Newbies and when I mean newbies, it's not limited to the forum ranks but in in investment as a whole and given the cause of this thread, the crypto investments. Hence, running into loses is by newbies is very frequent and thats because of the profit oriented idea they tend to come with.
You know, you've not got to know the trade, not to mention the tricks involved, you just believe you would buy low and let it pump to the profit and that's it. Eventually, you pick the wrong project and your money is all gone!

Speaking of coins that won't turn out to be scam, there is no specific way or no telling which project could scale through in the crypto field until it eventually does. Best advice, stick with bitcoin, buy and hold for a long term to make the most out of the price fluctuations.