The best way to avoid that is to be active in the community channel so you'll get the latest updates about the project you're working on, especially on airdrops; there will be people who will do an investigation and expose the project and, of course, check the forums for any warning sign.
You are investing a lot of your time and effort, so it's important that you know very well the project you're working on, where the money and the hype are, and expect the scammers to also be there.
I am also always active in the community and the various airdrops shared have also been verified.
But it is possible that there will be some airdrops that are initially legitimate and then become airdrops scammers or just won't pay the participants,
because it always happens in airdrops that are initially hype and then after getting a lot of exposure and a lot of capital, then the airdrop allocation is reduced.
The time we invest and some of the tasks we do should be rewarded quite well.
But if it's just a very small reward, I'm sure there won't be any more hype and the project won't grow, it will just be abandoned by its users.