How do you avoid scammers?

[TimeTeller]

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.

And if the OP is in telegram, discord and other social media channles, you will likely receive unsolicited offers or PMs.
Ignore them as much as possible as more than likely, they are just looking for naive users that will take their bait.
And when it comes to phishing emails, don't believe too-good-to-be-true emails, because the chance is they are really bogus.

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[hatshepsut93]

You can't avoid scammers, you will encounter them all the time. Sometimes they will approach you, sometimes you will find their offers. What you need is avoid dealing with them, and for that there's a simple principle - if an offer is good, and all that is required is for you to send them your money, then it's likely a scam. That's it - don't send your money to strangers on the Internet if you don't want to get scammed.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Thats quite easy if you really meant to avoid it. Usually scammers takes in the form of a good samaritan that will lend or give you free money but its a total opposite of it since they will lure you and when you are already hooked then they will start doing their hidden agenda. Might as well avoid strangers or talking to someone you literally didnt know.

[bluebit25]

The problem of scammers is quite widespread in the cryptocurrency environment and is associated with cyberspace. But as someone who regularly works with crypto, I recognize some basic situations
- links that contain viruses, hijack devices or steal information.
- investment with attractive profits from such meaningless project, usually it works more in bullrun phase and various marketing programs to attract users.
- tokens take over users' rights, this is very common in recent years, operating mainly on the chains ETH, BNB, MATIC,...
- people who think they have skills, and want to share how to make money. Most of them are just taking advantage of the greedy psychology of newbies to make them put money in the pockets of scammers.
...
There are many other scenarios that I think will come up for someone, but for now, these are the things I see most often in this market. But don't be too scared because the problem is due to our information management, and improving our investment skills to prevent these things from being exposed and causing harm.

[Zanab247]

There are many ways you can avoid scammers in the community which it will help you to be comfortable in your hodling till the market price is high before you can supply to the market to make profits.

Just apply those steps, you will always have victory over scammers:
1) Don't be carry away by free gift in the community: Many newbies fall victims to scammers through fake give away they saw in the platform that made them to change their minds to release all their personal details to scammers.
2) Stand with your knowledge: Ensure you develop good knowledge in BTC and, it will help you to identify scammers in the community because, scammers always go after newbies because they know that they are very easy to fall victims to their words.
3) Don't be carry away by other people achievement: Scammers use this common strategy to scamm people in the platform by showcasing other people success just to convince other people.

[mamesso]

Scammer and phishing attacks never stop and will continue to spread using various methods, one of which is the attack most often created by scammers by creating phishing attacks on links/websites to deceive their victims. Always exercise caution to avoid phishing, your explanation in Op already represents part of your question. Next, you need to be more realistic in responding to all offers that look profitable, because it is very likely that these offers will lead to fraud. Remember, there is no money that suddenly falls from the sky, you have to try hard to earn it.

[boyptc]

They are everywhere and even in messaging apps where your number is associated with your account, out of nowhere they will come to get you by.

As long as the person is a stranger then you have the idea already that you must avoid and do not engage with them. Like what everyone is saying, no free money these days even airdrops will require you something.

[Coyster]

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.

Mind you that scammers do not only target your cryptocurrencies, they basically want to steal from you, whether it is your crypto, fiat and other precious stuffs; so you generally have to protect yourself from scammers. Anyway crypto is a tool that most scammers enjoy to use because if they are shrewd, it'd be hard to trace them.

That being said, in order to protect your Bitcoin from scammers, you should keep it offline, if your Bitcoin is kept in an online computer, you are definitely going to use that device to browse and click on random links and you can't be certain if those links are safe or not. Thus you have to buy a hardware wallet for your Bitcoin and also watch out for different forms of social engineering that scammers use, like Bitcoin doubling giveaway, fake earning flatforms, etc.

[LogitechMouse]

Re: How do you avoid scammers?

Just think of this quote. "If it's too good to be true, it's not true."
A simple yet powerful quote that will prevent you from getting scammed.

Always think realistically. If some new projects used the word "GUARANTEE", and "RISK-FREE" then yes it's a guarantee - GUARANTEED SCAM. If a new project says that it will give you 10% monthly, that's a scam. If a project says that you will not lose your money if you invest it into them, then it's a scam. TBH, I don't want to overcomplicate things, and thinking of many ways to know which are scams and which are not.

There are many Youtube videos that are giving some tips for newbies on how not to get scammed, but basically this is what I'm thinking whenever I want to invest into something. A scam project will promote high returns because that's what makes a project attractive to the investors. Well that's the common way, but point is, there are many ways for you to identify is they're scamming you or not.

[Z390]

Many are going to hate this but to safe my sanity I just have to do it, stay away from strangers online, Ninenty-nine percent of strangers come to your DM to take advantage of you, forget how nice they can sound in the first place, that's part of their plans, to make you feel relaxed. They will use you and they will dump you, do not give room to any strangers online.

If you are someone who likes using social media platform make sure you set your PM to friends only, do not allow PMs from strangers, because they can decide to text you malicious link with some words that will make you want to check the link out, privatize everything you do online.

The last one from me is You, we all have greed in us all, but some things are obviously impossible, there is no free money out there, not in this crypto space or anywhere, do not become a victim to your own greed, there is no way to double your BTC or other assets, you need to learn a skill if you want to start earning in digital currency, nothing comes for free.

[Taskford]

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.

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, I know that here is a lovable and a dedicated community that focuses on full discussion about bitcoin and its related cryptocurrencies which I can't easily outline all but I know you people knows about them taking a picture from coimmarketcapitalization (CMC).

Please we can share and discuss responsibly without any forms of comments.

You need to understand how cryptocurrency industry work and you shouldn't fall for wrong claims by devs if you want to trade some tokens in the market since most of them will tell that their token will go the same with bitcoin. So be suspicious all the time and when you look for tokens better to research more information about the project so that you would provably know if they have good chances to last long or even get a good pump base to the tech or solution to offer on their investor or community.

For now there are so many things for you to learn and I believe that even if you learn a lot from reading the suggestion given by people still you will fall on one of them so let your experiences as your guide to work more better and be a smart investor since for sure in future you will be wise and bullish if you didn't stop learning this industry.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I would say that your local Nigerian section board is very good at understanding all the little things that can come from scammers. There are a lot of competent people there who will always help you with your questions. There will be no better advice than advice from those who are close to your everyday life.
However, people here will tell you the same thing. Never think that the Internet has prepared something for you for free. Always be very skeptical about various types of prizes that promise quick profits, with a great deal of distrust. If you are a beginner, master everything gradually. Don’t try to gain a ton of knowledge, try to master every step thoroughly. Your first guide is self-confidence and understanding that you are capable of searching for information on the forum. If it doesn’t work out, ask questions without being embarrassed that you may not understand something. We all came here as newbies.

[libert19]

Unsolicited messages on social media platforms, chat apps, pop-ups asking you to open web page, input your private key/seed are all scams. Following this one tip will save you from most scams.

When you come to evm chains, scams can get bit complicated. Suppose, particular dapp asks you to sign a message and the data shown is not readable by you, avoid that site.

[robelneo]

Please we can share and discuss responsibly without any forms of comments.

When it comes to securing yourself from scammers, education is everything, scammers always think and create a scheme to scam others, update old method, and find new people to implement old trick, nothing beats educating yourself on how scammer works if you know how these scammers work nothing can harm you even new method will not apply, but you should not stop educating yourself, scammer never sleeps and studying their target so you should be updated on the trending scamming and hacking method.

If you're a literate investor scammers will leave, if you're good at ignoring and how and what to look on the project scammers will just go away because they only target people who are compliant with what they say and what they want you to do, if you are persistent, they are not, so they will just leave you.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Scammers uses different means to scam people and if you are not wise enough to always detect scam when you see one, then you will end up becoming victim. Some scammers can DM you on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter now X, telegram and any other social media, they could send emails to you with phishing links and other offer thant can entice you. Sometimes too, scammers can send some email pretending to be binance or some CEX that you know and it will ask you to claim a free reward or do some task which if you dear to follow their instructions, it could cause you your asset. Trade with caution and don't trust anyone. 

[Adams0001]

You can't avoid scammers, you will encounter them all the time. Sometimes they will approach you, sometimes you will find their offers. What you need is avoid dealing with them, and for that there's a simple principle - if an offer is good, and all that is required is for you to send them your money, then it's likely a scam. That's it - don't send your money to strangers on the Internet if you don't want to get scammed.

Exactly you can't avoid scammers but you can reduce your risk by not clicking on different links you receive in your phone because they can get access to your phone details and lead you to lose your coins and now that scammers are more clever and advanced in their technique they use different ways to confuse people just keep your security save don't trust anyone because sometimes the person you trust will cheat you later, just try and be making more research on internet And all of these online platforms that will send you links to download their app in order to gain access to them may be a fraud if you simply click on it they get access to your all details in your phone and he can lead you of losing fund.

[tabas]

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.

And if the OP is in telegram, discord and other social media channles, you will likely receive unsolicited offers or PMs.
Ignore them as much as possible as more than likely, they are just looking for naive users that will take their bait.

That's for sure, there will be bunch of messages from those platforms because those have became the den of thieves, scammers and everything. If he's going to take the bait then it will be a nonstop inquiry of these scammers on him trying to get some pennies on him. Actually not just pennies but most likely a lot of money or his entire lifesavings that's in the form of crypto.

And when it comes to phishing emails, don't believe too-good-to-be-true emails, because the chance is they are really bogus.

Just forget about them and don't even give them chance by looking at any of those. Never be curious what's the content of it because if you have received some that type of emails before then it will never stop anymore because it's already recorded on these scammers and will continue to send you an attempt.

[Cricktor]

Try to avoid doing your cryptocurrency stuff on your daily computer. If possible use a dedicated machine to handle your wallet.

Don't click on links in emails or on the web when you don't see or understand where that link takes you. If in doubt, don't click.

Learn the basics of a coin first before you invest in it. For Bitcoin I'd recommend to study all parts of https://learnmeabitcoin.com, you won't regret it. There are other sources of details, too. While I know about Bitcoin for more than a decade, I still visit above site regularly to brush up details that might've faded from my memory.

Think about your personal risks to loose money and coins. It's mostly a personal thing which depends on how and where you live. There are common best practices but your situation can be special. There's no one size fits all. Assess your personal situation and apply procedures that cope with your own situation best.

Others already said to download only from official sources. Never skip to properly verify the authenticity of downloaded software, be it a wallet or something else. Learn that first how to do it. You will find various threads here for this purpose.

Think early to buy and use a hardware wallet properly. A hardware wallet shields your precious private keys from potentially malicious software or an unsecure computer. Learn early how to use a hardware wallet properly (don't believe your computer, always verify all the details of a to be signed transaction solely on the hardware wallet's own display). Stay away from Ledger crap, it's closed-source firmware from a lying company. There are better hardware wallets on the market than the shit that Ledger sells you. If you want all sorts of shitcoins to be covered by your hardware wallet than I'd say you're already a lost case, but that's my very personal opinion.

If you stumble upon some good offer, think twice and try hard to answer the question: where does the profit come from? Think at least twice if you listen to some dudes on Youtube or whatever (a)social media you pay attention to. What's the goal of the messenger, where does his or her money come from? What's his or her motive to "sell/promote" you something?

And there's usually no easy, fast and effortless way to get rich quick. Scammers try to sell you that what doesn't exist in real life.

[KingsDen]

Thats quite easy if you really meant to avoid it. Usually scammers takes in the form of a good samaritan that will lend or give you free money but its a total opposite of it since they will lure you and when you are already hooked then they will start doing their hidden agenda. Might as well avoid strangers or talking to someone you literally didnt know.

I wonder how people believe that a total stranger could make them rich. I mean someone who possibly might not be of the same nationality with you. If it were that easy, the stranger would have help all their relatives before remembering a random person online. The best  thing to do as you recommended is to avoid strangers.

..Sometimes too, scammers can send some email pretending to be binance or some CEX that you know and it will ask you to claim a free reward or do some task which if you dear to follow their instructions, it could cause you your asset. Trade with caution and don't trust anyone.

Exactly mate,  this is the reason I do not and I have never participated in any Binance and of CEX campaign or give aways. It is not always easy to distinguish the real and the fake promotional offers.

Unsolicited messages on social media platforms, chat apps, pop-ups asking you to open web page, input your private key/seed are all scams. Following this one tip will save you from most scams.

This is common in telegram and it is one of the reasons I have deactivated my telegram account several times.
The general rule to avoid scam is to treat all strangers as potential scammers.

[Issa56]

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.

Welcome to the forum. If you are really here to learn, I am sure you are going to learn a lot from the forum here. You have to be smart if you don’t want to be scammed. Scammers are always coming up with different strategies on a daily basis, and some might not even be mentioned by anyone here because it might be the latest strategy and anyone might not have experienced it on the forum here. So if you want to stay safe from scammers, firstly, you have to be smart. There is always a red flag in every scam strategy, so it’s left for you to detect the red flag.
 
Secondly, make sure you download the appropriate wallet, make sure the wallet you will be downloading is a non-custodial wallet, and download it from the right source. You have to properly secure your private key, it should be secured in a place where there can never be an internet connection, it should be completely offline. The safest way, which I think is the best way to secure a private key, is to carve it on an iron steel and secure the iron steel in a safe place.
 
Avoid downloading unnecessary or untrusted applications, scammers can use that to easily access your devices, and there are lots of fake bitcoin wallets out there. You have to be careful, scammers are doing everything just to make sure they defraud people. That’s why we have to be smart.
 
When you receive any link from strangers, maybe through your SMS, gmail, or any social media, always avoid clicking it. When you receive a random link, don’t even attempt to open the link, just ignore it. If you can block and report the sender, it will definitely be better.
 
Avoid submitting your sensitive information on anyhow websites, scammers do create websites just to get some people’s private information, and they will end up using it to scam them.
 
Make sure you always double check the website that you are visiting, some might not be the real site that you want to visit, they are always cloned, they always look so similar, if you are not careful, you won’t see the difference.