How to Spot Pump and Dumps and Scam Crypto Coins.

Hello Steemians, crypto investors and traders,

With so many coins being released everyday into the crypto-space it can be quite difficult to separate the legit and long term solid investment coins from the fly by the night pump and dump scam coins. Of course, a huge aspect of investing into cryptos in general is speculation. Some coins have proven themselves as holding real value while others fade into the night. I felt it was time to start an open discussion and debate about what coins we think are most likely waste of time, pump and dumps, scams, or even worse. I'm not claiming to have all the answers about every coin as many are speculation. I will share my own personal experiences, honest opinion, and information from my own research and others who have come across information regarding some of the biggest scam crypto coins. More Scam and potential Scam Coins will be added to the list below as they're exposed. I feel that in doing so we can not only share each other's research and experience, but protect ourselves and also save time and money.

My intention with this post is to raise awareness about current and potential crypto scams.

Sharing this information will also be helpful for the reputation of the legitimate coins on the crypto market and be helpful for everyone just getting into cryptos. If you've experienced any or know of any scam coins please share in the comment section below. I plan on putting together a growing list of all scam coins to avoid as it would make a great addition to future posts.

My motivation to share this in the first place was from a crypto named "1337 the elite crypto currency " that I had recently started investing in about a week ago. At the time I thought it had some potential of real growth and admittedly was suckered into it. After further research, I discovered this coin was created for the sole purpose of being pumped and dumped. I've since learned there's much more to this coin and why it was put onto the market. It wasn't just involved in a pump and dump scheme but also connected with other criminal activities. Before I go into depth about this specific coin I wanted to accumulate more evidence. Until then I advise on staying far away from the 1337 coin and anyone pushing it. Many people that downloaded the 1337 wallet have reported trojan viruses on their computer and I expect more issues will occur in the coming hours and days ahead.

Please be sure to follow me because I will soon be exposing some of the most hardcore scam coins that were only created for sinister and criminal intentions and even hidden trojan viruses in their wallets!

I will now share some steps I learned along with some basic information and similarities that most of these pump and dump and scam coins have in common. The usual red flags for coins used in pump and dump scams to look out for.

Step 1. Research.

You can use https://coinmarketcap.com http://www.badbitcoin.org(1337 is not on it yet, but they should be) and https://bitcointalk.org to check into more information on most coins. Find out as much about the coin as possible by doing even more research into Google. While some scams are very easy to spot some require more research. No real website or very lacking website or information regarding the coin is a red flag. They might even have a website but still no real information regarding the coins use or proof. Although 1337 has a "nice looking" website it has no real proof of validity. In time the scam will reveal itself. Use common sense with this one as scam coins usually try to copy other coins or make bogus claims.

Step 2. Research into the reviews on the coins wallets and reviews.

Negative reviews on the wallets aren't always a bad thing but it all depends on other factors involving the coin itself. Some wallets have even been found to contain viruses on them and much can be learned by researching into the reviews of the wallets before risking all of your coins. Especially when there's no available wallet for the MAC users. The reason is MAC's are far less susceptible to malware and viruses. Just take precaution when downloading any wallet from new or speculative coins. Regarding 1337 and the issue with viruses. Crypto Jack has deleted many peoples comments about wallet issues. I never claimed to ever download the wallet so I am reporting on others experiences and what many of his subscribers reported on his own channel. He felt it was necessary to delete the comments and leave only positive comments. Just reporting on the facts and either way 1337 has many other reasons to be avoided.

Step 3. Research into the random Youtubers that promote the coins.

Often times new or questionable coins have YouTubers making videos of themselves purchasing large quantities in attempt to persuade their followers, noobs, and others into buying in without a valid reason. If you get a bad vibe from it don't risk it. These classic pump videos are designed for only the pumper to make the profits and are obvious signs of manipulation and huge red flags. Sometimes even multiple YouTubers will be involved and people that have gotten caught up in the hype. Understand that buying in with the attempt to ride the pump is very risky and not advised for new investors as I've seen many people lose extensive amounts of money trying this. Proceed at your own risk in these situations. The Youtuber that was promoting and pumping up the 1337 coin has been blocking and deleting comments from people trying to expose 1337 and share how their computer got trojans from the 1337 wallet today. I did not attempt to download the 1337 wallet myself so I am just sharing reports from many people at this point so be advised.
Post by demogirl06 exposing CryptoJack https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@demogirl06/attention-crypto-community-help-me-expose-this-jerk

Step 4. Be on the lookout for Huge sell walls in exchanges.

For instance, Let's say you were interested in buying a coin and its very inexpensive at 1 satoshi. Before purchasing it make sure there aren't huge sell walls already setup. This happens when coins are placed on certain exchanges like Yobit and the wallets aren't working. There's so many complaints regarding yobit it would take me a day just to type them in this post. People will buy the coins only to be stuck with them unable to transfer them out of the exchange or even sell at the same price they paid. An example of a coin like this is the "ALLSAFE" coin which has a track record of being a scam. Go take a look at yobit and see for yourself. If you were to purchase any you would not be able to transfer the coin out of the exchange or sell it. Basically your money is stuck. I also highly advise never using yobit for this reason but for research purposes it might be interesting to take a look since its a good example of this type of scam.

Step 5. Stay Vigilant and Connect the Dots. Make sure you stay alert and research before buying any coin. Going down the rabbit hole of information and researching into some of these scam coins will sometimes make you uncover a trail of scams and corruption you weren't expecting. If you do please document it and share it with me on this post in the future so we can all be aware.

List of coins to avoid. Please feel free to share information on others that you feel should be added to this list.

1. 1337
2. ASAFE
3. Bunnycoin
4. AMMO AWARDS(Most likely a scam)
5. STABLECOIN - Same Scammers that created 1337

I wish you all the best success in your crypto journeys.

Please follow, upvote, and resteem if you found this post helpful and would like to see my upcoming post where I share and expose the specific coins that I've found solid evidence of being total scams and actually created by criminals.