How Do You Protect Yourself From Online Scammers?
Hello, amazing #indiaunited friends, how are you doing today? I have been resting all day because of Eid al-Adha. Happy celebrations to my friends.
It is frightening to find out that many individuals do not view scamming as a negative activity. While some tag it smart hustling, others claim it is a game between two greedy people trying to outsmart each other. However, for me, it is a premeditated act to swindle people of their hard-earned resources.
This was how the scammer transferred my Hives
Having said that, online scams can happen to anybody, irrespective of how careful and internet savvy one is. It can also happen out of carelessness and insensitivity. Those scammers can also take advantage of people's lack of knowledge of the working of a particular platform to perpetrate this awful act.
I was scammed around January 18, 2026. It was a horrible experience. This happened through a fake airdrop link on the Hive blockchain. I lost a total sum of about 554 HP. This does not include my alive token, which was over 700. It was a bitter experience. I was devastated and felt like quitting the platform.
My Alive tokens were transferred by the scammer
However, the likes of 
**The Gift **
To stay safe online, one needs to avoid clicking links in a rush. There should be scrutiny before we click any link. We should also verify links via Discord channels or community MODs, especially if the link comes from those communities. Now that there are various community chat platforms, one can easily verify such links before clicking them.
My HBD token transferred as well
Today, the scam of identity theft is the worst of it all and can be very dangerous because one can lose everything and become depressed and suicidal. At least, I was able to recover my account. Imagine that I have over 5000$ in that account and I could not recover the account with the efforts I have put into building the brand name 
The advice I was given when it happened to me is what I want to share here today. It is advised that you stake and save your funds in wallets and then unstake 3 days before the Hive Power Up day, which is the first day of the new month, to engage in HPUD. Avoiding random links and verifying links before clicking will protect people from these scammers.
Finally, avoiding exposing our private keys online is a serious take-home lesson because I quickly exposed mine through that link. This way, we can stay safe and have peace when we earn our rewards on the blockchain or elsewhere. Prevention, they say, is better than cure.
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