Life is filled with scams and scammers. I'm trying to come up with the earliest ...

Most of my childhood public education was a scam. When I started high school I tested into the advanced geometry class but was getting mediocre grades in algebra (I never really did homework and held a really low gpa in middle school) so they revoked my placement. Instead I got placed in the normal geometry class with a brand new teacher that didn't want to be a teacher, and with all the kids that didn't care. I pretty much gave up on school at that point.

I'd test into advanced classes but I'd be stuck retaking the classes I had failed. Occasionally some teachers would be good at their job and intervene. I did eventually end up with a really good math teacher in high school that was super unorthodox and technology forward which is probably what eventually led me to programming. RIP Mr. Gharst.

I ended up not graduating from high school.

As a child I remember being scammed in a video game for my rare item. I was naive, they tricked me, etc lol.

Yeah I was scammed. I was balls deep in all kinds of shitcoins. I had enough ability to think for myself to stick with the ones promising some kind of invention or something, but I was stupid enough to buy shit like iota. Damn that was stupid, but also, I liked to try to use them outside of the exchange. Self Custody of iota is an absolute joke in the first place, but damn that was a life lesson.

Eventually though, I finally figured out, "wait a minute, why do all these things need their own coin?"

Nobody makes their first jump. Unless you're Roya apparently.

That's the reason I got into bitcoin. One of my best friend took from me more than I was able to lose. I believed in him and lost almost everything, thanks to that I looked for something where I didn't have to trust anyone to keep my money.

From 2019, I got scammed in multiple ways. First drone parts and drones in general. Hyped on YouTube, and people make you think the last thing is great. The day I unsubscribed to 90% of the channels I subscribed was when DJI sent for "free" drones to anyone with a sufficient amount of followers, and mysteriously everyone began talking about DJI. Next scam was the corona virus, people wanted to make me think that I would die and should stop being healthy (e.g.: do sports, go outside, go to the beach) in order to be healthy. It didn't take long for me to figure out the scam since my father is a doctor and I experienced a similar scam 2009 (H1N1 flu vaccines scam). Next scam was "crypto". Everyone knows here so I don't explain further. At least in 3 years I got scammed multidimensionally so now I am less prone to scam, so thank you DJI, Fauci and crypto. I could add to the list some courses on Udemy but I didn't pay so at least it was just a negligible waste of time.

Constantly with the fiat system imposed on us since birth. Bitcoin fixes this.

I'm fortunate enough to have never been scammed, but when I first got into the Bitcoin space a few years ago I came across plenty of scam channels on Youtube.

You can picture the thumbnails for the videos I'm talking about: Big green arrows, soy faces, titles in ALL CAPS!!!!!

There was one such channel I did actually listen to somewhat regularly. I was still figuring things out back then. This channel seemed somewhat reputable at the time and it took a few weeks before I cottoned on to the grift.

I recently checked out their channel, and they've gone downhill to the point of becoming a BitBoy clone. Bear markets do be brutal for scammers and shitcoiners.

Pretty broad definitions of "scam" here.

Apart from all the scams related to education, health or internet services that catch you offering advantages for staying with them (being these a lie), the biggest scam was in the crypto world, but it was thanks to what I discovered: Bitcoin.

It was in December 2020 when an acquaintance introduced me to a project with which she earned money without doing "nothing". Total lie.

Kuailian, is the scam, in the form of a pyramid scheme, in which you deposited ETH (approx €400 at that time) and they returned portions of that ETH to your wallet. For this, in addition, they made me create not one, but several accounts with full KYC (which I fell into), to be able to carry out the entire purchase process from Euros in my bank, to the ETH that I finally sent to their internal wallet in their platform. These applications, later, have gone bankrupt.

The good thing is that I realized it, although late, and I started to investigate. There I discovered the rabbit hole I was falling into. I fell in love with Bitcoin, but I kept trying my luck with shitcoins...

Today, I'm still waiting to be able to get rid of some of those shitcoins, but I feel more like a bitcoiner, and free, despite still using some app with KYC to make card payments (especially online).

Don't think so

Having to pay for trades on Coinbase is not a scam.

Last year I got scammed out of over 1 BTC on a cefi platform. I'm grateful for this experience, because it turned me into a Bitcoin maxi. I'm working to recover the losses.

Lol of course, I don't think anyone has made it through life without being scammed in one way shape or form. While my time in crypto is full of scams, the one scam I always remember was the first website I build for a plumber in another province, I had been so used to working online and trusting people to pay me as I never had a bad experience, so I went ahead and built the website without taking a deposit

The client was a referral from someone I had met and worked with via Linkedin and her track record was fine and then when i was done and sent the invoice, the client just went radio silence. While I could take down the site I just took it on the chin and moved on

I was scammed in Cuba where locals would exchange their local currency for my dollars when I assumed they are giving me pesos convertibles. So like for $400 worth I received like $15 worth.

Once I was scammed by an airline and ended up stuck in Indonesia, but that was probably just a mistake.

Long time ago as a kid, I was scammed in ads related Ponzi.

Yeah, by shitty Axie Infinity.

Celsius

In high school I got scammed by a guy in NYC purportedly selling fake IDs. Other than that, it’s been the FED.

Does MITM when selling bitcoin count? Warning, I already wrote about this online on r/bitcoin and elsewhere. And I was requiring fiat by cash deposit in bank, so was very confident how nothing can happen. Well, person C (the scammer) advertised cheap and/or fast sending money from Spain to Venezuela. Person A contacted C. C contacted me (call me B, money flows A -> B -> C) wanting to buy bitcoins. I give my bank account number to C, C gives it to A, A deposits, I send bitcoin to C, C disappears, A calls me a scammer. To be honest, I knew A is not C, did not think about it, cash deposit => cannot be reversed => safe. Also, A deposited money without C notifying me before, should have been a red flag for me, but I just wanted to quickly resolve the "problem" of receiving money and not knowing from who and why.

Amount: just 185 euros.

Then came a scam of Spanish "justice". I was not allowed to defend myself at the trial, e.g. could not interrogate the victim (A), "only a lawyer can do so". Not true, see art. 6.3 (d) ECHR. Guilty because I am C, that is, B = C.

Appealed, and court admits that I am not C. But I am still guilty because I should have known that 0.5 % of 1000 euro = 50 euros, which is too much for just sending the money. 0.5 % was my fee or profit, I said so at the trial. You may note that Spanish (or judicial) math is a bit strange, apparently 50% of 1000 is 5000. Also I was just sending money, A could have as well sent the money directly to C. Who cares that A has euros and C apparently wants bitcoins? Bitcoins are euros after all, selling bitcoins for euros is just resending money.

Some more appeals which were basically ignored, and then wrote to ECHR, where I stupidly missed deadline by 1 day.

Fined 180 euros (but would go to jail for 15 days if not paid).

2,4 Bitcoins back in the days - to fucking kim.com

I bought a couple of shitcoins when i first discovered bitcoin. So, yes.

I tried to sell a gift card on Paxful for BTC. The gift card didn't work.

did anyone say Celsius?

i keep getting phone calls on a weekly basis from scammers claiming they r from blockchain company. it is fun to play with them and waste their time.

How else do you learn, lol? People say you can watch others get scammed and learn from that, but I don't think that's how the psychology of scams works.

Is so simple: no shitcoins = no scams I was never scammed, because I never got into shitcoins and yeld and crap like that. Just bitcoin. And stack hard all the way.

*Have you ever been scammed

ESL here haha