Bitcoin Forum

 Some red flags for the beginners in the crypto world! Make sure to check these red flags before investing in any ICO.

1.CLAIMS OF HIGH, GUARANTEED RETURNS.
2.CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS.  (check their SNS where announcements are made to make sure they are genuine).
3.CLAIMS OF “SEC-COMPLIANT” (guarantees that their coins will trade on an SEC-compliant exchange where you can buy and sell them for profit)
4. INVESTING WITH A CREDIT CARD.
5. PUMP AND DUMP SCAMS.(Tempting you with guaranteed gains with pumps and dumps during pre ico to crowd sale)
6.Team members without any social profile. if they provide be sure to check the genuinity on basis of followers and background.
7.Language( grammar is correct or not)
 
and if you have done these (or not)  BE SURE TO READ THE WHITEPAPER!!

1. In any type of investment that guarantees high profits it's an indication that you are investing to a soon-to-be-scam investment.
2. Well, not all of them are scam.
3. That's just too unreal.
4. It's a no for me, don't ever use your credit card investing to such without knowing the consequences of using it.
5. All of those pump and dump coins are scams and also pump and dump groups.
6. Some teams are really valuing anonymity but better to rely with real people.
7. Yes, it's unprofessional if the language/grammar is too broke.

First of all, I'm checking team of the project. Top managers must be found in social and this must be live accs with real people with family, friends. I don't believe that anyone no doesn't exist anywhere in the social media. If I found nothing this is pure scam at 99.99%. You can try google search by photo of the team.

I often hear from people who always mention phishing scam or maybe they will be really successful and honestly we think about this issue I think cheating cheat will not exist repeatedly.

Many ICOs are scam but what I've been worrying about is exit scams, I know some projects I've invested in will be exit scams but I can neither sell them nor predict what is going to happen  :D

I'm tired of hearing about fraud,
this should be anticipated and needs to be investigated in depth until its roots
or if necessary should be enacted new rules and laws regarding this case,
because the more prevalent occurred in the world crypto,that attacked like a plant-eating pest.

Verified ICOs has a good blog post on what to look out for.

https://medium.com/@VerifiedICOs/look-out-for-these-things-before-investing-in-an-ico-b60408103425

I do not like it when they praise themselves. High ratings are indicated from different sites, many awards. They also say huge plans, difficult to implement. This causes suspicion.

I don't know how long you've been in the space but celebrity endorsement is not wrong and does not make a project a scam also the issue of SEC-compliant is only an issue for US citizen, what about people from other part of the world. I hope you know scammers are getting smarter too. For me what I tell people is too only invest what they can afford to lose

It's been a long time and a lot of suggestions and complaints from victims of fraud, based on the key to anticipate fraud, do not take direct steps to invest without knowing its true existence, fraud is always there, it's all a mistake yourself because it goes with confidence and ultimately fooled, then be patient this is a test for beginners.

Celebrity endorsement doesn't mean it's a scam, unless they do it without their knowledge! I prefer to look at ICOs where the team is completely public and not hiding behind a social media profile which was probably just created specifically for that ICO

Why is celebrity endorsement involved? I guess all kinds of their advertisements where legit as it is. From beauty products down to food products,are all patronized by many buyers because of its effectiveness or so. How come celebrities are also part in ICO? I haven't heard of any especially in local. Well,I guess in some countries but not making a noise in social media.

Almost all of these are correct however celebrity endorsement doesn't mean it is a scam. Haven't seen an ICO with a celebrity in it but for sure if it is endorsed they know how it works. I've seen a lot of ico scam with a lot of grammatical error on their site and it's funny indeed.

Nowadays, scammers are good that it is very hard to tell which is which even we did a lot of research about it that's why whenever I invest I will keep in mind that it's either I gain a lot or lose it all.

To be honest, in recent years, almost all projects fall under all these criteria, this suggests that the ICO is full of scam.

Yes scam scam scam everywhere even not in crypto industry. People are being greedy and scammer because there is involvement with financial stability. I hope some new projects will make a platform wherein scammers can be prevented and help trace them in some ways.

Totally agree :)

Noted!

edited ( for celebrity endorsements). Moreover I have just noted down some things which I have found common in most of the scams. Red flag doesnt means its  a scam but you have to be more careful and check for it.

Edited : Celebrity endorsements ( (check their SNS where announcements are made to make sure they are genuine).

Thats why you must do as much homework as you can do before investing.

check out the whitepaper and the team. It is the basic things are certainly important but often is also very often overlooked by many people. information about the team and will be important for the sake of whitepaper project progressed.

the most important point, the team that moves in it is clear about his profile. in addition to the high flying hours, and has long been engaged in the field of crypto. many real movements are published in social media, and do not hesitate to work with other teams ...
and it's very difficult to get a team like that, but at least we've tried and minimize our ICO scam encounter.
good luck

Hi, I agree with you and I have one more suggestion. If some ICO says that we need to send ETH for gas-free, Please don't do anything with them. Or they say that send ETH to get more ETH, It is truly scam.

Thanks for sharing.  The most striking one for me is the claim of guaranteed returns or high profit

Indeed a scam!

Scams and frauds have been going around the ICO and cryptocurrency platform since this whole thing started many years ago. Those scammers which had been using the HYIP formats many years ago got so excited when they learned that they can do their trade in the ICO scene and instead of just defrauding thousands here they can do their thing in millions. These scammers have become the bad names for ICO and cryptocurrency in general and even the name of Bitcoin got smeared all because many are assuming that Bitcoin is connected with them. We should really be careful and those tips above can really help. As for me, I have been imposing a one-year sabbatical leave on buying new tokens but maybe next year can be different that is if there will be good projects worth supporting.

Your listing is really good and definitely useful for beginners. What I personally noticed is that bounty campaigns that are accepting newbies too are to 99% scam. Maybe that would be another point that you can write about your list.  :)

There are many ways to check but most important is team. Top managers must be found in social and this must be live accs with real people with family, friends. I don't believe that anyone no doesn't exist anywhere in the social media. If I found nothing this is pure scam at 99.99%. You can try google search by photo of the team.

Thank you for your tips, your article is comprehensive, but the best advice is not to invest in any ICO, because good ICO also has a great chance of failure!

Yes, these are very good steps to take to avoid investing or participating in a scam project. You should also take your time to study the roadmap and broadsheet of the project, check the developer history, the manager's past achievements and history then follow your intuition.

Yeah sure i will add up the point. This list was made to identify by just seeing their website. I will make list of Red Flags in a whitepaper too. :)

yeah :D that is the most safest way!

There are really many scam on cryptocurrency but it is up to you on how to avoid them. What I do before I enter or invest into an ICO or project is that, I really read their backgrounds and also the road map of the ICO or the feedback of the people to this project so that I will be sure and make a good decision. As a part of crypto community, you must really know how to avoid scam and the secret is being a good researcher.

I agree with #1 and reading the whitepaper is also a must before making any investments.
I also like to check their social media pages and see what they post about and if the projects have any proper content.

Self moderated thread is usually sign that something is wrong.
Chance for failure is always around you will never know if you don't invest, project could become big one day and it is worth of shot. Invest what you can afford to lose, last year people were selling their houses to buy bitcoins and where are they now, they have lost at least 60% of their investment.

The first rule of investing- Invest what you can afford to loose! Because you only can do your part but still don't have control over how things eill go!

Good!
I'd like to add - check the team properly. Google their existence and profiles in social networks (FB, LinkedIn).
Couple of scam projects were caught with wrong photos of their team (XeonFrame, Benebit etc.)

If those ICOs are not scam, they can't offer high returns or talk about such things, most of projects even give no guarantee regarding exchange listing. I would rather suggest investing in solid projects.

Yes, They will not guarantee you atleast.

Thank you OP for making this post and starting this discussion. This will help the community grow. It's always sad to see new people who enters the crypto world get harmed by scams and dissuaded from exploring further.

I can add anonym team it's a big red flag
linkdin team profil created recently and on the same time as ICO launch
team from russia , arabs countries , and asia countries
compagny registred or based on russia , arabs countries , and asia countries

Tell Waves and Sonm teams about red flags with Russian team) Ada using Russian team to write code for their project. Listen more YouTubers:) I don't remember when I saw some scam ICO from Russia. But I remember a lot of scam from other countries. Write at least 3 Russian team scam ICO's? Don't remember? So do I:)

actually to answer all the things that a bounty hunter an investor feels on a white paper and you should examine it carefully and thoroughly.
the liveliness of the team and the advisor is also the key to the success of an ICO lest you get stuck with a project that culminates with a scam

This is actually the first thing I go for before even attempting to go further in checking the details of the project and if there is an available product.

It is more like investing in a company and if I cannot see the team, or know the things they have achieved in the past, or the positions they have attained, or if at all they are real, then what is there to invest in because the last time I checked, these are the ones you are really investing in since the project or product is not going to be developing itself as time goes on and that make you fish out scam pretty fast if you cannot trust the team.

You have to be very careful and not get tricked by Celebrity endorsements.  Floyd Mayweather already promoted a crypto project that turned out to be a scam.

Most Ico are scammy. Even you remember those rules well but you still have high chance of investing in scammy Ico. I prefer buying in exchange.

That is for sure an ambiguous claim. This cannot be promised by any genuine coin because the profit and the loss depends on the market demand and supply besides other factors like risk. You got to research and work a lot before picking a crypto for investing. See the project behind it and the market history. Simply going for coins that are available on low price in the market is irrational decision.

this is due to the race of the icos all want to participate even knowing that it is a fraud all want to get a token erc20 but in fact this is due to the managers and not banish because they receive in eth anticipated to publish cualuer ico now know that this capitalism but in fact master stroke

How I hate and hate these moynikas for their moshshaneichstvo if you only knew. That's how you work, work in companies, and as a result, no one will give a reward. Yes, and in life, too, the same way.

I would like to ask you to pay attention to the projects, the devs of which are from Russia. 99 percent of them are scam.

this frightening specter in the hunt for digital currency is very disappointing if in the hunt we get a scam project. semogah no one controls the whole project rather fore him no longer a scam

Cant generalize it for one country. I have seen many projects with good names in the field but still a scam.

I would like to add these too

No token use case for product

A lot of companies do not account for the fact that they should be utilizing blockchain technology when they were to do an ICO.

Empty Github/bitbucket

In an open-sourced project, development code and progress are typically updated on Github or Bitbucket. If a project is touted to be an open-source project but yet has an empty repository on Github or Bitbucket, it might be an indication that the company is not interested in development and only interested in marketing for their token sale.

That sixth reason is even enough for any smart person to know they should not even be investing at all in such a project in the first place and it is not even about any social profile, but team that does not have old social profile that has been up and running, fully functional for a long time, should not even be attempted by anyone to invest in such.

I have seen occasions where some teams will newly open LinkedIn page and put some bullshit positions or responsibilities they have had but in this day and age, any professional person in the tech industry that is just newly opening a social profile and most especially a professional one is a suspect.

even all team and management is look like fine and all progress transparance its still have  alot of risk invest in ICO right now, working product and valuable token/ coin can be a good factor.