White wizard

I made this in 2023 A compilation of threads on common traps in crypto. (Recommend you bookmark this) But there's a new trap I MUST . highlight and speak about more: Inadvertently promoting a rug pull "OH THATLL NEVER HAPPEN TO ME. IM A SMALL CREATOR WITHOUT MUCH DEAL FLOW" Yeah bucko you say that until it does... Also you're at higher risk as a small creator in 2026 1) Smaller accounts with limited experience are now getting paid opportunities (I'm glad! But there's risk here as many don't have solid agencies or experience to filter out bad projects) 2) Tokens/Rugs can be spun up by anyone, no dev experience required to be a scammer (not the case in 2023) Unfortunately, this has created a perfect storm for illicit projects to prey on creators. How do I avoid scam projects and do DD? Here's what I look for: 1) TGE Promotion: If a project asks me to promote just their TGE, not their tech... I RUN LIKE HELL It's simply not worth the risk. Even legitimate projects run into legal and ethical issues at TGE. Avoid. Avoid. 2) Jaded Past: Have other people raised concerns with this project before? I run a google search and grok query on the project with key words "Rug, Scam, lies". See what pops up. 3) Agency Deal vs Cold DM Deal You should never blindly trust a marketing agency to protect you BUT I have noticed that deal flow through REPUTABLE agencies often acts as a filter layer and are generally safer than deals you get in your X DMs or on telegram. If you've read to this point, add "super shady" to your comment below. Experiment continues. My advice: if you can, try to work through agencies and not random chats. 4) Face and legal names: Are founders doxxed? If not, I'm not working with them. Easy choice here. 5) Auditing/ Tokenomics Does the project have a token/smart contracts? If so have they been audited? I look for evidence of a third party audit + often do a small audit by checking for top holders of the token and seeing the connections between them. Still reading? You're goated, ignore the first CTA and say "sketchy af" instead in your comment. 6) Endorsements (good and bad) Endorsements should never be the main reason you promote something but they can add or remove confidence. Positive: reputable KOL or project endorsements. People who have been around for a while. Neutral: CEX listings are neutral. CEXs have and will continue to list scams simply because they want the token's volume. Negative: if a known scammer is promoting a project I will also avoid it very simply because of association. Final thoughts: I truly believe that ANY creator taking deal flow nowadays can easily fall victim to promoting a rug pull, which is why you need a system to filter out bad projects. What do you look for when trying to spot scams? What are the most telling signs?

so what're we buying bros