Topic: What we do that leads us to be hacked or scam (Read 451 times)

All the things that OP has listed are correct that we should ignore every unfamiliar website, invite, and message that we receive in our emails, social media accounts, etc. because it is the only way for hackers and scammers to deceive and steal from us. I also suggest that everyone should be using an alternative device that none of your main accounts are logged in on that device because it will help everyone to stay away from hackers even they accidentally clicked an unusual link.

Your note is pretty clear. And yes, not all leads to scam but most do. Besides, there's no harm in being careful on clicking things on the internet. Since we're gearing towards the digital age, scammers and hackers are becoming smarter that you won't even notice if you don't look very hard.

Those are common sources, actually. But thanks for reminding us here for those may slip someone's mind at some point.

Whenever we download from untrusted and unreliable sources/websites,  we tend to make our connections liable to scammers and hackers hand in order to gain access into our accounts. Scammers are always everywhere always looking for one way or the other to gain access to our account. We should always beware of strange and unknown links that might be sent to our account claiming any forms of responsibility, it's all a trick from the hackers in order to fall for it and they gain entrance into your account. We shouldn't be careless with our account security by allowing another person to know our private keys, remember no one is to be trusted. Hackers have several tricks they always play, never fall for any of them.

It usually occur whenever we become careless or we become too lazy. It is very important that we analyze everything we'll be entering or else we would fail to notice if something's wrong. Lack of knowledge may also be a factor why we fall into scams or get hacked because if at the very first place, if we are knowledgeable enough, we will have the idea on what are the scams or how will we get hacked. One way to avoid is through finding someone who can guide you or keep you updated on what's the scam or hack trend at the moment and even as time passes by.

Most likely we fell into a scam when those on the list are innovative styles like phishing and investment. Emails and Personal Messages are common but Phishing has lots of kinds where the other phishing method can actually fool those people who are not aware of those. I remember someone listed every possible phishing method here and we need to know them all if we want to prevent ourselves from falling into one of them. As for the investment, the popular scam method is the Ponzi scheme where they will fool you and will pay you with your own money. this method has been improvised and made look like a legit investment method but it's not, after a while, it will disappear.

And most often it is the things that we don't do that lead us to become victims to hacks and scams. We don't research; we don't read; we don't ask; we don't change passwords; we don't install 2FA; we don't buy a hardware wallet; and so on and so forth.

I second hatshepsut93. Downloads should be included on the list. They are one of the main sources of malwares. Sadly, we are very fond of downloading all kinds of files. The music you're listening to right now may be downloaded from somewhere you are not sure to be safe. The movie you've watched last night you just took from a friend's link. The Microsoft applications you are using are probably not genuine because you don't want to spend on them. Even your antivirus could be a cracked version and a simple update could cause all hell to break loose.

The most common way of getting hacked is downloading some crap from the Internet. It could be cracked software or just unverified software, it could come from downloaded movies or music. There's a wide variety of malware that can steal wallets, replace addresses, log your keystrokes, steal cookies and passwords, redirect you to phishing sites and so on. As crypto prises rise, malware authorts and hackers turn their attention to crypto more and more.

To prevent it, even strong antivirus is not enough, you need to keep your coins in cold storage so your private keys are never exposed to potentially infected environment.

For me I think the reason users get scammed is lack of responsibility and the inability to "be your own bank", if users can address this two issues then there is no way they can be scammed, if you take responsibility by doing proper research before investing in projects, safely storing your coins in wallets with good security, avoiding get rich quick schemes etc, all of this amounts to taking responsibility and being your own bank, cryptocurrency remains decentralized, so if you do not want to get hacked or scammed, it rests on your shoulders to make sure you're not, cause stolen funds can more or less not be recovered.

Investments has been a popular one amongst aged persons. It's a popular trick in using investors greed against them. Everyone has this desire to earn or receive some incentives on their available fund through gainful investments and with the problem of identifying a credible investment platform or package, it becomes an advantage to scammers for which they prey on the ones without the know how.
If you don't know, it's best to avoid than being sorry and don't regret much when you miss out, take it that, it wasn't meant for you.

As we engage with crypto activities, we are likely to encounter those types of scams. Some of us even receive an unsolicited email containing a file attachment with malware, fraudulent investment and giveaways, and a phishing link. Thus, we should practice using a separate account to reduce the chance of victimization. It is an essential approach to secure your personal data. In these times where there are prevalent scam incidents, circumspection is much-needed as it happens in different forms.

Those old methods have been attacking users over and over again, and they never change these tactics, most of my client is dealing with this kind of problems, although I keep on reminding them, also I see a post like a few days ago, someone has received a message regarding with his crypto hardware wallet wherein user information has been taken, seen people who became aware but after few months they are back in their old ways, the post is just a reminder that no matter how old it is, it might cost us lot of troubles, we thought that those are basics but we don't know that it is also very critical, and dangerous.

They definitely an old scam method yet some folks are still falling into these kinds of tricks. Anyway, as we learned how to avoid these things, scammers also improve in making such new methods just to gain and harm others. That is why if it hypothetically happens that you already fall into this kind of scheme(which I hope not) you must share the experience of yours so that others could be aware and avoid experiencing these horrible things. As an individual, we must be always knowledgable regards this kind of activity because ignorance is not an excuse, scammers will take this opportunity to make gains out from you. As much as possible do not only think twice but rather think as much as you can before engaging in any activity.

Social engineering is the main reason why we are getting scammed or hacked in no matter what way the scammer used so all we need to do is learning the security advises while using internet on our smart phone and desktops. This is really a wide topic so it is not possible to list the tips which cover all of them so just a simple tip is learn to use your brain before every action you make.

Your examples are old scam methods. many of people know this scam and this percentage will decrease with the passage of days.
scammers are developing their tricks and you won't find many of them using these old ways.

Stop displaying your emails in public and do not reply or click on any link. Use 2Fa verification on a secure offline device.
Do not download unreliable programs and educate yourself, as it is the most powerful shield.

Unfortunately, there are so many cases you read about daily (negative news seem easier to reflect than positive new), that one wonders just how many people take a step back after seeing all that goes on.

Besides those you mention, there’s malware you could be downloading for a wide array of reasons or, as we’ve recently seen, data breaches in company that have our data can enhance phishing attempts with any type of pretext, or escalate to cases of sim swapping prior to trying to take a swipe at our assets. The lists goes on.

I’m pretty sure that after a while, we all, at some point, reflect upon which aspects we would rather have paid more attention to from the start. Privacy probably falls amongst the top of the list (and I’m not just talking about crypto here, but also about our communication channels we gladly leave here and there), which does go a long way to reduce some of the risks, alongside a baggage of so called experience, be it hands-on or theoretical, which by definition we tend to lack in our initial days.

The Psychology of Internet Fraud Victimisation: a Systematic Review

This is an anecdote for spare time in the holidays. The forensic analysis on the psychology of fraud victims is interesting. Scammers don't have too many scam strategies and in fact they only change the tools for their scam strategies. The methods are the same but only the tools are different but sadly to say the victims don't change their mind and psychology is not controlled well enough.

I think such topics will always be relevant. Since this is a beginners section, and not all beginners read older topics. One important point that can save you some mistakes. I think that it is preferable and safer to work on a separate computer with no pirated software or toys installed. It is also important to have a licensed antivirus.
And of course, computer literacy and knowledge of Internet security rules is an important factor. I would recommend teaching such lessons from childhood since we live in the age of the Internet. As for investing, it is always necessary to assess all the risks. Starting from a complete study of the project, and its assessment of a scam. And ending, with their capabilities. That is, how much you can invest without the fear of losing these funds.

You have mentioned and explained some means scammers can use to scam people, and yes it is worth mentioning in order to know how to avoid being scammed. But, it will be good to read the link mk4 pasted above, it consists more writeup about scam and how to avoid being scammed. There are some you need to mention but not yet mentioned, but many contained in the link which you can gain from.

Just to add, here's a really hefty list that contains most of the commonly used scams today: https://cryptosec.info/scams/

Thank you for sharing the information, from there I feel it is important to keep my emotions from believing too quickly, and to check repeatedly on what we get in the inbox or on every investment that comes. this is important so that we are protected from losing money in our account.

If you are not careful enough this thing might take all your money away

Emails  – Mostly we received emails, we only read the subject and if we read something interesting or alarming we click it right away, I can say that somethings due to fear of losing something, we lose our cool and we just click it, and from there a lot of things happen, it might steal information, or sensitive data from our pc or lead to hacking.

Phishing site – This might also come from email links, we thought it’s the same website that we are opening but its just a disguise for hackers to steal information, also if we open a website we login our credentials and later we realized that its not the real site, and its too late your crypto or money have been stolen.

A personal message   – we have lots of social media platforms, Facebook, telegram Twitter, etc, we often received messages sometimes from our friends later that we know they are hacked, and someone has taking control of it, asking for money or even asking for investment money, also received message saying you can have 100% return in just two days

Investment – more people are getting scam every day due to investment schemes, they try to make you believe, by letting you get the money on the first try and ask you to invest more, once you are hook in they will just disappear.
Referrals  -  this may also lead to scam people sending you referrals since you see that the price is big and possible you can be a millionaire you invest a lot of money, but sadly it's just a fake one

Note: I am not saying that all that we received might lead to scam or hacking, but this is just a reminder for us to be careful, there are lots of reminders but we still fall for these schemes, taking extra caution and research is necessary don’t ask a person who recommends something to you if it's legit or not instead make your own research and ask people who are already years in this business, asking advice or question is not but we just want to make sure that our money will not go to waste

We can’t really avoid it 100% because sometimes our emotions step in, like other people says don’t get emotional when investing, because it will not help you, it might put you in a disadvantageous situation.
I made this post because I read last time that still there are people getting scam and hacked, even with others reminding them to be careful investing, and hacking.

Hope ill be able to help newbies and members be aware of these things,