Bitcoin Forum

I think we need this stickied.

We need a guide to safety looking for alt coins, knowing what to look for in order to identify a scam.

First rule; Spelling errors.

I am very new to alt-coins, so I'm sure many of you have some advice to give.

Some factors:
- Copied website. (There's at least one bitcoin fork that simply copied bitcoin cash's website and did very little modifications on it.)
- Copied coin with little to no modifications from the coin that it was copied from.
- an ether token claiming to be the next Bitcoin.
- Very high premine.
- Too ambitious compared to what they have developed already.
- Trying to "bring blockchain technology" to some industry where it is not useful.

To avoid scam project here my advice :
1. They have refferal system ( not all but i really hate this thing)
2. Give you big bonnuses for presale like 50 to 100% bonus.
3. Poorly design website
4. New create twitter account ( can be variable but dont focus in this one)
5. Their team unprofesional, and unknown
6. Their mission is to big and seems unreal and cant be happend.

1.A Guide to Avoid Scams
2.Never Give Out Your Email Password
3.Use Strong Passwords (and Secret Questions)
4.Do Not Buy Anything from an Email You Didn't Ask For
5.Watch Out for Job Postings That Look Too Good
6.Do Not Give Out Your Personal Info or Social Security Number
7.Learn to Use a Modern Browser's Security Features
8.Ignore Web Site Popups Saying You Have a Virus

You just presented us the average modern coin like Ripple, Dentacoin or Dogecoin.  ;D

A coins with a massive, just monstrous capitalization but no use of that coins anywhere except speculation.

I think that unknown team of developers could be identification of high risk project. Usually I check developers team and its previous projects

Thank you for this thread. Your comments is helpful specially for beginners who wanted to invest on ICO's. Appreciate the feedback on this thread.

Yes, these coins, with the exception of speculation, do not have value.

And we, the beginners, should study criptocurrencies carefully. Do not rely on someone else's opinion - You can be deceived. Later, I hope, we will distinguish at first glance the shit from the nuts.

I think you should create a thread in Scam Accusations if you want a serious discussion. little tips from me, use escrow.

I agree to you getting this stickied can help everyone here to be less prone to scam and save the time rather than doing scam and wasting their time.
Especially to new comers.

Some factors:
- Copied website. (There's at least one bitcoin fork that simply copied bitcoin cash's website and did very little modifications on it.)
- Copied coin with little to no modifications from the coin that it was copied from.
- an ether token claiming to be the next Bitcoin.
- Very high premine.
- Too ambitious compared to what they have developed already.
- Trying to "bring blockchain technology" to some industry where it is not useful.

Exactly these things bro!

It's hard for me to tell what is realistic or not when an ICO promises something... Technology is growing at an insane rate rn, so how do we tell what is realistic or not?

In my view the best way to avoid scams is by research. If you make a good reserach about ICO, it's team. Are they competent, are they have a good idea that is realistic, then it is probably not a scam.
For me the most important thing is not is the project goooood, but is the project realistic and could it be done by the current team and current technologies.

I've noticed some aspects that indicate scams like:
- fake team. they can put real photos but the description will be a lie. so check photos.
- free site hosting. especially w/out security in the left of URL line
- silly roadmap or its absence at all
- way too much nice words w/out any explanation of the project
if u see on of this it's the reason to check it asap.

I think we have to add one point regarding the team, they should be seen in video as episodes or in the meetups.
Team's profile must be updated in LinkedIn

Agreed. You need to be able to look them up on most social media as well and see their past projects. This sounds like doxing but at least you'll know they're legit. ;D

Below is a list that you should always watch out for, before buying tokens from an ICO:

- Clone of an already established (old) project
- Total coin supply (the ones with fewer supply - between a million and 100 million are good to invest)
 - Always check for the total amount that they try to gather and compare it with their project - DO THEY REALLY NEED THAT (HUGE) AMOUNT FOR THEIR PROJECT TO BE SUCCESSFUL?
- Check from sources and compare the information they give and see if that amount is sufficient (think as if you are the developer/manager of the project yourself)
- Hard Cap is a must because projects with no hard caps are just interested in gathering money and most of them probably run away (best example for this was my worst investment - Confido).

It is not as easy as one will think to identify a scam. It is the very amateurs that are easily caught with the numerous points mentioned.
There are very clever Dev. Teams that only identified after they had run away.

Yet, in hindsight, the signs are clear. I guess you learn from experience.

There isn't any point to having this stickied because any coin that is not Bitcoin is likely to scam.

Watch out how much of the total supply is used just for the devs or the team. There should always be a good amount that is reserved for the participants and potential buyers. Also watch out for copy paste project and have a look at their social media sites and their activity.

Are you topic useful? Do you use search button?

Aida's service ICO for example has dedicated 76% of it's funds for participants and only 20% for the team which looks quite fair .
One of the many reasons anyone would safely join this ICO , is that they adopted interactive smart contracts .
Apart from the solid team behind the project , it's great utility for aiming to simplify the interaction between customers, suppliers, and logistics thus solving a lot of problems of the E-commerce , Aida have showed how of a transparent company they are by using interactive smart contracts that allows investors to get back their invested funds (of course with subtracting the transaction fees from them ) ,which is a unprecedented way of assurance and that will certainly encourage people to go in since their money will be safe even if the project fails , so it'll be a win win situation for both parties and will be a very safe investment for all skeptical and non adventurous people out there .
And knowing that the company adopts such measures is certainly a way to not fall for "scam projects" .

also the team if their identity is hidden that is a big red flag .

My advice would be for you to be careful with all your activities and you should do a triple check on all your transactions. You should also use strong passwords, be mindful of unnecessary emails. Also don't in any circumstance give out your private key.

Very useful topic. Thank you all for sharing information. I was very worried about this question. Now it's not so scary to join ico.

The recent rise of the popularty of bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies, has lead of course to people abusing this to scam others and make a lot of money, the easiest way to avoid scam is to just stick to the main cryptocurrencies that are well known, but if you are determined to invest in others you should be able to determine who is scaming and who is not, usaly the scam coins will be not listed on the exchange sites, the webiste of the coin is suspicous, thier team will be a bunch of random people, they have no whitepaper or the coin's source code does not exists.

the main rule to avoid ICO scams is to check how the devs abswers to technical questions and critics.

usually, scammers let you dreams and avoids technical questions.

Always do 2fa so even they hack your account still you own the code and the very best tactic is to create new account like register again then continue to access their site so you don't have anything in their site,i think also if they can't do to withdraw your coins in the site i'm sure they will not do anything in your coins but still for more i think you need to trust if you already know it.

check their site
and
check their team is anonymous or not

There was an ICO that had everything right. The ICO was very successful yet it was a scam. Hard cap was reached and the Developer too off with the proceeds till date. It is pretty difficult to identify a scam. They are improving their schemes on a daily basis.

Is there any suggestions for avoiding scam airdrops? I've heard many people lost their wallets, info etc. because of them but I don't understand how this is possible or how to detect if an airdrop is scam.

also see their team profile and history
and if they have a phony website

Spelling errors? Might be included on the indications but not really a strong basis on spotting a scam project.When you are actively engaging into these things then the first thing you should always seek out is the transparency and experience on its developers or on the team because once you have checked on their capability then we can assume that they are legit ones not like on having a shady team.This is the thing i do always seek out.

In my opinion, once the altcoin has been indexed, the scam rate is meager, unless it works under the lending model, Ponzi is similar to Bitconnect. New ICO campaigns potentially threaten massive scams as they are likely to scam to raise capital then disappear. So to avoid scam, you need to explore the ICO project or altcoins before investing thoroughly.

see if they have a phony website and also how's their team?

super:
https://fried.com/crypto-scam-checker (https://fried.com/crypto-scam-checker)

  I think to avoid scam in ico you must read the whitepaper and road map... but for me ill make sure that the ico have many member because for me few member is too risky.in airdrop avoid  airdrop that need to be donate because airdrop muat be free..

You are Completely right!im adding some .
7. they said new customer gurantee will get beyond profit in short term like 1000% profit in a 3 month.
8. Their not selling Project , Platform . their only sell coin their made. everything you see in their threads only go to invest and sell section.

also look for their team credibility and their phony website

Before you decide to invest in a project, you need to study the management team and how it works. Do not just invest in someone else's share while you do not really research the coin you invest in, it's very dangerous because you can be scammed at any time. The person you can trust the most is yourself, remember this.

I mostly watch, review and oberved their sites, twitter posting, youtube and of course facebook if they have the kind if quality to introduce their projects because for me don't just the book by its cover will not be applicable anymore by this time because our money and efforts is at stake. Members of the team of the certain ICO should really have to be carefully review as well because some are actors.

On my suggestion to avoid any kind of scam lesson # 1 never store your Bitcoin and Altcoin to any kind of exchange if possible move or transfer it to your personal wallet much safer to hardware wallet,lesson # never exposed your private key to anyone if possible no one knows your private key only you.

For me this is how to avoid scam ICO:
1. WEBSITE must be good and presentable.
2. Check for the team members and search them on social media if they post something with it.
3. Not too big to be true bonuses.
4. They have a decent campaign manager for their ICO.
5. Good "better-best" white paper for their project.
6. read all of the comment on this thread and you will learn more, extract all the information and make it as a rule before investing to ICO.