How to Detect a Scam

NigerianPrinceBait (NPB) ultimate guide to detecting a scam site.

NPB Definition of Scam
The defining parameters used here are the following:
 * Scams are a zero-sum game, where whatever the scammer gains, the victim loses
 * Scammer feeds victim a lie or bait to convince the victim to conduct a series of actions in order to lose money (or other resources, or a combination of money AND other resources) to the scammer
 * Victim has no chance of winning by following the scammer's directives

Yes, Ponzi schemes and MLM's may be "scams", but for the sake of this wiki, any mention of those will be identified as Ponzi or MLM.

For the sake of this wiki, any political or government actions, decisions, nuances, etc. will not be discussed within the scope of scams (including inflation, market manipulation, democracy or lack thereof, lobbying, etc.).

What to Look for Once You Reach a Scam Site

 * 1) Before you click on any link on Telegram, Reddit, Discord, etc. especially for the first time, please turn on VPN (or make sure it's running)
 * 2) Upon reaching the questionable site, check the top and bottom of the site. Do buttons/links to social media work? What about the contact information, does the phone number match the country and region of the address?
 * 3) * phone number: global investment brokerages usually do not publish phone numbers or they only publish toll-free numbers (and for multiple countries). Scam sites usually post a VoIP number from the US, Canada, UK, Germany or a phone number from India or Pakistan. They may also suggest only calling them via WhatsApp
 * 4) * Address: sometimes completely made up! Pull up the address on a public maps site such as Google Maps and look up business directory listings for the building at that address
 * 5) Look for the business registration document. Usually from the UK, but check NPB's World Atlas to go to that country's business registration database to look it up and verify
 * 6) Now look at the "investment plans". 1.5%/day "guaranteed is 547.5%/yr. 4%/day is 1,460%/yr. In CeFi, 8-20%/stablecoin is realistic, and 4-15%/BTC or ETH is realistic. In DeFi, earn rates in the three or four figures is only possible through trade bots, which come with its own range of risks. These "guaranteed earn rates" touted on scam sites should be enough to convince you to not proceed
 * 7) Look on the main page, about, FAQ and other pages and try to find spelling and grammar errors
 * 8) Look for the team or testimonials pictures. Run a reverse image search. Scam sites use stock photos or pictures they found on social media
 * 9) Go to main or about page and copy some of the text (obviously ommit company name in copied text), then run a web search on that next. Scam sites plagiarize text
 * 10) Do not signup. Do not register. But if we end the workflow here, what fun is that? Signup and use "null" in atast most or all the fields. A legit site would not allow this
 * 11) Poke at the site. Notice that you can only fund in Bitcoin. Copy the Bitcoin wallet address. Go to Blockchain Explorer and pull up that Bitcoin address and look at all the funds the scam site has taken from its victims. Notice that no funding methods are accepted aside Bitcoin
 * 12) Workflow ends here. Do not fund that Bitcoin wallet address because any funds you send...you'll never get them back

Alternative Scam Methods

 * Both on Telegram scam groups and on some scam sites, a very simplified workflow is presented for arbitrage. The scammer will present their wallet to receive the coins on the transfer
 * Some scam instructions ask the victim to run a browser script. Once the victim reaches a wallet transfer page, the script will display the scammer's wallet address
 * Computer viruses and keyloggers...will replace a copied crypto address with the scammer's address

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