In order to prevent falling victim to fraud, I would also like to know where the best place is for me to buy bitcoin.
If you don't care about privacy, go with centralized exchanges but you have to KYC.
It is not safe if you are a newbie and start with decentralized exchanges, no KYC is their advantages, but if you are not familiar with blockchain and cryptocurrency trading, you can lose money with Peer-to-Peer trading.
If you love DEXs and want to protect your privacy, check
https://kycnot.me/.
The bottom line is don't choose offers from other newbie traders (your trade partners) with very good offers. They create such offers to attract you and scam you.