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Learning & News => News related to Crypto => Topic started by: TomPluz on April 14, 2025, 07:23:36 AM

Title: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: TomPluz on April 14, 2025, 07:23:36 AM


(https://bitpinas.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Top-Scams-Dominating-Crypto.png)

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Despite numerous warnings and reminders about the importance of DYOR (do your own research) and due diligence to avoid exploitation, a recent study (https://chainplay.gg/blog/study-83-percent-crypto-investors-scammed-hacked/?msID=3183decd-f62b-4c3d-a64e-a478bc80f426) by ChainPlay and Storible revealed that 83% of crypto investors have fallen victim to scams or hacks.

The study identified the top fraud methods affecting crypto investors: Social media impersonation – 34.02%, Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30% and Phishing attacks – 18.64%. The study also highlighted that scammers are increasingly using fake accounts and phishing websites to target investors.


You can read more of this in BitPinas (https://bitpinas.com/feature/crypto-scam-hack-study-2025/).

I am not anymore surprised of the result of this study but coming from a victim myself of phishing it is still uncomfortable to think about it...how the cryptocurrency industry has become the vacation paradise of scammers and hackers punching the wallets of the people and platforms. We can now conclude that scamming, hacking is now a 24/7 enterprise and with amazing great rewards waiting for successful intrusion there is a big incentive to do everything they can victimizing us. This is true right now and am sure will still even be truer in the coming years as these people are steps ahead of the available security technologies at placed and used.









Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: ABCbits on April 14, 2025, 10:42:41 AM
I find it's weird this study include "Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30%", since on some cases it's partially fault of exchange/platform chosen by investor. But even excluding that, the percentage is still high at 61.7%.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Charles-Tim on April 14, 2025, 06:06:54 PM
I find it's weird this study include "Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30%", since on some cases it's partially fault of exchange/platform chosen by investor. But even excluding that, the percentage is still high at 61.7%.
All I know that matters is for people to learn how to avoid crypto scam. A research like this will not be able to discourage people because such people even find it hard to protect their coins, so how will they even also come about this news. Those that are updating themselves that know how to protect their coins, reading news and/or being on a forum are the people that are reading this. Also some people may not learn until they are scammed. Although, I also find it hard to believe this research. If I have time, I will reach the methodology used for it.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Gposas on April 14, 2025, 07:06:31 PM
Social Media impersonation is the most common amongst all and newbies are always a victim of these scammers.
I got an experience from a friend who was scammed through this means.

He had complains on a transaction that wasn't successful in a particular wallet app, so he reached out to the Telegram Chat group that was tagged a support team. Unluckily for him, scammers began to call him using the name of a Support Team and before he could realize, he has already done what not.

The bottom line is for users to understand how to protect their assets and prevent giving out vital informations that is personal.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: MrSpasybo on April 14, 2025, 08:52:41 PM
I am not anymore surprised of the result of this study but coming from a victim myself of phishing it is still uncomfortable to think about it...how the cryptocurrency industry has become the vacation paradise of scammers and hackers punching the wallets of the people and platforms. We can now conclude that scamming, hacking is now a 24/7 enterprise and with amazing great rewards waiting for successful intrusion there is a big incentive to do everything they can victimizing us. This is true right now and am sure will still even be truer in the coming years as these people are steps ahead of the available security technologies at placed and used.
If they're tech experts, being a hacker could be an appealing profession in the crypto market:
1. They can work based on their IT and blockchain knowledge, leveraging their skills.
2. Low investment, maybe just a few $ to create a scam project, a memecoin for a rug-pull.
3. If successful, the profits will be huge, potentially up to millions of $.
4. The tools in the market can help them launder money from victims easily.

Hackers will always exist in our market, so investors need to be cautious to protect their assets. We always need to be vigilant, divide assets into multiple accounts, and ensure good management of our data and our own greed to avoid becoming victims.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Agbe on April 14, 2025, 09:58:00 PM
One just have to be careful because the scammers are very much subtle that they changed method at all time. Id they launched one method and nobody fall for it they would change approach to another one again and many people who have said they would not be scammed by scammers have been scammed by scammers. So all what we have to do is vigilant and careful use of the internet. Who knows that Bybit would be hacked by the Lazarus group but they did it. So to keep cryptocurrency in the Internet now is making many people to be scared because we don't know what will happen in the next move from those scammers and hackers.  That is why it is good to keep the coins in a self custodial wallets.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Z-tight on April 14, 2025, 11:05:44 PM
Don't reply random messages and don't believe any offer from strangers on social media, don't store your funds in any centralized exchange or custodial platform and don't click on random links. I just listed three easy steps not to fall for these three type of attacks. Of course there are a lot more to do as regards your security, but this is a good starting point.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: TomPluz on April 15, 2025, 10:02:29 AM
I find it's weird this study include "Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30%", since on some cases it's partially fault of exchange/platform chosen by investor. But even excluding that, the percentage is still high at 61.7%.


Of course, it is not the fault of the people who are into crypto exchanges once there is a hack but the study is focusing on people who suffered the consequences and certainly if you lost something because your choice of an exchange is hacked then you are just another victim without knowing if you can get back what you lost. And in recent years, we have seen some big exchanges go underground leaving a trail of sighs and disbeliefs on people who trusted them. Good thing that some exchanges are already initiating a mechanism where users can be able to recover lost assets thereby providing some form of protection to their customers. In my view, there should be a law on this requiring CEX to put up something similar to SAFU of Binance.





Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: bitterguy28 on April 15, 2025, 10:30:47 AM
(https://bitpinas.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Top-Scams-Dominating-Crypto.png)
honestly i am not surprised that social media impersonation is the biggest percentage in here because there really is a lot of misinformation going around social media and people usually do not use any critical thinking skills when they are strolling on social media and always end up being victimized
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We can now conclude that scamming, hacking is now a 24/7 enterprise and with amazing great rewards waiting for successful intrusion there is a big incentive to do everything they can victimizing us. This is true right now and am sure will still even be truer in the coming years as these people are steps ahead of the available security technologies at placed and used.
anywhere where money is there will always be scammers around they infiltrate all kinds of industries it seems like all scammers are in crypto industry because it is the one "trending" or popular at the moment and therefore more victims to find
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: bitbit97 on April 15, 2025, 10:58:43 AM
Are these numbers real? Unbelievable. I turns that only 1/5 investor is safe. That is a really bad sign and bad statistics. Fiat investment seems to be more safe. I dont know how to explain such phenomena as 83% scammed or hack chance. Its either because cryptocurrency is still new, raw and people are not ready for that. Or in cryptocurrency people are more naive, newbies, stupid or easy to be tricked.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: libert19 on April 15, 2025, 11:28:03 AM
Can confirm.

1) I have never fallen for social media impersonation attacks but I do receive those messages regularly.

2) Thankfully, I have never fallen to exchange hacks since I do not keep my funds there.

3) I have fallen for phishing attack few times, but no serious funds were lost cause nothing much in wallet connected — one was when etherdelta frontend was compromised which I was unbeknownst to. Second time, I was phished in email, it only occured to me that I fell for bait when I was asked to enter seed phrase of my wallet. Third was about year ago, where I approved a malicious transaction and funds were drained.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Bobcrypto on April 15, 2025, 11:59:08 AM
Actually the activities of scammers is increasing on the daily basis, we have to be very cautious while on the Internet. Scammers are upgrading their techniques with disguised approach to steal from their victims. I was recently scammed through my wallet, I am still trying to figure out how the scammers were able use my wallet address to  defraud me. i can't stop wondering, in fact, we should be very vigilant this days, especially the use of wallets address, unfortunately my Trustwallet has been compromised, i have decided to used certain wallets on short intervals.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Faisal2202 on April 15, 2025, 04:42:10 PM
I am not anymore surprised of the result of this study but coming from a victim myself of phishing it is still uncomfortable to think about it...how the cryptocurrency industry has become the vacation paradise of scammers and hackers punching the wallets of the people and platforms. We can now conclude that scamming, hacking is now a 24/7 enterprise and with amazing great rewards waiting for successful intrusion there is a big incentive to do everything they can victimizing us. This is true right now and am sure will still even be truer in the coming years as these people are steps ahead of the available security technologies at placed and used.
Phishing scams and the hacks of centralized exchanges are the main sources for hackers and scammers to loot money. You are right, crypto has really become a paradise for them, and day by day, they are becoming more active, and people are still losing.

All this can happen due to a number of reasons, like not thinking straight while using devices is the main factor, accidentally touching links, etc. I think it will never stop, because somehow I have this feeling that every scam, especially those related to exchanges and pools, is connected.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: hugeblack on April 15, 2025, 05:02:49 PM

In other words, 52% of attacks (social media impersonation + phishing attacks) can be avoided with a little knowledge, as both methods can be avoided with a little technical knowledge or research.
Exchange/platform hacks can also be avoided by withdrawing coins immediately after the end of trading.
So, with a few simple steps, 73% of these attacks can be avoided.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Lucius on April 15, 2025, 05:53:43 PM
I am not anymore surprised of the result of this study but coming from a victim myself of phishing it is still uncomfortable to think about it...how the cryptocurrency industry has become the vacation paradise of scammers and hackers punching the wallets of the people and platforms. We can now conclude that scamming, hacking is now a 24/7 enterprise and with amazing great rewards waiting for successful intrusion there is a big incentive to do everything they can victimizing us. This is true right now and am sure will still even be truer in the coming years as these people are steps ahead of the available security technologies at placed and used.

In order for a scam to succeed, the hacker needs to be skilled (more or less), and the victim naive and without basic knowledge about internet security and what they invest their money in. Accordingly, we cannot blame only bad people because they succeed in their bad intentions, but a great responsibility also lies with those who provide them with such opportunities.

Considering such data, it is not surprising that a lot of people globally have a bad opinion about cryptocurrencies, because people who become victims of scams tell others about it, and bad news spreads much faster than good news.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: rby on April 15, 2025, 11:07:41 PM
The study identified the top fraud methods affecting crypto investors: Social media impersonation – 34.02%, Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30% and Phishing attacks – 18.64%. The study also highlighted that scammers are increasingly using fake accounts and phishing websites to target investors.
Although this research result may not be 100% accurate, I still do not have any reason to doubt it. We all do not need to be told that scam is really on the increase and scammers/hackers are becoming really sophisticated. If scam/hacking wasn't lucrative, maybe the number of scammers would have reduced significantly, but unfortunately, people are falling victim every now and then.

Right now, everyone on the internet is a suspect unless proven otherwise. Alot is really happening that is why we must always keep ourselves updated
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Jating on April 17, 2025, 11:28:46 PM
The study identified the top fraud methods affecting crypto investors: Social media impersonation – 34.02%, Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30% and Phishing attacks – 18.64%. The study also highlighted that scammers are increasingly using fake accounts and phishing websites to target investors.
Although this research result may not be 100% accurate, I still do not have any reason to doubt it. We all do not need to be told that scam is really on the increase and scammers/hackers are becoming really sophisticated. If scam/hacking wasn't lucrative, maybe the number of scammers would have reduced significantly, but unfortunately, people are falling victim every now and then.

Right now, everyone on the internet is a suspect unless proven otherwise. Alot is really happening that is why we must always keep ourselves updated
Yes, I know it should really be our responsibility, but with hackers sophisticated attacks, it's really hard to really get away from this cyber criminals. I mean there could be times that we do our DYOR, but at some point when we let our guards down, that could be the time that we will be the victims. So it's really hard to maintain that and most of this kind of attacks are beyond our control. We can only hope that our security knowledge is enough and the practices that we do is secured so that we will not be the next victims in the space that we live in.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Zed0X on April 17, 2025, 11:35:13 PM
The scammers have also mastered the 'art' of impersonation in the real world but it's easier to do with the online apps that allows users to create without proper identity verification. This is probably why the blue marks or whatever marker they have is also a thing for people doing their business on social media.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: joniboini on April 18, 2025, 12:28:12 AM
Based on their data, it looks like the number of participants is around 2000 users or so. So basically, around 1600 of them have fallen for a scam or hack in one way or another. I'm not sure if a user can be included in a cex/dex hack case at the same time, because the number of those cases is quite high. The finding that CEX suffers significantly higher losses is not surprising either. Another interesting finding is that a popular project is highly attractive phishing target, where one of them can be impersonated by as many as 8 times in various platforms. CMIIW.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: bitterguy28 on April 18, 2025, 11:46:05 AM
The scammers have also mastered the 'art' of impersonation in the real world but it's easier to do with the online apps that allows users to create without proper identity verification. This is probably why the blue marks or whatever marker they have is also a thing for people doing their business on social media.
it is a lot more difficult to fake anything if it involves real life it is not like we can shape shift but on the internet you are just a pixel on the screen and you can be anonymous or you can make a totally fake identity no one will know for sure if your profile picture and your name are your real ones

this is why people can be fooled but over time the scams are getting smarter and smarter and there always are new ways to fool people evolving every day
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: LogitechMouse on April 18, 2025, 03:25:49 PM
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I am not anymore surprised of the result of this study but coming from a victim myself of phishing it is still uncomfortable to think about it...how the cryptocurrency industry has become the vacation paradise of scammers and hackers punching the wallets of the people and platforms. We can now conclude that scamming, hacking is now a 24/7 enterprise and with amazing great rewards waiting for successful intrusion there is a big incentive to do everything they can victimizing us. This is true right now and am sure will still even be truer in the coming years as these people are steps ahead of the available security technologies at placed and used.
Knowing how gullible investors can be especially in an asset where you can make money in just a few days, scammers will try everything to attract them until they will scam them.

There's nothing to do about it because like what I said in the past, the only time that they will know which are scams and which are not is when they experience it first hand. I'm not saying that all because I, myself hasn't scammed, hacked, or became a victim of phishing sites, but most newbies are gullible, and can easily get attracted by these scammers.

This is why I always say that if you're a newbie, watch educational videos especially those that will teach you which projects are scams and which are not. Scammers are everywhere, and having knowledge will help you A LOT!!!. That's what I did when I'm still a newbie, and until now, I will say that it's my best decision when it comes to investment.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: albon on April 18, 2025, 04:53:16 PM
This is a very common thing in the crypto world and most people fall victim to phishing here and if you do your research you will find that a lot of people fall victim to scamming in crypto every day. Currently, the cryptocurrency industry has become a haven for scammers and hackers, and is punching the wallets of people and platforms. People are falling victim to scams through different trends, so it is important to always be aware of where we are entering. In addition, the use of technology is continuously increasing so in the future people will use new technologies to conduct hacking and scamming activities.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: yhiaali3 on April 18, 2025, 08:31:31 PM
"83% of cryptocurrency investors have fallen victim to fraud or hacking?" This is truly horrific; it's a very large number!!! What's even worse is that 34.02% of these cases involve social media impersonation.

Unfortunately, this space has become incredibly rife with scammers. I suspect the main reason for all this chaos is that everyone is looking for an opportunity to profit from this new space, and everyone has a preconceived notion that they can get rich quick. Therefore, scammers are exploiting this opportunity and easily deceiving these dreamers.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Z-tight on April 18, 2025, 10:26:09 PM
Scammers use different social engineering techniques to scam their victims, but so many people make themselves an easy target, either through greed or just a lack of research. There are many crypto investors who have not been hacked, so it is very possible to keep your funds safe.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: God Of Thunder on April 19, 2025, 12:54:40 PM
I find it's weird this study include "Exchange/platform hacks – 21.30%", since on some cases it's partially fault of exchange/platform chosen by investor. But even excluding that, the percentage is still high at 61.7%.

Sometimes the exchange takes the blame, and the user's balance remains the same. The recent Bybit hack did not affect any users' balances. They promised the users funds will remain the same. I am one of the Bybit users, and I have not faced anything. But if the exchange collapse after the hack, then the uses are fucked up. Luckily the Bybit hack was something they can afford and their business is still up and running. A small exchange would collapse after this large hack.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Gposas on April 19, 2025, 01:06:00 PM
Scammers use different social engineering techniques to scam their victims, but so many people make themselves an easy target, either through greed or just a lack of research. There are many crypto investors who have not been hacked, so it is very possible to keep your funds safe.
I agree with you, but it is certain that these investors must have fallen for one scam or the other before being so grounded. One thing I observed with scams, you can only advice people and feel safe when you haven't been a victim but trust me when those scammers comes your way most times, you'll be so carried away and fall for their scams.

I just feel that before you could really know how to avoid and identify when you want to be scammed, one must have gotten the experience.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Forsyth Jones on April 19, 2025, 07:10:28 PM
It's funny that if people who invest in crypto just did the basics, which is to safeguard their assets in self-custodial wallets and hardware wallets, about 98% of the problems and scam attempts would be avoided (https://blog.trezor.io/phishing-hacks-and-scams-oh-my-2ef59fafb0c). On Telegram, it's very common to receive spam from scam attempts, but a minimum of knowledge about self-custody is enough and everything could be easily avoided.

Users must understand that the seed phrase is something personal and non-transferable, just don't give it to anyone when asked by scammers.

Meanwhile, the Lazarus group, which Bybit was a victim of, uses most of the funds to finance dictatorships such as North Korea, occupying the third place as the largest holder of bitcoin among nations (https://news.bitcoin.com/pt/de-13332-para-9400-bitcoin-em-27-dias-grupo-lazarus-realoca-3932-btc/).
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Z-tight on April 20, 2025, 05:14:30 PM
I just feel that before you could really know how to avoid and identify when you want to be scammed, one must have gotten the experience.
You are not the first person i have heard say this, however i completely disagree with you and also everyone who thinks this way, if you have this mindset, you already make yourself vulnerable to scams. I have never been scammed, but i know very well how to avoid scammers.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Forsyth Jones on April 20, 2025, 11:34:26 PM
There is a new type of social engineering attack happening. It involves a fake captcha (https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=319753.msg1752313#msg1752313) that tricks the victim into running a wget command to download malware, which is probably a virus that hijacks the clipboard when the victim copies an bitcoin address. An address that is almost identical to the attacker's address is pasted in, or worse, malware, such as spyware.

What caught my attention was the method used, which is the captcha, which is very common on many sites. A layperson can easily fall for this type of sophisticated scam.

The attack method was discovered by malwarebytes: https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/03/fake-captcha-websites-hijack-your-clipboard-to-install-information-stealers
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Gposas on April 21, 2025, 12:03:05 PM
I just feel that before you could really know how to avoid and identify when you want to be scammed, one must have gotten the experience.
You are not the first person i have heard say this, however i completely disagree with you and also everyone who thinks this way, if you have this mindset, you already make yourself vulnerable to scams. I have never been scammed, but i know very well how to avoid scammers.
You may be right @Z-tight, everyone has a different mindset towards things like this. I also was like you, I believed I know every tactics of these scammers and I even try to pass my little knowledge to others when it comes to avoiding scammers until the unfaithful day I was scammed.

I ain't trying to say you are going to be scammed one day, but just keep up with your security measures it's of a great benefit.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: bayu7adi on April 21, 2025, 12:35:12 PM
impersonation??? is it like someone who sends a message on telegram using a binance profile picture and asks me to verify or something related to my binance exchange account??? or what kind of fraud method is usually associated with this impersonation???

as far as I know, only such methods often flood my telegram messages... without thinking twice, I immediately blocked it and didn't want to have any more contact with such an account.... usually it asks for an OTP code or 2FA code, and that's already very suspicious so I don't want to take any more risks...
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: bitterguy28 on April 21, 2025, 03:28:57 PM
impersonation??? is it like someone who sends a message on telegram using a binance profile picture and asks me to verify or something related to my binance exchange account??? or what kind of fraud method is usually associated with this impersonation???
i believe it is when on social media you will see accounts that either fake people or of existing famous people and they will talk to you and make you believe their lies and somehow get you to trust them some impersonators will pretend to befriend you or even get in a relationship with you before they convince you to invest on something or send your money somewhere
Quote
as far as I know, only such methods often flood my telegram messages... without thinking twice, I immediately blocked it and didn't want to have any more contact with such an account.... usually it asks for an OTP code or 2FA code, and that's already very suspicious so I don't want to take any more risks...
otp scams are very popular and common this allows for hackers to get any personal information or just any sensitive information from you by tricking you they will usually lure you in with a sense of urgency saying there is suspicious account on your device and therefore you need to send an otp do not panic and automatically give away any sensitive information
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Aanuoluwatofunmi on April 21, 2025, 06:52:58 PM
If you are to keep on asking the crypto victims that had lost their assets most of them will be either under the scam category or those under the hack category to have lost on their cryptocurrency asset, this shows that we need more to put in place because people are not going in the expected manner they should take while handling their digital assets, all these have happened out of ignorance which they would have avoided assuming they were being informed before hand.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Z-tight on April 23, 2025, 12:20:15 AM
all these have happened out of ignorance which they would have avoided assuming they were being informed before hand.
Sometimes it is not only ignorance that gets people scammed, there are people who are knowledgeable, but they make a mistake and get scammed. That is why it is important to maintain good opsec at all times, some people even make mistakes and lock themselves out of their funds, so before implementing an extra layer of security, make sure you know exactly what you are doing.
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: Crwth on April 23, 2025, 01:17:24 AM
I do believe that it’s something to be wary of, knowing that celebrities who people idolize could get easily influenced if they do not know about crypto scams. They should be taking care of themselves when seeing investments.

Thanks for sharing this OP
Title: Re: Scammed or Hacked: 83% of Crypto Investors
Post by: LogitechMouse on April 23, 2025, 05:33:09 AM
If you are to keep on asking the crypto victims that had lost their assets most of them will be either under the scam category or those under the hack category to have lost on their cryptocurrency asset, this shows that we need more to put in place because people are not going in the expected manner they should take while handling their digital assets, all these have happened out of ignorance which they would have avoided assuming they were being informed before hand.
Newbies in general are ignorant in nature because they don't know anything or at least they don't know that much with investing yet that's why we always say that if you're a newbie, don't invest your money first, but equip yourself with knowledge first because you will be the prey of these scammers and hackers, and they're lurking everywhere in the internet.

Always knowing the signs and red flags is a must when it comes to investing. I mean if you see a red flag on the project, go away and find another one. If a stranger suddenly sent you a PM out of nowhere, that's 100% a scammer because legit developers will not send you a PM first. Also with regards to hacking, always look at the websites we're visiting because we might visit a phishing link, or we might download a malware that could cause our money to disappear in an instant.