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Alternate cryptocurrencies => Altcoin Discussion => Topic started by: sandarajasmine on January 31, 2018, 08:51:59 PM



Title: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: sandarajasmine on January 31, 2018, 08:51:59 PM
As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: integrap on January 31, 2018, 09:19:41 PM
You should check if project whitepaper is unique or not. Also you should check team members. Another important thing is marketing. Generally promising projects promote their project via different channels. Of course there is always risk to join ICO but you can lower risk by doing these things.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Mometaskers on January 31, 2018, 09:27:22 PM
Go check out their site and read the whitepaper there as well as all other info. A clumsily-written white paper would be a clue. A legit project should be easily tracked down. If you feel something is being omitted, then try to ask them in whatever channels they've made available. It's really a hit and miss. There were perfectly executed scams out there that duped a lot of people.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: GeorgeEden on January 31, 2018, 09:33:57 PM
Well i have my own strategy that i use whent he time comes to advertise and also invest on an ICO. First of all you check the project as ALWAYS and then i do a very well research about the team and their past who they are and many stuff. And also you check how they work in the meanwhile.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: princesocapuyo on January 31, 2018, 09:35:52 PM
telegram ico has a big company ehind it so it is not a sca,


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: alex-nn on January 31, 2018, 09:40:59 PM
I read Whitepaper to know the main ideas of ICO. If I like ideas I research each member of the ICO team: experience in linkedin, twitters, facebook etc. If good team and ideas = good ICO!


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: UFO2018 on February 01, 2018, 03:19:32 AM
Scam ICO has no product, people are only talking the price of coin, ICO and dont answer your questions directly. A good ICO is like admins know what they are doing, they can tell you the content of whitepage, they have a clear future plan, and they have alpha or better product already.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: l10no on February 01, 2018, 03:37:41 AM
The best way to find out, with us reading the whitepaper and then we can see who the person behind the project, if you want to join ICO I suggest you join the daneel project. ICO has been started on January 29 and has reached the softcap target. Please visit his website at www.daneel.io


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: blocklancer8 on February 01, 2018, 03:58:56 AM
Usually i will read the information Shakespeare trough the project, besides that i will discuss which ICO is good with my sister the first hE succeeds in this bitcoin world


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: haocoin on February 01, 2018, 04:33:28 AM
First, look at the feasibility of their project, then read their white paper, go to their website to see, and all other information, but some scams are perfect imperceptible, the focus is to look at other people's comments, if someone cheated always tell everyone.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: siddartha1492 on February 01, 2018, 04:59:12 AM
Frankly speaking no one can say for sure if a particular ICO will be a scam or not. I have seen many promising ICOs go scam and some genuine projects getting very less attention. But yes, the general formula to decrease your chances of investing in a scam is same.

First of all, read the short description and analyze if the project is unique, is there really a need of the product or service they are offering. If the description is mainly about token price increase, trading and so on, then that's a good sign that the ICO will be a scam. And if the project is focused mainly on their concept then read the whitepaper. Whitepaper can be very boring, but just go through it and try to understand how will they work in case they get the funding. Try to research about their team, like contacting the team members on given social media accounts to verify. If the company claims to have some well known projects and companies as its partners, then verify that also. Many a times ICOs will claim to have partnership with Amazon, Google etc. whereas they are only using their hosting services!! So verify these things. Read about the project on sites like Cointelegram (not the sponsored one). Read the replies on their Bitcointalk topic. Are they answering difficult questions or ignoring it? Are they self moderating the topic or allowing open discussions? Are other members interested in their concept (not price)?

Go through all these things and you will know for yourself if you should invest in that ICO or not.

Of course if you are more of a technical person, then try to analyze if their technology is feasible or not, or is it just some science fiction stuff going on!!


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: erickkyut on February 01, 2018, 05:13:18 AM
You need to be vigilant. No one can say that a new or existing ICO is fake or a scam unless you make a thorough research about it. Read their whitepaper, maje some research about their developers and advisors. Some fake ICO are using picture of other people as their devlopers and advisors. You need to be very careful before you invest on it. You can also ask opinions of other investors.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Gogochen on February 01, 2018, 05:17:27 AM
In general, there are several points to note.
First, observe the ICO's white paper and technical route.
Second, the search team used to have a bad record of fraud.
Third, take a look at the number of telegram groups in the ICO project, and if people talk about being positive, the ICO should be profitable.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: caloriecoin on February 01, 2018, 05:18:56 AM
As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

Check the founder's profile in LinkedIn. I got scammed by HOQU.io recently.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: VanKleiss on February 01, 2018, 05:19:33 AM
As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

The first thing that you need to research or investigate is their team and not the project or whit paper because White paper and project do not scam but people do. Verify if they really are real person or if they really are involve in the project and not a stolen identity. Many scam ICO only  use stolen Identity and change its name. Project, white paper and roadmap is just a secondary after you verified that the credibility of the team is legit.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: JainaVsUther on February 01, 2018, 05:21:28 AM
You can never be certain, some scams are well organized. The best bet is to read the whitepaper and check for any inconsistencies - is the English good? Does the project solve a unique problem that you understand? After that verify the LinkedIn of each team member and make sure they list the project as part of their current work.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Rabbai89 on February 01, 2018, 05:25:59 AM
That's a great question that i would also like to be more educated on!


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Gogochen on February 01, 2018, 05:27:00 AM
A lot of times you can't find anything through the white paper.
Because the white paper of many teams is quite elegant now,but  the ICO project is still a hoax.
I think the best way is to search for the previous degree of the team members, and many team members have serious fraud problems with their academic qualifications, so you need to be careful.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: electronicash on February 01, 2018, 05:33:56 AM
this is becoming very hard these days, waves platform had thier own incubator which those ICO under their flagship will be cooked for a bit so they know its going to be legit. but for those using their own chain or on eth network, i guess its much harder. even when they say they have linkedin accounts, those are easily created to look legit. check the advisors of the team and verify whether those advisors are indeed part of the project.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Btcvilla on February 01, 2018, 05:42:34 AM

it's hard to tell the difference for now. however, you should keep investigating and investigating the ico you are currently following. experience and knowledge are helpful in terms of assessment. you need to use logic, if an ico and dev, get out of your logic. it means that the signs point to the bad.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: semobo on February 01, 2018, 05:50:20 AM
We have to research about the project team and need to read their whitepaer.If they have long term goals then the chance is less for scam.But it is highly unpredictable the scam or not until the end of ICO sale.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Acguy on February 01, 2018, 05:56:13 AM
You just simply do your own research and not get in cause someone told you about it.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Clefnick on February 01, 2018, 06:35:57 AM
For me, I think a thorough research on the part of anyone who want to participate in any ICO is very crucial and important so as not fall into scam. Knowing a lot about the team handling the also necessary as this goes a long way to determine the success of the project.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Lindazz on February 01, 2018, 06:37:50 AM
In my opinion, most ICO is a fraud.
But even if it's a scam, that doesn't mean you can't make a profit, because the entire cryptocurrency market is now in a serious bubble.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: LancelotRay on February 01, 2018, 06:39:26 AM
Research their site, whitepaper, dev. team, etc.

Most ICOs are a scam but they can be easily avoided by doing the above.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: emmmmm on February 01, 2018, 06:53:35 AM
Generally speaking, I will study their white paper, although I can't understand it very well.
Then I will search for the scores and details of the ICO in icordrop and icorathing. If the score is high, then the ICO is not a scam.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: phr0stbyt3 on February 01, 2018, 11:38:44 AM
According to me most ico are scam it doesnt matter who is the team because ico are copy of ipo but here there is no limit people can issue unlimited amount of tokens to customers or even raise a huge amount with the permission of the regulators, there are some who take the hard work to be legit but most of them don't follow this


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Betwrong on February 01, 2018, 02:06:13 PM
Frankly speaking no one can say for sure if a particular ICO will be a scam or not. I have seen many promising ICOs go scam and some genuine projects getting very less attention. But yes, the general formula to decrease your chances of investing in a scam is same.

First of all, read the short description and analyze if the project is unique, is there really a need of the product or service they are offering. If the description is mainly about token price increase, trading and so on, then that's a good sign that the ICO will be a scam. And if the project is focused mainly on their concept then read the whitepaper. Whitepaper can be very boring, but just go through it and try to understand how will they work in case they get the funding. Try to research about their team, like contacting the team members on given social media accounts to verify. If the company claims to have some well known projects and companies as its partners, then verify that also. Many a times ICOs will claim to have partnership with Amazon, Google etc. whereas they are only using their hosting services!! So verify these things. Read about the project on sites like Cointelegram (not the sponsored one). Read the replies on their Bitcointalk topic. Are they answering difficult questions or ignoring it? Are they self moderating the topic or allowing open discussions? Are other members interested in their concept (not price)?

Go through all these things and you will know for yourself if you should invest in that ICO or not.

Of course if you are more of a technical person, then try to analyze if their technology is feasible or not, or is it just some science fiction stuff going on!!

I've come here from the sMerit Post-Review thread and I think your post deserves a merit. Indeed it is better to verify whether a partnership claimed by an ICO is real. I would even suggest to do it before reading their whitepaper and stuff to save your time, since if they are lying about partnership there's no need to read other documents.

I have one question though. Did you mean  to write Cointelegraph instead of Cointelegram?


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Bastime on February 01, 2018, 02:11:55 PM
As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

It's really difficult to know whether the ICOs are scam or not and based on my experiences I joined a lot of signature bounty campaigns that are actually scams and trying to get money from young investors and innocent people.
You can't usually rely on their website, their team and staff, their project and their white papers because everything can be fake in internet.
For me telegram channel will tell you a lot of stories because the number of people or members of their Telegram will likely enough to be true or not.
But, in the end of the day we couldn't tell the difference between scam and legitimate.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: cryptocue on February 01, 2018, 02:13:05 PM
As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?
If you read the whitepaper of a scam ICO,you will notice it is just created to raise funds,it has a business minded whitepaper which will trigger people like me to start searching for the founder's and developers background and if there is no informations about them it would be enough for me to say that this another shitty ICO project.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Bastime on February 01, 2018, 02:15:22 PM
Research their site, whitepaper, dev. team, etc.
Most ICOs are a scam but they can be easily avoided by doing the above.

I think doing what you mentioned in your statement affect always true.
Everything could be fake, everything can be copied and invite you to invest into their good project or ICOs.
You need to find good sources that their project is real and their company is real as well.
Seems like the number of telegram channel will tell you their reputation.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: toygg on February 01, 2018, 02:22:30 PM
As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

It's really difficult to know whether the ICOs are scam or not and based on my experiences I joined a lot of signature bounty campaigns that are actually scams and trying to get money from young investors and innocent people.
You can't usually rely on their website, their team and staff, their project and their white papers because everything can be fake in internet.
For me telegram channel will tell you a lot of stories because the number of people or members of their Telegram will likely enough to be true or not.
But, in the end of the day we couldn't tell the difference between scam and legitimate.

Well said. As what Bastime has pointed out, everything can be fake. One might ask why should I do my homework if everything could be faked. At least doing ur homework reduces the chance of one investing in a scam ICO. Statistics. Simply invest wat u can lose and pray that it is not a scam.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: nik9990 on February 01, 2018, 02:41:42 PM
you need to look at the rating, team, support


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: dzhan on February 01, 2018, 02:44:47 PM
If the project have a good experienced team behind it, clear whitepapers and roadmaps, nice and attractive concept, secure and well designed website, many active social media accounts, then it is legitimate, most likely, and have good potential. Otherwise it is a bit risky and better to keep away from it.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Haywhy1 on February 01, 2018, 02:46:36 PM
With new coins being launched at an accelerated pace, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify legitimate coins worthy of investment from elaborate hoaxes designed to capitalize on investor FOMO.

With initial coin offerings all the rage, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for projects with little more than a basic concept, a flashy name and some fluffy marketing and packaging has never been easier.

To be sure, a certain percentage of these projects will likely become success stories but we can also be certain that many of these blockchain based tokens are pure smoke and mirrors and nothing more.

Scanning the ICO landscape, one is particularly struck by the sheer number of ICOs that are currently underway and followed by another wave of new ICOs preparing for launch in the near future. Even though government regulators in China and Korea are clamping down on ICOs, there’s still no end in sight when it comes to novel token offerings.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: siddartha1492 on February 01, 2018, 02:52:28 PM
Frankly speaking no one can say for sure if a particular ICO will be a scam or not. I have seen many promising ICOs go scam and some genuine projects getting very less attention. But yes, the general formula to decrease your chances of investing in a scam is same.

First of all, read the short description and analyze if the project is unique, is there really a need of the product or service they are offering. If the description is mainly about token price increase, trading and so on, then that's a good sign that the ICO will be a scam. And if the project is focused mainly on their concept then read the whitepaper. Whitepaper can be very boring, but just go through it and try to understand how will they work in case they get the funding. Try to research about their team, like contacting the team members on given social media accounts to verify. If the company claims to have some well known projects and companies as its partners, then verify that also. Many a times ICOs will claim to have partnership with Amazon, Google etc. whereas they are only using their hosting services!! So verify these things. Read about the project on sites like Cointelegram (not the sponsored one). Read the replies on their Bitcointalk topic. Are they answering difficult questions or ignoring it? Are they self moderating the topic or allowing open discussions? Are other members interested in their concept (not price)?

Go through all these things and you will know for yourself if you should invest in that ICO or not.

Of course if you are more of a technical person, then try to analyze if their technology is feasible or not, or is it just some science fiction stuff going on!!

I've come here from the sMerit Post-Review thread and I think your post deserves a merit. Indeed it is better to verify whether a partnership claimed by an ICO is real. I would even suggest to do it before reading their whitepaper and stuff to save your time, since if they are lying about partnership there's no need to read other documents.

I have one question though. Did you mean  to write Cointelegraph instead of Cointelegram?

I am glad that you liked my post. And you are right, partnership thing should be confirmed even before reading the whitepaper.
LOL about the Cointelegram thing!! I always get confused there. So yes, I meant Cointelegraph and not Cointelegram.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: cryptospear on February 01, 2018, 03:01:26 PM
You will know it when you read the whitepaper,a decent ICO doesnt have a business minded whitepaper,its goal shouldnt be only to raise funds,check the developer's team if they are capable of their goals,roadmap should be clear too,check the founder's credibility if they has something bad in the past i suggest to stay away from it,and the most imporatant thing,ICO should have a good working product or services that has use in real world,these are just the basic things you should check before getting involved with these ICOs.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: shirackjs on February 01, 2018, 04:33:39 PM
It is not easy to identify scam projects, that is why it is high risk investment. And research is very important to analyze whether the project is worth investing in.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: helin9108 on February 01, 2018, 04:55:27 PM
For good ICO first you have to research all important things like Develop team, White paper, Roadmap etc.well because by this doing you will know easily that the project will be successful or not. And also check that if in real life the coin will solve that problems or not for what the coin came. And there is also good sites that can give you list of good ICO's as well.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: Benarand on February 01, 2018, 05:37:44 PM
We need to thoroughly and thoroughly study the essence of the upcoming project, the team that is working on it, the road map, white paper, the value of the token, plans for the future. And when you make sure that this is exactly what you were looking for, you can safely invest.


Title: Re: How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?
Post by: sudhirratra68 on February 03, 2018, 03:23:50 AM
There are three ways we can identify whether new/existing ICO is a scam or the real one.

1. If the developers of the ICO are anonymous or unknown and do not want to reveal their identity, it could be a scam. The case of Bitcoin creator is different because he created a network that did not depend on the trustworthiness of a central authority. So, be cautious.

2. Another sign of an ICO scam is that the developers are unable to clearly articulate a valid use case for the token. The token should serve a key purpose in the startup’s platform. If it does not, the token will not sustain its value over the long-term. Related to this problem are tokens that advertise themselves merely as digital currencies without offering any real innovations or improvements upon existing cryptocurrency technology.

3. Even if the token does have a clear use case, token buyers should be wary of startups that advertise overly-optimistic roadmaps. If the whitepaper sets an unrealistic development schedule, it either means the developers are using deceptive tactics to attract token buyers or they lack the necessary experience to give a sensible scope to the project. Either way, this does not bode well for the success of the project and its corresponding token.