HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE TOKENS
Enter a decentralized exchange (dex) and look for important information. Check token sniffer to see how much quality it has reached. There are many things to consider, but for me, the important ones are liquidity lock duration and amount locked, contract renounce, amount of token owned by the team, top holders and their percentage they own, bubble map to see if there are wallets clustered and the percentage each cluster owns.
Although these metrics matter, a token can still have all these metrics and be a rug pull. It is important to also do research outside of dex screeners and look at the team, check whitepaper, check roadmap, check tokenomics. Reliable projects have all these elements.
Even if all these are present, it does not guarantee that the token is safe because scammers go to great lengths to scam you. They can create all these things, but through these details, you can identify a pattern to see if the team is legitimate or not.
The key is to do this regularly so that it becomes easier to understand and recognize scammers because experience teaches you more than being told by someone else. Don't expect me to tell you once and you will know immediately. Just take your time and after a while, you will recognize the patterns of scammers and legitimate projects.
Not financial advice do your own research!