Funny enough The social media this days is one of the last places to go and do research on new cryptocurrency projects. Infact it was through social media promotions or hypes by celebrities that newbies have the narrative of getting rich quick through cryptocurrency. Some of these Alticoins have a very well established and even verified account to promote these projects that end up dumping.
I don’t warn People not to invest in all these alts because some of them turn out to have a great pump during the bull run I will always warn people that these alts are more less gamble to accumulate and shouldn’t be placed in same category as bitcoin. And one who is looking for an asset to invest in should stick to bitcoin only
Well, though I would also suggest inexperienced people to stay away from most of the altcoins as investing in them isn't less than gambling as you said, but sometimes these gambles are worth taking but only with very small amounts since they mostly provide a hell of a lot of tokens for only a small worth of your capital and it sometimes can hit the jackpot.
I say that because we have seen in the past where some altcoins had grown hundred folds just because of the hype from the communities and maybe also because of the buying pressure put by some unknown whales which were also results of the hype. Moral of the story is, they can pay off sometimes so they might be worth buying only with the smallest possible amounts.