Topic: Some tips to help protect yourself from crypto scam - page 2. (Read 608 times)

Scammers are not alien, they are nothing but normal human like us but they possess this speciality and it's because they think ahead of everyone. Before a scammers will want to develop a model to scam, as they formulate their plans, they already know your next move even before you do and the only way to stay ahead of them is to stay updated.

Our problem is some of us are very lazy to read, we don't want to read and that's why we do the wrong things most of the time. When you read and stay up to date about crypto, yiu will likely have no problem or come across them especially when you avoid greed very well.

In addition, make sure you remain a private person because if information about you isn't online, no way they can every know your moves. It's when you are a public figure, you become highly easy to get through.

Nice, but I'd like to reiterate some of the points you highlighted.

Very important, always do due diligence before committing your funds in any project.

Use trusted exchange to trade and not to store funds. Also, use tested and trusted open source wallets like Trezor hardware wallet, Coldcard hardware wallet, electrum wallet, blue wallet, unstoppable wallet etc to store funds.

Don't give in to pressure from anyone or take advice from social media influencers, they are only working to their pockets, they careless if the project succeeds or not.

With the giveaways, participants will have hard time in determining them if they're fake. When most of them are newbies and they think that every giveaway is actually a giveaway but they don't notice it that they've been asked for some transfers and they have to cover the fees of it and that's going to give liquidity to the project that they're joining with the airdrop or any other giveaway. But with that, they're also becoming careless and don't check it correctly if they're joining a legitimate one or a project that just collects them a commission from the fees they make on their platforms and as well as the identities they are providing to them.

One advice is missing here, either the projects team are audited and solid it still doesn't mean it's scam free, so it's better to care more about investing only what you can afford to lose, anything apart from Bitcoin is still a very high risk investment.

The problem I have with alts is that they don't always survive long, you can't buy alt and decide to marry your bag like having Bitcoin and deciding to hold till your retirement, the alt can varnish after a successful bull market or it value goes to zero due to lack of development.

It's even more scary that many more layer 1 and 2 alts are been created almost every month now, believe me, it's all business, money making, once the opportunity is achieved it's possible that a massive dump will follow later and the project might never survive.

I don’t use to know X (formerly knows as Twitter) as a place where scammers feast on, telegram was well knows for that over the years and many call was made in the forum about fake telegram accounts that are scamming people on a daily basis. I see now that people are aware and being careful of not being scammed with fake projects through telegram, they are now trying to move to another social platform to continue their shady activities. We should be careful and remain on the watch out for scammers on all social media’s.

I think when someone says you should do your own research is basically referring before one puts their money into platform they should consult people over here if actually such person is user here then it will be more easier for the person to come asked or create a topic regarding such investment he may wants to venture into, using google can even make it worsted because same people paid google for their aids. That is why here is more reliable to source for information than going directly to google, at least one could get some reputable member that would come talk about their general overview about the platform or site you are DYOR on.

Being knowledgeable will help you find an edge towards those scammers. Study how others have been scammed and how they easily fall on their traps, because that will give you hint not to follow what those victims have did so you won't end up being scammed as well. Always learned from other people's shared experiences about how they were scammed, so that you can also share your learning to others most particularly those newbies in the forum.

Scam is already part of crypto, and the only way we can avoid it is to stay alert and mindful on the people around us.

I guess the best way to stay off from crypto crypto scammers is to stay educated and be more updated on how the current pattern of scamming are done. With this, you are one step an edge from them since you're aware already on how they will attack their victims. Once you see it's happening on you, then get rid of that person either by blocking him or avoid that person so that he can never have an access to you, and worst he can never have an access to your wallet.

Scammer can clone reputable website to deceive people. Such website recently scammed my friends of some dollar. He tried to run an airdrop, but he mistakenly did the process on a cloned website. Is coin was later withdrew from his wallet after connecting the wallet with the website. This days, one have to make a good check on any website you are trying to connect your wallet with because scammer never sleep on their tricks and they are always out there for a victim.

It’s high time we stop listening to what people say. Some people hype a particular project just for their own selfish interests, so when investing In a particular project, always ignore the hype and take your time to do your own research before investing in it. I don’t even encourage people to invest in new projects because you are going to find it difficult to identify a real project from a scam. Some projects always look so real, and you will hardly notice any red flags. So if you are not investing in bitcoin, always take your time to do research before investing in other projects.

Whenever you receive any link, I will just recommend you ignore the link and don’t even try to open it because it might end up corrupting your system. Lots of people have been scammed just because they don’t care to know the legitimacy of the link they are clicking. Some of them don’t care if it’s from a legit source or not, they will end up clicking it, and when it directs them to maybe a site, some might even input their private information, so unknown links should be avoided by all means.

If you can store your private key with anyone, then you have already given the person access to your wallet, and they can decide to take whatever they want from you at any moment without even seeking your permission. If you are storing your private key, then it should be known to only you. If you expose it, then your wallet is at risk. That’s why your wallet shouldn’t be stored in any place that is connected to the internal. Hackers can easily hack your device and have access to your private key.

Do people still believe in giveaways? That scam strategy looks so cheap to me. How will you expect money when you don’t work for it? Then you are likely going to be scammed. Nobody is giving out free money, anyone claiming to give you free money is just trying to take it from you. I no longer believe in giveaways, if you need money, then you have to work for it. Nobody is giving out free money, so we all should always try and avoid giveaway.

Many of the victims don't admit that they have never signed up a phishing link or visited a suspicious website and downloaded a file from there.

They don't know that these links are dangerous and when they have been scammed or hacked, they play ignorant that they're experts and never had done a thing.

That's why if you are giving them tips and they are in denial and don't see these helpful, they are the real problem. I don't blame them but I've encountered these type of victims that don't take full responsibility of their actions and that's why the bad happened.

These are truly important points, and I hope beginners pay significant attention to them. Regarding point number (2), I can add that no beginner should connect his wallet or sign transactions through any suspicious links. He should avoid using his primary wallet if he is an airdrop hunter. He can use some browser security extensions that enhance security, perform phishing website detection, and analyze smart contracts, such as Wallet Guard, AegisWeb3, and Pocket Universe, in addition to MetaMask wallet, which often blocks phishing sites. However, it's also crucial to download these extensions from their official websites without installing any fake extensions or wallets.

We can combine point number (1) with this last point. Instead of rushing and making decisions or activities that we might regret, we should take enough time to do our research and review all the project details in which we will invest our money or participate in one of the launched giveaways/Airdrops. We must ensure that we are dealing with the official domain, not a phishing domain. Also, we should verify the information included in the project, such as the whitepaper and all the fine details, and then make the appropriate decision.

These are very insightful and brief but the more you look into these, the more you find out because there is a high chance you will do every research on crypto and end up been a victim of bad team, bad community, low security that can harm the project by exposure to hackers and many more but Dyor is essential to overcome the basic challenges.


This might look underrated but it's one of the needed one, avoiding this one will help you a lot because this drain wallet faster than anything if you are not careful.


Most of us don't value privacy, if you can hide what is beneath you on your cloth, then you need to hide your investment, your bitcoin is yours and not for you public to see and view, chain surveillance are everywhere watching you with their automated bots looking at the input and outputs of your wallets which is very bad practice.


Giveaways are trap, we have many ways of wallet poisonings now across different chain, if you stamp on any of them, your balance is as good as gone.
There is nothing as trusted friend, with decentralized exchange you don't need any trust, only centralized makes you want to trust them.

Exchanges help us trade our coins. I guess there's nothing wrong with using exchanges. Binance is trusted; they are unlikely to scam you. They may withhold your cryptocurrency but they would only do that if they have a valid reason for doing so. I hate Binance because they are one of the stupid entities in the market but they aren't going to scam you. Well, if you mean using exchange as wallet, that's a big NO for obvious reason; Not your key, not your coins. I don't mind using a CEX but that must for trade only.

A well-chosen point because some people don't even know how to distinguish between good and reliable exchanges, and it's always good to make good consultations in terms of selecting but exchanges and wallets, and there are good wallets and exchanges that will give you exactly what you want in terms of security and other features.

The truth is that exchanges cannot be trusted, but they can be avoided. I believe it is preferable to deal there and then retain your assets in your private wallet. The kyc is one of the factors deterring many people from participating in exchanges. There is a wallet available, and if your assets are in your wallet, you will be able to see them at any time, with no third-party story. And this are little tricks that can save a lot from scams and privacy exposure and trusting exchanges.

How about not trusting any platform that requires you to send them your Bitcoin to make investment on your behalf, Bitcoin has given you the power to be incharge, don't give that away for some few dollars that isn't even guaranteed. If you're not buying and hodling your Bitcoin in a non constodial wallet, you shouldn't be partaking in that form of investments as it's not safe.


Instead of just beware of fake giveaways, avoid them all. You can't be sure which giveaway is guaranteed safe as hackers are going extra mile to make their tricks look believable. They're going as far as hacking prominent social media accounts to announce their fake giveaways and getting alot of victims. Avoiding anything that has to do with giveaways will save you more than trying to filter them to know which one is genuine or not.


Or ignore every other things happening in the industry and focus your attention on accumulating Bitcoin. Buy and hodl Bitcoin, you can't go wrong with doing that and you would have protected yourself from the numerous scams all over the industry.

 ▪  Avoid clicking on links from unforeseen email, text and social media messages .
 ▪  Be cautious of individuals or companies that only accept cryptocurrency as a mode of payment and transactions and be careful of who you are trusting .
 ▪  Keep your digital wallet and wallet seed phrase safe, banking and personal details within yourself should be kept safe.
 ▪  Do not allow yourself to be forced or rushed into investing your money to what you are not sure of.
 ▪  Use a well known and encrypted wallet more desirable hardware which contain and store your private keys offline.
 ▪  You interact with trusted,and verified businesses while shopping online, be a benefactor of multi-factor authentications, and do your homework .

There are different ways we can establish that would help us and prevent us from falling victim to crypto scammers.
Op had listed some of the ways we can employ that would make us stay safe from scammers and this could help us a lot for a long time. It is known that many scammers are always looking for ways to make sure they employ to make their victims vulnerable to them so that they can steal and rib them of their properties. A lots of things would need to be put into consideration for us to stay safe.

Exchange should never be considered to be an option to keep money no matter the good reputation the exchange carries, exchanges are not to be trusted because it is something that can be manipulated. Their so many scammmers that the exchange is a target for them, it is not advisable to keep money in exchange.  Exchange should be a place where instant trade is carried out. Scammers we have in the exchange their plans is either to scam or to hack the exchange for them to have access to people's money.

Check with big websites like

• https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/
• https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges
• https://messari.io/exchanges

Remember to check website traffics too because clone, phishing sites will have very low traffics.
Use this to check it

• https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/