A Heads Up on Avoiding Scam in the Crypto Community

[hugeblack]

Not all investment platforms can be considered fraudulent. Only those that promise daily profits or 100% returns are fraudulent.
How can you identify fake ICOs?
How can you identify pump and dump schemes before they occur?
How can you identify fake trading exchanges/platforms?
...etc.


The thread raises more questions than it answers or provides information.

[bitterguy28]

Not all investment platforms can be considered fraudulent. Only those that promise daily profits or 100% returns are fraudulent.

people need to separate or distinguish fraudulent investments from investments that just failed just because an investment did not end up getting as much profit as expected does not mean it is automatically a scam it is possible that it just failed to gather enough investors but if the team did their best until the end then i do not think it can be considered a fraud at that point

[Rruchi man]

~

This crypto community also includes a forum like this. While you are cautious of scams from outside, be also cautious of scams within. This is why you must ensure to avoid having private discussions with people in the forum that you do not know, especially discussions that you will be required to continue elsewhere.

There can be scammers here too, we also need to be careful.

[LogitechMouse]

---

Heck, I still remember back then when ICOs are very hyped way back 2017 to around early 2018. Many new projects are popping out every single day, and whenever they launch a token sale, there's always a high chance that it will be a successful one. I can hardly think of those ICOs that became successful and still active to this date except the likes of Ethereum, BNB, Litecoin, etc.

Ponzi Schemes are the go-to tactic of these scammers for most of the time. It's because investors for most of the time can easily get attracted with huge returns on a short amount of time. As for Pump-and-Dump, it already is happening with those new meme coins out there, and it's constantly happening on different exchange. There are many who are pumping and dumping those low trading volume tokens just to make profit.

As for fake/phishing website, what I always say is that bookmark all of those legit websites so you will not be falling into these websites. We've seen many who lost their money because they connected their wallet into a fake website. Anyway, this is a good must-read thread for those newbies out there so they will not be a victim of these stupid scammers.

[Crwth]

Thanks for giving this summary. There are a lot of things that pop up when there's a hype or something,. There are still a lot of people trying to scam and just do what they do best: take advantage of the people who can get dscammed.

I would prefer to have this in terms of tutorial because there are a lot of things to be wary off.

[Jating]

~

This crypto community also includes a forum like this. While you are cautious of scams from outside, be also cautious of scams within. This is why you must ensure to avoid having private discussions with people in the forum that you do not know, especially discussions that you will be required to continue elsewhere.

There can be scammers here too, we also need to be careful.

Yeah, like suspicious newbie accounts who suddenly PM you and says about a investment scheme and others. But if you look closely, this could be a trap and so it's not good to have this private conversations with a newbie or even maybe a established member. You really need to know or uses your logic to tell that this could be a scam and should be avoided by all cost. And we have seen this kind of modus in the other community as many have reported this from many years ago but still this kind of scam attempts will appear from time to time.

[Alone055]

people need to separate or distinguish fraudulent investments from investments that just failed just because an investment did not end up getting as much profit as expected does not mean it is automatically a scam it is possible that it just failed to gather enough investors but if the team did their best until the end then i do not think it can be considered a fraud at that point

I agree with that. A lot of projects fail because they don't get enough attention and investors, probably because they fail in promoting themselves very well, because that's basically what matters. If you are good at representing your project in a good way, create some buzz and hype around the space, and have some good use cases for the investors, you are surely going to go farther, but if you fail in any of those things, you will barely get enough retail investors and that's what matters for a project to stay around.

If someone, out of interest or hope of profits, invest in such a project, but then the project doesn't perform up to their expectation, or even have to close down, we can't call them scammers but it's probably a lack of good management that made them reach this position.

[Crypto Library]

Yeah, like suspicious newbie accounts who suddenly PM you and says about a investment scheme and others. But if you look closely, this could be a trap and so it's not good to have this private conversations with a newbie or even maybe a established member. You really need to know or uses your logic to tell that this could be a scam and should be avoided by all cost. And we have seen this kind of modus in the other community as many have reported this from many years ago but still this kind of scam attempts will appear from time to time.

I think the only way to avoid scams these days is to don't trust anyone and verify everyone. We need to be careful with every deal and every website we access. And I think learning to verify is not too difficult in this day and age. If we just search on Google, we will see many verifier platforms where we can check everything from websites to various files. And if we can't do this simple work, then just go to the AI ​​chatgpt and ask him how can I verify "this website" as original. Then we can get a short answer and also know the process.

[debra]

Actually, it's quite difficult to identify whether it's a scam or not from the start. But at least, maybe some of these events can start, like looking at their team profile, whether it's really real or looks fake. Of course, social media might be quite helpful at this time.

and what often happens is that scam projects are usually to good to be true, so just be careful if you meet a project like this. and analyzing the authenticity of the WP, this might be more difficult and time consuming.

ah, actually, if you're afraid of scam projects, why should you get involved with new projects? why not just focus on old projects whose coins are already listed and have good market caps and values?

[Z-tight]

ah, actually, if you're afraid of scam projects, why should you get involved with new projects? why not just focus on old projects whose coins are already listed and have good market caps and values?

So many people believe they can make more money from new projects, new projects can sometimes pump and those who bought it will make a lot of money. However, the risk with new projects is very high and 99% of them are scams, but people keep investing in them because of the promise of returns.

[Report]

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Investment Platforms:
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Fake ICOs:
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Ponzi Schemes:
-
Pump and Dump Schemes:
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Fake Trading Exchange/Platforms
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Website Phishing and Impersonation
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Other forms of scam activities:
Opening an untrusted email links
Fake celebrity endorsement
Unsolicited Investment Offers
Giveaway Scams
-

The 9 points are very complete and enough to provide examples of information on the possibility of the presence of scammers in this cryptocurrency circle.
I will add another one about the presence of a scammers who can steal our funds, as far as I know there is a dusting attack.

Can dusting attacks steal crypto?
A traditional dusting attack cannot be used to access users’ money and steal their crypto assets. However, hackers’ increasingly sophisticated tools can trick wallet holders into phishing sites and drain their funds.

Proof of this quote : https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-is-a-crypto-dusting-attack-and-how-do-you-avoid-it

As far as I know, this Dusting Attack always attacks the EVM type wallet with 0x--- prefix.
The way it works always sends a slightly valuable token and when swaping with USDT or native coins, all our assets will be taken by hackers. Correct me if i'm wrong.

[DaNNy001]

Not all investment platforms can be considered fraudulent. Only those that promise daily profits or 100% returns are fraudulent.

people need to separate or distinguish fraudulent investments from investments that just failed just because an investment did not end up getting as much profit as expected does not mean it is automatically a scam it is possible that it just failed to gather enough investors but if the team did their best until the end then i do not think it can be considered a fraud at that point

I believe to an extent you are right because even the firm themselves haven't gotten the assurance of their project being a success it depends on how the project is being run and ofcourse the amount of budget and so many other things attached to it. There are lots of other projects that have started and failed but the actual ideal of the project wasn't meant to scam anybody but yet the project still ended up a failure and that's because of maybe poor management and other factors.

[Gposas]

OP's Post is very informative. It exposes most of the scam patterns used by these scammers. The phishing part is very common... Mimicking the original project is mostly common on X (Twitter). While joining airdrops as of last year I came across alot of scammers mimicking the real project.

It's impossible to list all the scam techniques used by the scammers to steal money from others but you covered the most common that is good enough for a newbie to avoid the scams on most cases.

I would like to add the fake wallets and revealing seeds or recovery keys with the hope someone deposit funds to move the tokens then the deposited funds will be swept away immediately.

That's right... Not revealing seed phrase is very vital no matter the situation. This is very common with all these CEX Telegram handles that has gotten so much subscribers. Making it difficult to even know who is who. Whenever you go to lay a complain relating to your wallet... You'll see alot of scammers claiming to be a support team trying to make a video call, all for the purpose of you revealing your seed phrase.

[sampoerna]

There can be scammers here too, we also need to be careful.

Indeed, Being careful is very important, especially in crypto. Whether it's in determining investment, trading, certain projects, in communities and so on. We should not easily trust people, especially those who attract us to invest in certain projects, or on certain platforms, or in some other ways so that we follow them. We must be more vigilant and study it first. Don't just agree because of promises of fast double profits. We must be more open-minded, more vigilant, and at the same time more careful, because it might be too good to be true, so we must check and cross-check several things.

[Gurujebs]

So many people believe they can make more money from new projects, new projects can sometimes pump and those who bought it will make a lot of money. However, the risk with new projects is very high and 99% of them are scams, but people keep investing in them because of the promise of returns.

Check Binance and take a look at all the coins that were listed this year, almost all of them are down from their All time high and by that non of them has been able to outrun their first list candle, they are just laying there doing nothing and that's because the people interest reduce drastically immediately the TGE, only venture capitals endure and hold the rest.

Sometimes I don't even blame retailers that doesn't buy these, only team controls the supply and it may back fire when you buy such coins, they can dump it on you any moment. That's how Mantra dump $5b in 24 hours and till now, people don't trust the coin again.