I will make a note: P.S. Be very conscious, stay alert, and learn to ask questions, make research and make every necessary inquiry before taking action. Before using any platform you were introduced to, do research about that new platform. Seek to know how reputable a platform is before engaging with it.
Stay private both on the internet and offline. If you think you can trust people offline because you know them, kindly remember that you only know those people facially; you don't know what's going on in their heads about you.
You really echoed my mode of operation when I'm dealing with anything unknown to me on the internet, because the social media is a public space where you meet people and businesses that you've never seen or heard of before in your life. So it's true that every unknown or unverified sites on the internet is a potential scam, until you carry out a thorough research on them before taking chances to believe and do any sort of transactions with them. Even links that are innocently sent to you by family and friends should be investigated before trusting the links, because they might have ignorantly forwarded them to you as received. Scammers are improving their skills everyday so people need to also double their alert and vigilance, so they won't fall victims.