It was a sad reality but some people scam you face to face without worrying about what will happen to them because what is in their mind is to make money by fooling investors. Their hungry for money makes them find a way to trick people by all means and succeed. I have no clue what else we can do because even though we spread awareness but still, a lot of people become a victim.
I guess, we have to accept that these scammers are a part of crypto journey and no way to rid them.
We will need to be extra careful when we invest in new projects, even in old projects we need to keep ourselves updated on what happening in that project and see for ourselves if there a suspicious movements in their chart as well if they didnt do any ways to keep their project known. There are already many coins in the market and some already built their name since they are able to survive for along time despite markets pump and dump. We should not be tempted to buy new coins without researching them. It will be our fault if we got scammed without doing our part in studying where we invest our money.
How is this a problem? What if they are already well known and they are fully aware of that, that is why they stop doing promotions for a while to spread their names more evenly. I think what you really mean there is if the project stop on developing and improving. That will looks suspicious as an investor.
If you notice that, then it can be a good sign to move away from the other active projects before it's too late. Project that can survive a couple of dumps or bears doesn't mean they are still a great project to invest in. There are lots of them but they aren't really that profitable. This is why many of us are looking forward to a new coin because their hypes are still fresh. We only need to be careful though.