Before diving in, the most effective way to protect yourself from scammers in the NVSTly Discord server—or any financial-related community—is to disable direct messages (DMs) from server members and block friend requests from everyone. This simple step prevents unsolicited messages and friend requests from users who are not in mutual servers or friends of your friends.

Guidelines for Safeguarding Yourself Against Scammers in the NVSTly Discord Community

• NVSTly Team Will Never DM or Friend Request You First
  Our team will never initiate contact via direct message (DM) or send you a friend request. If someone claims to represent NVSTly, they are not legitimate.
• Disable Direct Messages (DMs) for the NVSTly Server
  We’ve enabled server-wide security settings to block DMs between users for your protection. However, it’s still a good idea to manually disable DMs for the NVSTly server in your settings.
• Do Not Accept Friend Requests From Strangers
  Reject friend requests from:
  • Users without mutual servers.
  • Users who only share NVSTly as a mutual server.
  • Any strangers, period.
• Disable Friend Requests From “Everyone”
  This setting ensures only users in mutual servers or friends of friends can send you friend requests.
• All Help Must Stay Within NVSTly Channels
  All assistance should take place in NVSTly’s public server channels where our team can moderate and correct misinformation, intentional or not. Do not trust unsolicited advice from strangers in your DMs.
• Scam Warning Signs to Watch Out For
  • Bitcoin (or any crypto) giveaways are scams.
  • Beware of imposters! Scammers may pose as NVSTly staff or other community members.
  • “Special offers” or “promotions” are scams.
  • A professional financial advisor will never DM you to offer their services.
  • Messages like “We’re in the same server; let’s share trading ideas” are scams. Ignore and report them.
  • Investment opportunities, guaranteed returns, or offers to double your money are scams—nothing is guaranteed.
• General Scam Behavior
  Scammers often start with small talk to build trust and rapport. Always be cautious of unsolicited messages, no matter how friendly they seem.
• If It’s Too Good to Be True, It’s a Scam
  Trust your instincts. Protect yourself by staying vigilant and following these guidelines.

How to Detect and Identify Scammers

Scammers typically initiate contact through friend requests or direct messages (DMs) from strangers. Accepting these requests opens the door to their fraudulent schemes, often disguised as:

• Magical investment opportunities promising to double or triple your money.
• Copy trading offers with “99% win rates.”

If it sounds too good to be true—it is.

Common Scammer Tactics:

1. Building Trust Through Small Talk

• Scammers often begin with casual conversation to get to know you.
• They may even share what seems like legitimate trading advice, often stolen from experienced traders in our server.
• This is designed to build rapport and gain your trust.

2. Introducing “Guaranteed” Opportunities

• Once trust is established, they’ll subtly pitch “guaranteed” investment opportunities or lucrative copy trading capabilities.
• These offers are designed to lure you into their scam.

3. The Scam in Action

You may be asked to:

• Send money directly to them.
• Deposit funds into a fake or phishing¹ trading app, broker, financial firm, or exchange.
• Follow instructions from links sent in DMs, leading to fraudulent websites.
• Provide your email address, exposing you to phishing or spoofing¹ emails.
• Once deposited, your money cannot be withdrawn.

Protect Yourself:

• Do not accept friend requests from strangers.
• Block friend requests from users who:
  • Don’t share a mutual server.
  • Aren’t friends of friends.

Important Reminder:

While our imposter detection system works to flag and remove scammers, no system is 100% foolproof. Imposters may occasionally slip through and remain in the server for hours or even days before our manual inspections identify and remove them.

Stay vigilant and follow these guidelines to protect yourself and your investments!

Why do some scammers not share a mutual server with me?

There are two primary reasons:

1.  Impersonation of NVSTly Staff or Team Members
Many scammers impersonate staff, admins, analysts, moderators, or other members of the NVSTly team. To counteract this, we proactively ban impersonators as soon as they are detected. However, scammers often work around this by using two separate accounts:

• One account remains in the server and is used to "scrape" the member list. This allows them to collect usernames from our community.
• The second account, which is not in the server, is used to send direct messages to their targets.

This method helps scammers evade bans, as their inactive "scraper" account remains hidden and dormant while the active account operates outside of the server.

2.  Targeting New and Active Members
Scammers specifically prey on:

• New users: They look for the "New Server Member" 🍀 icon next to a username, indicating someone who might be less familiar with server protocols.
• Active chatters: Users who engage frequently in conversations are seen as more likely to respond to DMs.
• Vulnerable phrases: They target users who say things like "I'm new to trading," "I'm new to investing," or "I'm new to crypto." These phrases signal someone inexperienced, which makes them a prime target.

Disabling Direct Messages From Server Members

To protect yourself from potential scammers, it’s best practice to disable direct messages (DMs) within the NVSTly Discord server. This setting prevents anyone in the server from messaging you directly, reducing your risk of unwanted contact.

Steps to Disable Direct Messages

On PC:

1. Right-click the server icon in the left sidebar.
2. Select Privacy Settings from the menu.
3. Toggle off Direct Messages and Message Requests (this will block DMs only from this server).

On Mobile:

1. Tap and hold the server icon from the Home screen, then select More Options. Or to skip #2, tap & hold the server icon directly.
2. Tap the server name at the top of the screen (above the channel list).
3. Scroll down, if necessary, to find the Allow Direct Messages option and toggle it off.
4. Toggle off Allow Message Requests as well.

Staying Safe in the NVSTly Discord Server

If you choose to leave direct messages (DMs) enabled in the NVSTly Discord server—which we strongly advise against—exercise extreme caution with every DM you receive. If you don’t know or recognize the sender, or if you’ve never interacted with them on the server, it’s 99.99% likely to be a scam.

We also recommend disabling DMs in any financial-related server, as these communities are frequently targeted by scammers. Unfortunately, not all communities implement the same detection, removal, and security protocols that the NVSTly Discord team does.

Key Guidelines:

1. NVSTly staff, team, and analysts will NEVER:

• Request your personal or financial information.
• DM you with exclusive offers, investment opportunities, or suspicious claims.

If someone claiming to represent NVSTly contacts you with such requests, report them immediately. Official support is provided only via:

• The #help channel on Discord.
• The NVSTly Support bot (NVSTly Support#9832).
• Our contact page, or email: support@nvst.ly.

2. Never share your email with strangers. Scammers can spoof¹ emails to make them appear legitimate. If contacted by someone claiming to represent a brokerage, trading app, or financial entity:

• Do not click links they provide.
• Verify their identity by contacting the company directly using the official contact information listed on their website.

Scammers’ Tactics

Scammers are highly adaptable and constantly evolve their methods. Common tactics include:

• Starting with small, seemingly innocent conversations to build trust.
• Impersonating NVSTly staff, team members, social influencers, or representatives of brokers, exchanges, or trading apps.

When in doubt, always use the #help channel to verify claims or seek advice. Our community and moderators have experience dealing with various scam attempts and are here to assist.

Reminder for All Users

Unfortunately, some users fall victim to scams because they:

• Skip reading the information provided in the #start-here channel.
• Overlook the periodic warnings sent by our security bot in active channels.

While the majority of our community is well-versed in identifying and avoiding scams, there’s always a small percentage who might be unaware, overly trusting, or simply caught off guard.

To mitigate this, we:

• Use Discord’s built-in tools to block, detect, and remove scammers.
• Employ custom Discord bots to enhance our security measures.

Protecting our community is a priority, but staying informed and vigilant is the best way to safeguard yourself.

^{1 FBI: Spoofing & Phishing & FTC: How to recognize & avoid phishing scams}