If you are new to magic, I would not suggest that you start with spells. I would suggest instead that you start with educating yourself on what magic is, how it works, what it can do and what it cannot do. Once you have learned that you will be able to answer the question of what spells to trust and which ones to avoid.
Our General Information section has many stuck posts at the top that will help you get started.
The forum also has a lot of posts that recommend books, websites and articles to help you get started.
Hi, Braelyn, and welcome! I hope you find what you seek on the site. There are many incredibly helpful posts and knowledgeable members. :)
If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out the pinned forum posts in the Spell Casting section of the forums. They're quite helpful and definitely worth a read.
There are definitely some fake spells on here. Pretty much everything in the Trick and Fantasy sections is fake. I've heard people say that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't, which is a good rule of thumb. If something is impossible without magick, it generally isn't possible with it, either. Shapeshifting orteleportation, for example, isn't possible in the mundane world, so magick can't achieve it. Success in a career or high self-esteem, however, are possible without magick, so spells can aid in those goals.
Any spell that has an incantation in a language you aren't fluent in isn't inherently fake, but likely won't work. Sometimes people post spells in Latin to make it seem more genuine, but if you don't speak Latin, it won't make sense and probably won't work.
I always recommend doing a fair amount of research before attempting spells. If you can afford a book or two, that's great, but if not, just read forum posts and articles on here, as well as checking out some other sites. This site has a ranking system, which can help you determine if a post is from a reliable source.
I'd recommend staying away from Tumblr if you're starting out. There are some genuinely knowledgeable people in the Tumblr witchcraft community, but it gets mixed up with a lot of fake things and drama, so I think it tends to be confusing and overwhelming for beginning witches.
ThoughtCo has a pagan/Wiccan/witchcraft section you could check out.
YouTube actually has a decent selection of helpful channels related to witchcraft. If you have a particular tradition you're interested in, people on here could probably point you toward specific channels/videos.
Sorry for the long post. Hope it's not too overwhelming. It can definitely seem like way too much to wade through at first, but after doing some research and getting a bearing on the whole thing, it starts to make more sense. :) Hope that helps.
