Wallet passphrase & private keys : NEVER share it with anyone

For your mobile phones, do not download and random apk from any random website. It is most certainly malware, which may compromise your mobile phones leading even to crypto wallets getting hacked. Stay safe. For mobile phone, download apps that are ONLY in the Google play store and Apple App Store. For your computer / laptop, as well, do not download any random files from any random websites, but rather from official websites of a software provider and when you download any software, before running it's exe file, check for malware at virustotal dot com, which is a famous and reputable website providing malware scans for exe files. There is perhaps no way to always remain 100% safe all the time. However, with good precautions, one can stay safe most of the time. It is a good practice to follow precautions.

Crypto has opened for all and there are some people who do not have much technical information. They are easy target of spammers.

note to scammers: go ahead and try to take my crypto wallets that way you can learn you cant bypasss those ridiculous eth fees either!

Scammers are nowadays using compromised YouTube accounts to promote fake giveaways of cryptocurrencies such as for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Cardano, Ripple, Shiba Inu and other cryptocurrencies, with such promotions nowadays being done through live streaming on YouTube , where one would see thousands of (fake) real time viewers.
Please do not fall for such scams.

This is the base, bro

Incase you are following celebrities and top executives on social media, nowadays you can't really be sure that you're not following some impostor's social media accounts. The exact same also applies to cryptocurrencies, where malicious, impersonating social media accounts, some of which are bots, are rampant these days. Don't trust offers that come from some Twitter accounts or some Facebook accounts, especially if there seems to be an impossible result. Fake accounts are rampant everywhere.

If someone on any social media platforms asks you for even a small amount of your cryptocurrency, it's most likely you can never get it back. Just because others are replying to the offer, don't assume they aren't bots either (or fake followers). You have to be extra careful.
NEVER send your crypto to any website or any person or any group which claims 2x, 3x, etc your crypto ... Avoid getting scammed, please.

Oh, okay thanks for the warning. Humans are such dicks these days ...

justimimim said:

I like what this thread author has mentioned.
Please do not mind me saying 1 real my life thing. I was security guard for total 8 years of my life and how we are guarding our house, like that we must guard our assets also. Security is security.
So, I will like to add 1 more security related thing. If you are using Telegram and you receive any message from person you do not know, person you did not invite, then just DO NOT reply and delete that message, it can be scammer trying to do a scam with you.

Click to expand...

Yeah I have many of these scammers contacting me on discord as well. I usually block them though.

I was just reading a post of a young guy in a telegram who shared the trust wallet passphrase with a guy and lost all his coins.

Crypto amateurs please do not get lured to “bogus” websites that would typically advertise opportunities for investing in or mining for cryptocurrencies. Many of these websites will make it appear to you as though your investment is growing.
However, when you will try to withdraw your apparent profits, you will be told to send even more crypto, and you will get nothing back in the end.

Crypto Recovery Scams
Crypto recovery services are scams and they would promise to return crypto that you don’t own anymore.
Recovery of cryptocurrency that you own, such as recovering private keys from damaged hard drives, may be possible in certain cases.
These so called crypto recovery services scam gullible people by promising to recover their lost crypto, but unfortunately these con artists steal even more from victims instead.
These scammers trap gullible people who have already been victimized, offering them false promises to recover their lost crypto, for a fee.

When scam victims see ads in search results or read fake reviews / fake posts on Reddit or Twitter about successful recoveries, they get in touch with these scammer, to get their cryptocurrency back.
If a crypto recovery scammer is contacted, they will probably send bogus emails to try to convince you that they have actually located your lost cryptocurrency and that it will arrive as soon as you pay. In most cases, these scammers would have already collected some advance fee from their victims.

Avoid getting scammed
Any promise that a conformed blockchain transaction can be reversed, that someone can "hack" back your cryptocurrency, or brute-force a private key should raise a red signal right away. The moment a transaction is validated on the blockchain, it cannot be undone, it is irreversible.
The most common scamming strategy is where scammers charge an upfront fee (usually quite high) and in most cases, scammers will charge additional fees over time and provide multiple excuses for not returning the cryptocurrency.
Scammers may pose as so-called experts, such as lawyers, investigators, or law enforcement officers, and promise to recover stolen funds.

Please protect your crypto assets
Use strong and unique passwords where you need to create passwords
NEVER reveal your passwords, private keys, seed phrases to anyone at all whatsover
Enable 2FA (two factor) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) for authentications

Lately there are some newly launched crypto wallets that are decentralized or claiming to be decentralized in nature AND asking for KYC.
This ia a MAJOR red flag. DO NOT use such crypto wallets.

One example is Hybregen (domain registered on 29th Sept 2022) : On their website, it mentions "Hybregen.com Private Key Wallets are widely-used wallets for self-custody of your crypto" and right next to that it mentions "VERIFY YOUR IDENTITY A photo of your government-issued ID: Acceptable forms of ID include a driver’s license, state ID, passport, passport card, or permanent resident card".

No trustworthy decentralized crypto wallet will ask for KYC, as KYC destroys one of the very important concept(s) of decentralization.
Ofcourse a centralized crypto wallet (or exchange) asking for KYC, is normal. But, a decentralized crypto wallet asking for KYC, is not normal.
If you need to store your crypto in a decentralized wallet, then you can use trustworthy & popular decentralized crypto wallets such as Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Exodus Wallet.
AND : NEVER reveal your passwords, private keys, seed phrases to anyone at all whatsover.

Crypto Related Investment Scams
These are nothing but Ponzi schemes where the main lure is the promise of huge profits / huge gains, with no risk.
Mostly such scammers will have websites where they falsely claim to be mining Bitcoin or some other crypto, but these scammers are NOT mining any crypto at all. Such scammers also impersonate established businesses.
These scammers will promise to grow your investment from the crypto that you transfer to them.
Any promises of excessive profits for zero risks, is an easy way to spot such investment schemes of these scammers. Quite often, these schemes begin on social media or online dating sites, when out-of-the blue, an "investment manager" would contact you and enquire about your crypto assets.
Such scammers still do succeed in placing ads in Google Ads and other platforms and mostly such ads will appear as HYIP investments : High-yield investment program (HYIP) and these are fraudulent investment schemes that purports to deliver extraordinarily high returns, but are all nothing but Ponzi schemes to dupe, cheat and scam people.
Once you fall for such scams, there will be no way to recover your lost crypto. If you send these scammers any crypto, then it'll be gone forever.
AND : NEVER reveal your passwords, private keys, seed phrases to anyone at all whatsover.

Clipboard Hijacker Virus (Malware)

Clipboard Hijacker is malicious software used by cyber criminals to make fraudulent cryptocurrency transactions. This can be achieved simply by changing cryptocurrency wallet addresses from those saved in users' clipboards to others owned by cyber criminals.
Most of the crypto users use a crypto wallet through their mobile devices. It is a good practice to regularly scan your mobile devices for viruses & malware. Malwarebytes is a popular and trustworthy anti-malware and it has https://www.malwarebytes.com/mobile. The FREE versions of Malwarebytes mobile security for Android and iOS, are good enough to scan a mobile device for viruses & malware. Just check for updates (virus / malware definition updates) prior to scanning your device for viruses / malware.
Other popular anti-virus / anti-malware for mobile security are Norton, ESET & Kaspersky.
NEVER reveal your passwords, private keys, seed phrases to anyone at all whatsover.

Localbitcoins has officially announced that https://localbitcoins.com/service_closure/
And there, it mentions :-
We encourage all customers to withdraw their funds from LocalBitcoins and we ask you to proceed with withdrawing the Bitcoins from your LocalBitcoins wallet. You have 12 months to withdraw, however of course we encourage you to proceed withdrawing sooner.

LocalBitcoins is registered with and monitored by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Finland.
Nonetheless, it is better to withdraw your crypto assets from LocalBitcoins.

Next good option is perhaps Binance P2P.
However, it is always suggested to never keep your crypto assets in any centralized exchanges, except the crypto assets / quantity that you want to trade with or exchange at any given point of time.

Crypto users in India, are by now quite aware of the P2P crypto trading scams happening, especially in Binance P2P, wherein for example Mr.A sells crypto (in Binance P2P) to Mr.B and Mr.B then sends INR (Indian Rupees) from a hacked Indian bank account and then Mr.A's bank account gets frozen due to money received from a hacked bank account and Mr.A could also face some inconvenience with the police until Mr.A explains what exactly happened.
Check onramp dot money : for https://docs.onramp.money/onramp/user-guides/sell-crypto-binance-flow. And a person in India can also use onramp dot money to buy crypto using UPI or IMPS.
So, even if you are holding your crypto in Binance, you can still use onramp.money to safely (or in a much safer way) buy or sell crypto.