A while ago scams were extremely rare, a huge amount of coins have come in. You really need to do alot of research. There is a large majority of players out there who are trying to further technological development in both services and coin development. Learn from your mistakes, everyone has lost money from bad investment.
Scammers have always been around. Two years ago I tried to buy some bitcoins for $20 each, after the scammer posted an offer here. Sent payment by paypal and never got any bitcoins. No harm done though, as Paypal refunded me. It put me off bitcoin for two years though :/