more on your own.

2. Applying these precautionary measures in real life encounters in your crypto journey: Knowing these precautionary measures is one step but applying them in your encounters is another thing because a lot of us here have this knowledge but don’t practice all this. Having the knowledge without utilizing it is a waste of knowledge and a lot of people still store their coins in crypto exchanges (custodial) wallets despite all the effort to discourage it. We tend to overlook all these things but they are so important because we have heard of how lots of exchanges get hacked or run with their customers assets so no matter how reputable an exchange is it is not free from hack threats. The safety of our assets is in our hands so we should try our best to practice all the precautions so we don’t have regrets in future.

I think security should be my number one priority as a fresher or newbies, although with time I will gets acquainted with the relevant information across the forum

Yeah you are right and i like your spirit because as a newbie seeking knowledge should be your first priority so you don’t make mistakes and have regrets in future. Most newbies make this mistake not seeking appropriate knowledge.