There are a number of precautionary measures that will allow you to reduce the risk of being cheated or scammed. Of course, not all of them will be mentioned here, but the hope is to give the reader a first idea so that he can then develop his own knowledge and see which strategies best suit his needs.
Indeed, the first major recommendation is that you carry out adequate research, because you will be the one making the decisions and it is you who must protect your assets.
Here, we can give you some tips that you may hear repeatedly in this environment, such as never share your seed phrases -which are like the access keys to your wallet- and always make sure to access official sites.
Meanwhile, here are some other strategies that can save you a headache down the road; of course, you can learn a lot more about them if you do your own research.
Hardware wallets
Simply put, anything connected to the Internet can be hacked. That's why hardware wallets have been created to add a layer of security to your interactions on Metamask, for example.
This is because, with hardware wallets, in order to send any crypto or NFT, you need to approve the transaction manually on these devices, which are similar in size to a flash drive, have a few buttons and a small screen so you can check the sending, purchase or transaction you want to perform. Of course, a hacker cannot press the buttons remotely.
There are different hardware wallets on the market. The costs of such hardware wallets vary by model and brand. The technology and attributes of the different devices vary from case to case, so you should do all the research you deem appropriate before purchasing one of them.
The basic advice we will give you here is that, obviously, never make a purchase in an unofficial site, to avoid the existence of any intermediary and, therefore, potential scammers.
Perhaps, you will never be able to reduce the risk to zero. But owning one of these hardware wallets helps to increase security notoriously.