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.