Why asking for help publicly can sometimes make you a target.

[Issa56]

This was why I got PMs on the forum the moment I started asking questions about crypto and wallets in general, but this is also happening on other social media as well, even telegram group.

Scammers are always targeting newbies, because they know that those are the people that they can easily scam. So as you were asking questions, they were thinking you are newbie, and they will want to take advantage of that. If you ask a question on the forum here, people are suppose to reply the post which you asked the question, and they are not even suppose to come to your Dm. If you receive any Dm, you just have to be careful.

Telegram is just full of scammers, I do receive messages from random people on telegram asking me to invest or things like that, when I receive a message from random person on telegram, I don’t even waste my time to read it, I know it’s all this scammers.

[Son Of Blockchain (SOB)]

This was why I got PMs on the forum the moment I started asking questions about crypto and wallets in general, but this is also happening on other social media as well, even telegram group.

Scammers are always targeting newbies, because they know that those are the people that they can easily scam. So as you were asking questions, they were thinking you are newbie, and they will want to take advantage of that. If you ask a question on the forum here, people are suppose to reply the post which you asked the question, and they are not even suppose to come to your Dm. If you receive any Dm, you just have to be careful.

Telegram is just full of scammers, I do receive messages from random people on telegram asking me to invest or things like that, when I receive a message from random person on telegram, I don’t even waste my time to read it, I know it’s all this scammers.

Recieving messages from Random users concerning crypto investments on telegram is something I've got used to, at first it used to be annoying cause I keep blocking/reporting them yet new ones kept messaging, lately I don't get pissed anymore but would just delete the message from both ends and block the person.
 That's why it's not good to be greedy, if I was a greedy petson maybe I would've been mislead by their huge investment offers and send the details they request to register me on their fake investment platforms. I'm just trying to let you know that newbies are not their only target but greedy people too, they're the ones most scammers like.

[Hyphen(-)]

Scammers are always targeting newbies, because they know that those are the people that they can easily scam. So as you were asking questions, they were thinking you are newbie, and they will want to take advantage of that. If you ask a question on the forum here, people are suppose to reply the post which you asked the question, and they are not even suppose to come to your Dm. If you receive any Dm, you just have to be careful.

While you are here as a newbie, you believe in this forum that is why you decided to ask question, I don’t expect newbie that has come here to drop question after seeing how the forum member interact in their threads to answer any PM regardless of who sent the message. Even if the message is sent by this forum member of any rank, the newbie should expect public answers and discussions related to the topic rather than private chat with someone that will scam them because scammers are not missing any opportunity they come across that’s why we have to be careful always.

Telegram is just full of scammers, I do receive messages from random people on telegram asking me to invest or things like that, when I receive a message from random person on telegram, I don’t even waste my time to read it, I know it’s all this scammers.

Nowadays, the only important thing I have in my telegram is the Hitcointalk telegram bot I used to receive any notification from the forum, sort from that, I only check some crypto news channels from time to time then mind my business; I don’t welcome any offer from anyone in Telegram, scammers have dominated there so newbies are always advised to be careful and avoid any DMs from telegram.

[Mitchell]

Pointless necro after 2 months. Feel free to post if you have something actual to share.

[Nightwatchmare]

The internet is full of scammers and their major target are newbies since it is some how easy for them to convince them and gain their trust and get the necessary details that will aid them scam their victims. So, when newbies cannot have access to their Bitcoin, the Internet is not the right place for newbies to seek for help because once they do plenty of scammers will be messaging them asking for informations that will aid them get access to their wallets. But just as you have said, newbies should take note: anyone who wants to help them recover their stuck Bitcoin and they start asking for their private keys or seed phrases, they should know the person intentions is to scam them so they should not give what the person is asking for and they should block the person. I think the best way for newbies not to expose themselves to scammers when they are looking for help to recover their stuck Bitcoin is by seeking help through the companies that is specialize in recovery stuck crypto assets.

[Ashawowo(OS)]

What you need to know as a newbie is that scammers don't wait randomly, they actively look for beginners who are confused in one way other so that they can take advantage of them. So, when you make posts like this on Bitcointalk while asking for help. i have $5000 stuck in a wallet can someone help me recover it. You just did two things. first, you just announced that you have funds stuck somewhere, secondly, you are showing people that you might be confused or inexperienced which makes you a perfect target for scammers.

90% of the time, those who make a post of this kind are scammers pretending to be newbies and looking for greedy people to exploit.

You're right, because it's only a greedy person that would think a random guy can just share such details openly and trust those he doesn't know with it. Most of them who thinks they've seen opportunity to steal from the newbie ends up as preys themselves, especially when the discussion is taken outside the forum to places like telegram. This also applies to old members when people who acted confused start asking to discuss more on telegram, maybe via their PM, it's a big trap.

 I've been sent a PM where I was made a offer from a random account, but I ignored it totally because it's a familiar pattern, finally, the greedy ones are the most vulnerable.

[Asuspawer09]

Mostly newbies are the one that is vulrable to this tricks since they are the one that doesn't have a lot of knowledge and mostly doesn't know what they are doing. Also they moght just heard Bitcoin on some people or read something about it like someone get rich because of it, making them part of the hype of it, mostly that is why newbies are easily get trick because they easily blinded by the profit that they might get because people are saying that Bitcoin was easily money.

It's actually really easy what I mostly recommend to newbies is if you are going to invest on Bitcoin you should be the one that is going to do it, they should be the one who will make the research about it and do the investment make sure that they actually understand it before even putting money on it, in most cases they are getting trick because they started on picking someone or investing on someone that they trust, but the truth is even though you invested it on a legitimate trader there are still no guarantee on it, if the market crash your money for sure might be gone, and you cannot recover it if it was liquidated something like that, so don't let someone do the investing, learn it and do it yourself is the best way to invest.

[Dreadboost]

Some people say it is ok to ask questions on things you don't understand in Bitcoin, because it helps you avoid making unnecessary mistakes. Ohers would say, if you act naïve, it can make you vulnerable to scammers. So whose advice should a newbie listen to?

From experience, too much of naivety draws scammers closer to you but at the same time, it is ok to ask questions where necessary but don't be too open to follow someone's advice without DYOR and ask from experience person closer to you.

[Tetu100]

This is very good advice for new members.
Honestly, there are thousands of members registered on this forum and not every one of them is well-intentioned.
If you have a serious problem, do you really want to share it with thousands of strangers?
Answers to many questions can already be found by simply searching this forum but also on various crypto youtube channels, youtube tutorials and lately AI can also help a lot.
You should always be very careful with sharing personal information.

Yes, especially new users really need to be very careful least they become a major victim of scam. This forum are filled up with different kind of humans and offcurse we can barely say their mind and what really their missions are. Yes I know that in as much as there are some platforms one can easily sort help from, it's still very neccesary seeking help here on this furum since there are still some sincerned and experienced dudes here. But let it be from a reputable member that you can count on just incase you don't want to seek help outside the forum.

[Saltysugar99]

I used to try to solve most of the problems myself when I encountered such problems in the beginning. When I had a wallet or exchanger problem, I used to try to fix by watching videos on YouTube. I think this habit of all the newbies is very important because if there is a crypto related problem, you should try it yourself first without panicking or asking anyone you don't trust. And if you have to ask someone, then you should ask who you trust and who is not likely to cause any harm. And for any crypto related problem, this forum is very helpful. Anyone can get a solution by asking the topic publicly here.  And most importantly  everyone should first try to learn about the security related issues of wallets and exchanges. As it is easy to understand whether someone is trying to cheat you by taking the opportunity to solve the problem.

[tech30338]

This is very good advice for new members.
Honestly, there are thousands of members registered on this forum and not every one of them is well-intentioned.
If you have a serious problem, do you really want to share it with thousands of strangers?
Answers to many questions can already be found by simply searching this forum but also on various crypto youtube channels, youtube tutorials and lately AI can also help a lot.
You should always be very careful with sharing personal information.

Yes, especially new users really need to be very careful least they become a major victim of scam. This forum are filled up with different kind of humans and offcurse we can barely say their mind and what really their missions are. Yes I know that in as much as there are some platforms one can easily sort help from, it's still very neccesary seeking help here on this furum since there are still some sincerned and experienced dudes here. But let it be from a reputable member that you can count on just incase you don't want to seek help outside the forum.

I think you can ask a question in the forum but you should not tell that currently that's your current problem, you can make a certain example or situation if you are shy that you make a mistake, at the same time users will share or make a suggestion in the forum, and other users will correct it if they are making a wrong suggestion, or solution to the problem.
If you are being targeted because you post something be sure to validate if that is a scammer or something if you don't want others to message you, ignore their message.

[KingsDen]

Growing in the forum, when I make posts related to transactions or investment, I'll receive a couple of pms offering help. I really did follow up with some until I saw a post that warned that I should only pay attention to the thread for solution and not private message.

But when I became full member, the messages reduced and suddenly disappeared as my ranks grow. That makes me believe that those kind of unsolicited messages are always targeted to the newbies and lower rank members.

That being said, why reporting problems, we should not try to sound personal. Even if it's about you, you could say, "a friend"

[Pablo-wood]

Some people say it is ok to ask questions on things you don't understand in Bitcoin, because it helps you avoid making unnecessary mistakes. Ohers would say, if you act naïve, it can make you vulnerable to scammers. So whose advice should a newbie listen to?

I think it is ok to ask questions because being naive is costly especially when investing in volatile asset like Bitcoin. Acting naive truly exposes people to scam because any one who is misinformed or uninformed are highly vulnerable and with their deficiency in information it makes it easier to get scammed.

From experience, too much of naivety draws scammers closer to you but at the same time, it is ok to ask questions where necessary but don't be too open to follow someone's advice without DYOR and ask from experience person closer to you.

It is ok to ask questions but who we ask too matters. It is better to ask from reliable source and also do necessary research to avoid been scammed.

[PX-Z]

Growing in the forum, when I make posts related to transactions or investment, I'll receive a couple of pms offering help. I really did follow up with some until I saw a post that warned that I should only pay attention to the thread for solution and not private message.

But when I became full member, the messages reduced and suddenly disappeared as my ranks grow. That makes me believe that those kind of unsolicited messages are always targeted to the newbies and lower rank members.

Right, even on socmed too, i encountered a lot like that. Like tagging the support handle of the service asking help or showing error or issues, then some random user will reply and suggest to message xxx user for help, or dms, etc. etc.
That's the same on this forum as well. So people really need to know that this kind of help are scam attempt, although there are some legit that wants to help which you can differentiate the legit help and scam attempt.

[Versatile_choice]

I think it is ok to ask questions because being naive is costly especially when investing in volatile asset like Bitcoin. Acting naive truly exposes people to scam because any one who is misinformed or uninformed are highly vulnerable and with their deficiency in information it makes it easier to get scammed.

No one said it's not ok to ask questions, of course everyone is free to ask questions in areas they don't understand, I'm still wondering why op Said that asking for help publicly can sometimes make a person a target. As for me I think it's better to ask for help publicly rather than doing it individually because sometimes that person you rely on or you run to whenever you need help might not help you all the time so if you meet him or her publicly even though he doesn't have money to help you in that initial time another person can decide to help you,  though I believe whatever thing that has advantage also comes with disadvantage.

[Mpamaegbu]

Personally, i would advise newbies to first search the forum if they can find a thread with similar issue...

The research thing is often a big headache for genuine newbies who hardly know at that point how to thoroughly navigate this place. I remember how lost I used to be locating even topics I saw and wanted to comment on but got carried away. It used to be a big burden relocating them thereafter, let alone how to search for topics others had written on. Anyway, this is 2026; maybe people are wiser now than we were then.

[moneystery]

Some people say it is ok to ask questions on things you don't understand in Bitcoin, because it helps you avoid making unnecessary mistakes. Ohers would say, if you act naïve, it can make you vulnerable to scammers. So whose advice should a newbie listen to?
...

It's okay for a newbie to ask questions about Bitcoin that they're quite confused about, because I understand how confusing it can be when you don't know something. The important thing is to be more vigilant when interacting with people you don't know, because not everyone on the internet has the same intentions. Sometimes, some people deliberately provide misleading information and try to scam you.
So, stay alert and always double-check whether the information they're giving you is actually accurate or whether there might be something else behind it.

[Silverstonez]

90% of the time, those who make a post of this kind are scammers pretending to be newbies and looking for greedy people to exploit. q

I have to disagree with you because you can't openly say that 90% of such posts are made by scammers pretending to be a beginner. Although, I won't blame you for seeing it that way, I would rather blame scammers who have made a lot people to start viewing things that way.

But the truth of the matter is that, there are genuine beginners who ask such questions and even go as far as sharing sensitive informations in their posts, but because of this mentality of yours, people no longer pay attention to such posts, because they feel or believe they are coming from scammers pretending to be a beginners.

[KingsDen]

Growing in the forum, when I make posts related to transactions or investment, I'll receive a couple of pms offering help. I really did follow up with some until I saw a post that warned that I should only pay attention to the thread for solution and not private message.

But when I became full member, the messages reduced and suddenly disappeared as my ranks grow. That makes me believe that those kind of unsolicited messages are always targeted to the newbies and lower rank members.

Right, even on socmed too, i encountered a lot like that. Like tagging the support handle of the service asking help or showing error or issues, then some random user will reply and suggest to message xxx user for help, or dms, etc. etc.
That's the same on this forum as well. So people really need to know that this kind of help are scam attempt, although there are some legit that wants to help which you can differentiate the legit help and scam attempt.

There are some genuine ones offering help and it is easy to differentiate. A genuine helper will in one way or the other mention in the thread that they have sent you a private message. But a scammer will not even engage in the thread, they'll silently enter pm for their scam attempt.

[Joy- maker]

There are some genuine ones offering help and it is easy to differentiate. A genuine helper will in one way or the other mention in the thread that they have sent you a private message. But a scammer will not even engage in the thread, they'll silently enter pm for their scam attempt.

This thing is complicated if you ask me, a scammer can still act genuine by mentioning in the thread that they sent you a PM just as you stated. Even a user who want to genuinely help can also silently sent a PM, so it is left for you to act smart and Identify the person who genuinely want to help you solve your problem and the one who want to scam you. You might think that the possibility of what I just said happening is very small, but I'm actually speaking from experience.