Often as a newbie, when you see a new project you are tempted to invest in it. Why I agree that not all new projects are scam, always ensure that you do your own research before putting your hard earn money into a project, otherwise you will wake up to discover that the devs have disappeared with your money.
I have a personal experience, a friend and a mentor told me about a new project that was looking very promising, he advised that I invest in it. So, I did even without doing my little investigating, not too long, the dev pulled out liquidity and that was the end of the road for the project.
So, that's how I lost my investment in that project, though I didn't put much, just about 10$, but a lost is a lost.
Please, be careful out there, the devs are not smiling
And if you must invest in a project you are not too sure of, always put something small, don't go all in, you might end up regretting.
That was your mistake. Always do your own research before investing. Don't lower your guard in the crypto world, especially in new projects. That friend of yours might be trusted but the team in that project isn't. I always wanted to invest in new projects as well but there are a lot of run-and-gun teams out there. You need to outsmart them and dump before they can.