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Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: The Cryptovator on September 03, 2018, 07:32:15 PM



Title: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: The Cryptovator on September 03, 2018, 07:32:15 PM
Every one free to use or translate my content with the reference link. I will never claim it. Just need to help people. Visit exposed Scam list by me  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5053066.0).

I don't know if there are other guidelines to spot scam ICO. I can't found an appropriate topic. Anyway, everyone has their own thought & and experience. I am going to share my thought and experience, How to spot a scam ICO . Also A simple search could save lot of money from ICO scammers (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5042574.0).

As well everyone knows what is ICO/crowd-sale. In short description, ICO or crowd-sale is one of the famous fundraising opportunities from people's.

I always care about some point before spot a scam ICO. I will describe below:

  • Domain Information. (#post_A)
  • Unprofessional Website Design. (#post_B)
  • Website Content Plagiarism/Stolen. (#post_C)
  • Fake Developers/Core Team. (#post_D)
  • Plagiarism & Unprofessional Whitepaper. (#post_E)
  • Corrupted  Roadmap.  (#post_F)
  • Existing Businesses. (#post_I)
  • No Real Concept . (#post_J)
  • No usage of Token.  (#post_K)
  • Disharmonious Token Distribution.  (#post_L)
  • Weak Community. (#post_M)
  • Breaking Own Made Rules. (#post_N)
  • No Repositories. (#post_O)
  • No Technological Explanation. (#post_P)
  • High Return Promises. (#post_Q)
  • No Real Dev's Profile link. (#post_R)
  • Fake Partnership. (#post_S)
  • Highlights Fake Database. (#post_T)
  • Bad Promotional Strategy.  (#post_U)
  • Greedy Offers. (#post_V)
  • No Reputation on social media/crypto forum. (#post_W)
  • Mixing Token Name With Existing Coin (#post_X)
  • No Clear Explanation use of raised fund. (#post_Y)
  • Discrepant Hard Cap / Soft Cap. (#post_Z)
  • Discrepant Total Supply (#post_AB)
  • Low Quality Smart Contract. (#post_AC)
  • Email Spamming. (#post_AD)
  • Low Security. (#post_AE)
  • Free Airdrop Trap. (#post_Free)
  • Report a scam ICO effectively. (#post_AF)


  • Domain Information:
Domain information is a important part to spot a scam ICO. A newly registered domain create many questions. If I found domain registration below one month, it's suspicious for me. I will consider it primary scam attempt. Because they just decide suddenly to launch an ICO for raise fund. It's not a good practice. If domain registered before 3 or 4 month, that means they have well planed from began.
However, about domain registration, another point is the owner's identity. If there is no owner identity on domain information obviously there is risk involvement. That means they use a service to protect identity. Although most ICO hides their identity, some of them are got success. It doesn't mean all ICO will be successful. So consider research about domain information before investing an ICO. You can use Whois (https://www.whois.com/whois/) website to find all information about the domain.

  • Unprofessional Website Design:
A website design indicates the skill of the developer team.  Very rare ICO's using the unique design. They just simply buy a template and higher a cheap developer for modifying the template. Sometimes I surprised once I see a template sold more than 2K times, so how many templates on the market? And do you know how many coins listed on CMC? Approx 1900+ only. So who bought too much template? The answer is an obvious scammer. I noticed some of the ICO even never removed the default logo from the infographic chart. So, should I trust them? Should I consider it a legit ICO? I don't think so. So always consider design professionalism before investing any ICO. If an ICO does not have an experienced developer then obviously their plane isn't fair.

  • Website Content Plagiarism/Stolen:
I don't know what about others, but I found many ICO's plagiarized or copy-paste from other. I consider it stolen content. Most of ICO doing that stigmatized work. It could be easily found if you are involved with ICO's. You can see almost ICO using similar content or the same content to introduce themselves. If a team not able to write unique and something new about the project so how we can expect a good result from them? Basically, a legit ICO will never follow others. They should show their creativity in their project. It's not a story writing. Just copy content from any other successful ICO to encourage investors, obviously, I will consider it a scam attempt.


  • Fake Developer/Core Team:
The fake team is the main problem now. It's spread like a virus. I called it fake viruses. Team & whitepaper is the backbone of an ICO. If the team if totally fake so what will happen? Fake means stolen pictures from other's, obviously a scammer team behind of every project. Using fake team it's clear proof of scam. I never compromised with the fake team. If the team isn't existing, how we expect a good result from an ICO? I don't think it's possible. If a team doesn't want to scam, so why they will hide their identity? Is use Stolen identity a good practice? Never, it couldn't be fair. For me, a fake team is more dangerous than no team. Because is scammed by fake team claim that will go to others. If no team on the website that means investors aware of their absences. So it depends on investors should be investing or not. If invest such as scam project, of course, he deserves a scam. Teams can be identified easily. Just use by few online tools. I have a topic regarding  on how to find fake team (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4586576.0). You can read it to know.
So please check the team also carefully before investing in an ICO.


  • Plagiarism & Unprofessional Whitepaper:
As I mention above team and whitepaper is the backbone of an ICO. So all the details about the project should be reflecting on the whitepaper. But most of ICO follow others whitepaper. It's not just guessing, I saw it practical. Direct copy-paste from another whitepaper. But unfortunately, they forgot to change the token symbol at one point. So what does mean? Obviously, they copy-paste from others. It's not very hard to find if you are related to ICO investments. Because if you read all project's whitepaper than easier to find plagiarism. Although there are some online tools to check plagiarism. It's a very important subject to read the whitepaper. The whitepaper will describe their aim. Vision, roadmap, problem, solution, use of token, blockchain technology, Soft Cap, hard cap, token distribution, fund allocation, etc everything should be a clear explanation on the whitepaper. If they never explained briefly than it indicates a scam. ICO means not just create a token and sold on the market. There should be a proper explanation about the token & project.
So don't miss to read whitepaper before investing in ICO. Although personally, I don't like to invest in ICO. But people are doing that. However, I never encourage you to invest in ICO personally. This topic just to spot scam ICO. So if you can spot any scam ICO that means you are saving lots of investors funds.


  • Corrupted Roadmap:
Maybe you are thinking roadmap how could be corrupted. But it's really possible. Corrupted means a meaningless roadmap. Some of the roadmap you will find like a description with the token distribution. Like development date, token deployment date, pre-sale date, ICO date, etc. You don't think this looks like a corruption? I consider it's a corruption. Because no meaning of roadmap if there is no clear future plane. It's important how they are going to increase their token value. What is the future plan, it will on the roadmap. However check the roadmap it's actually worthy or not, or just copy-paste from others.


  • Existing businesses:
It's also an important element of ICO. If any ICO project had a potential existing business that means there is a chance of success. Most ICO hasn't any existing business and they try to raise found. Some are use funds for increase value of their token after ICO. But it's very rare, most of them are just skip with funds. As a result, even token listed on the exchange price will drop. So somehow you will get scam. Those projects already had a good platform for invest raised funds it's could consider pretty safe. But the reality is no one can say who will skip with the fund. It depends on the team mentality. We should check their background as much as possible.


  • No Real Concept:
What is the concept? The concept means a platform, which platform they are launching with ICO. For example, exchange, advertising, the marketplace, gaming, etc. If there is no clear concept obviously it's a scam indicator. Just create a website it doesn't mean they are legit or they are going to succeed. It's very important how they are going to build their platform. It looks almost ICO using the same concept. That's why scams are increasing on the market. We should look at how interesting their concept. What is different from others. What is new they are going to us. How we could be benefited from their project except trading. If need gets to profit from trading then why we will buy their token. How they are going to develop their concept. All the points we should check about their concept. Just match with concept, roadmap, and whitepaper. If you find something wrong that means they are going to scam you. Or you will lose your money with them. Because of most of the ICO price drop after crowd-sale.
For example; I have a construction company and I need funds to expand it. I choose to raise funds by creating an ICO, so how you are going to benefit from my project? So it's not a real concept for investors.


  • No Usage of Token:
When you are wishing to buy some ICO token than think how you will use it. Is there is any source to use their token? If not then I can't say it's a potential ICO. The use of token keep the role to increase token value. If no purpose of use that token build for what? Only for trading on the exchange? It's really profitable for investors? I don't think so if no legit source of use for token means you will lose your fund. For example; if you can use a token for buy goods or services that means there is the legit reason of use token. You might consider it a legit project.


  • Disharmonious Token Distribution:
Disharmonious Token Distribution means an unfair distribution of token. Like 50% for the public 25% for the team, it will lock for 2 years, etc. However they just want to increase the demand of their token, nothing else.  All raise funds with them so why the team needs to reserve 25% and promising for the lock. I don't think there is a legit reason. Sure they will partially sell token after listed on the exchange even they will not scam directly. One they will sale their token, the price will automatically dropdown.


  • Weak Community:
A strong community is a key to success. Even for the existing coin, always need a strong community to support them. Without community a token is useless. Say, a token listed on the exchange, but there is no community to trade it. So who will buy your token? Community need before ICO and also after ICO. But the maximum project never cares about community after crowd-sale. You can check their media environment to guess how strong their community. Community real or fake. You need to observe it. Also, how is their social activity? The only way to build a community is social media. So you can guess what is going on.


  • Breaking Own Made Rules:
Every ICO has some promising rules, terms, and conditions. If they break their own made rules it's not a good sign for ICO. Rules breaking create an unexpected situation. Most investors will be disappointed due to breaking rules. For example; after raised some funds they start drama, like update whitepaper, roadmap, terms, and condition, KYC, etc. I had experienced some of ICO's increased total supply. Really it is not good practice.


  • No Repositories:
In most of ICO's, you will see they mention open source repositories. This means they should have a source for save all data include code that would accessible publicly. The most uses open source repositories in Github. It's especially for developers, they will save all the details there. But unfortunately, you will not find the Github link on most of ICO. It's a clear sign that they are not meet the minimum requirement to launch an ICO. No blockchain developer on their team. They just higher some cheap developers to build websites and deployed token.


  • No Technological Explanation:
An ICO should have a technological explanation of how projects are related to blockchain technology. Read the whitepaper, check how they present blockchain technology explanation there. Should be careful about a combination of projects and blockchain. How they are going to keep role to improve blockchain technology. If they just describe only about their project, and there is no appropriate discussion about blockchain technology, that means they never have enough knowledge about blockchain.
        

  • High Return Promises:
No doubts they are going to scam you if you see a high return investment plan on their ICO. Did you think about how they are going to pay for you? It's called a Ponzi scheme. I think no need much explanation about the high return. Just pay attention to Bitconnect (BCC).


  • No Real Dev's Profile link:
Take a look at team profile links especially LinkedIn before investing. Most of the scammer never use any profile link. Some of them create a fake profile. You can see newly created and not much connection there. Also scammer able to create all kinds of social profiles. So check profile history deeply.


  • Fake Partnership:
Most of ICO mention fake partnership. Sometime I can't stop laugh when I see some one use also google as a partner. Lol.. However its little difficult to verify partnership. But not impossible.  


  • Highlights Fake Database:
Most of ICO's highlight fake database. Like the first day of launch got 10K participant. Do you believe it? Some ICO will show 5/10 million raised in one day or 2 days. Don't believe them. I don't think it's possible. Remember all the data editable from the admin panel include a progress bar. So don't trust blindly.


  • Bad Promotional Strategy:
Must look at promotional strategy before investing in ICO. The scammer will find an easy and shortcut promotional way. The best example is Bitcointalk, always will try to use bumping service and spamming their link. You can see results on SEO rank also, how to recognize SEO rank. Check visitor from website traffic checker, like Alexa. You will get some information about how popular they are.


  • Greedy Offers:
Mostly scam ICO uses greedy offers. Like, pay for bumping ANN, pay for the positive comment on social media, pay for voting on the exchange, pay for a positive rating on the ICO listing site. Some of them will offer 200% to 500% bonus. It's not a good sign and it makes it more suspicious.


  • No Reputation on social media/crypto forum:
If you see peoples shouting scam on social media of any ICO, stay away. There should reason why people shouting as scam. Try to find what is wrong. Check the activity of the team on how they are active. Most teams hire social media managers. Try to contact the core team and ask your question. Scammer always will try to avoid many questions. They will not give you an appropriate answer.


  • Mixing Token Name With Existing Coin:
Especially I feel worried if I see connect with any token. Like Bitconnect, Ethconnect, Liteconnect, Neoconnect, EosGas, etc. Really terrible name for me. Scammer always chooses a well-reputed name to encourage peoples to invest in their projects. So they just mix a name with a well-reputed existing coin. So if you see something like this remember it, they are really not connected with any existing coin unless there is official ann from an existing coin.      


  • No Clear Explanation use of raised fund:
It's important that raised funds how are going to use. How they are going to improve their project in the future. They should have proper fund allocation and explanation. Really raised fund use only for the team? So what about investors? How they are going to bring their token/coin on top position? So look time on their fund allocation.


  • Discrepant Hard Cap / Soft Cap:
Every project has a promising hard cap and a soft cap. Read details on a whitepaper about hard cap and soft cap. If you see more than 30% soft cap target and more than 70% hard cap target its discrepant for me. I have no idea if any ICO return fund due to not reach on the soft cap.  


  • Discrepant Total Supply:
Check the total supply. Some of ICO's total supply very low, like 5M. They want to attract peoples by demand. They try to show their token is low and their demand is high. Some ICO total supply more tan Billion, they offer you cheap price. For me, both are discrepant total supply. More than 100M I will not consider this is a good ICO. Too much supply means dump after ICO.


  • Low Quality Smart Contract:
Although I am not a developer, I match smart contract with well known open-source smart contract those are already establish on market. There is a different smart contract writer. Even for 10$, you will able to deploy token (by hire). So there is not much good result you can expect. If you find wrong, that means the core team not able to write a smart contract.


  • Email Spamming:
Just say, you never register on ICO, but you continue receiving spam mail from them. So what does it mean? I have the experience, I still receiving this kind of mail. That means scammer bought mail lists from others or they hacked other servers or they already scammed you by other websites. So avoid if you find this kind of behavior.


  • Low Security:
Before register check their website how safe for you. They are using SSL or not, although its cheap but it will protect your personal information. Check also others security as much as possible.


However, I just share what is on my mind and how I spot scam ICO. I can't give any guaranty who will scam. Someone asked me how I spot scam ICO, that's why thought creates this topic.
Apologize for broken English. If you found anything wrong here or you want to add any option, let me know. I will glad to modify it.


  • Free Airdrop Trap:
This is the most common scam indication. The not only indication they will scam your MyEtherwallet. They announce a greedy airdrop offer. Then they will ask something like KYC and eventually will ask for sign a message from your MyEtherwallet. Unfortunately, they will provide you a phishing link of MyEtherwallet. If you are here your password, means within a few minutes your wallet will empty.  I have a post regarding this scam. I am the proof myself. But I never enter my private key before I check my address bar. So must be careful from this kind of scam. No doubt they will scam you. This is the trap of scam your wallet. Perhaps a few ICO could repeat it.




Report a scam ICO effectively  
There is a Scam Report Format (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260073.0) on pin post. I believe it was created to report scammer of forum members. Its not look like much appropriate for report a scam ICO. However I has created a format below, everyone free to use if want.

Accusations Formats of Scam ICO


Preview of Scam Report format for ICO:
Code:
[b]ICO Name:[/b]
[b]Scammer Website:[/b]
[b]Archived Website:[/b]
[b]ICO status:[/b] (Exit / Live / upcoming  )
[b]Bitcointalk Profile:[/b]
[b]ANN Tread:[/b]
[b]Archived ANN:[/b]
[b]Bounty Thread :[/b]
[b]Archived Bounty:[/b]
[b]Valid Reason of Accusation:[/b]


[b]Describe briefly about accusation with solid proof: [/b]



[b]Source links :[/b]


[b]Linkedln/profile Link of the team with name:[/b]


[b]Domain Information[/b]:



Preview of Scam Report format for ICO
ICO Name:
Scammer Website:
Archived Website:
ICO status: (Exit / Live / upcoming  )
Bitcointalk Profile:
ANN Tread:
Archived ANN:
Bounty Thread :
Archived Bounty:
Valid Reason of Accusation:


Describe briefly about accusation with solid proof/image/screenshots :



Source links:





Linkedln/profile Link of the team with name:

  
Domain Information:




Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: The Cryptovator on September 04, 2018, 04:55:25 AM
If you found any kind of scam ICO please report it on Scam Accusation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0) board by following above format. It will help us to save money.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: Ardazello on September 04, 2018, 07:46:43 AM
Are you asking to report about SCAM ICOs which satisfy all the parameters above (red flags) or just one of them?


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: thecoinisseur on September 04, 2018, 08:47:16 AM
Great advice! I also investigated a few ICOs a few weeks ago. I arrive at basically the same conclusions, but I use actual examples of scam ICOs. 

http://www.coinisseur.com/biggest-ico-scams-and-lessons-learned/

And I'm still perplexed at the sheer number of scams present within ICOs. And the audacity of some of them. 


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: hugeblack on September 04, 2018, 09:11:00 AM
All that mentioned is the indicators to detect Scam ICO but can only discover after a fake/hide/unknown developer team or copy/paste of site/whitepaper or the occurrence of a scam.
One of the most important indicators, in my opinion, is the amount of spending on promotion, campaigns/ICOs that pay from shit-tokens and reveal a little information is a scam one.
In general, do not invest in any ICO.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: TEMPOICO on September 04, 2018, 12:16:35 PM
Also, if there is a community manager that asks you to buy the coins from a link and not from the ICO company's website, that is most likely a scam.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: halpi on September 04, 2018, 10:56:17 PM
great instruction. but to say shorter, the main marker in scum ICO is team. if there is some hint that the team is fake - better to stay away


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: juli50 on September 04, 2018, 11:56:29 PM
Its really hard this days with icos, there are so many scammers out there. A friend showed me an ico that seems to be good, and a couple of weeks later they took all the money and left the coin, thats why I dont like to invest in icos, maybe when we have more tools to know when you are seeing a scam project, people is going to invest more in them.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Ardazello on September 05, 2018, 07:58:39 AM
One of the ways to avoid scam ICO is to follow on the money. It means you purchase token only if some reputable fund, investor or project participates in ICO.



Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Kopyleft on September 05, 2018, 08:46:11 AM
This would help protect iinvestors and bounty hunters alike from scam projects.
And never simply follow the recommendations of others, be it a crypto influencer or enthusiast.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: ICOEthics on September 05, 2018, 12:37:13 PM
Well done, we needed something like this posted here.  I think you are covering all the most important points on how to spot a scam.
More people read this post, more scams will be uncovered.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: xiaoY on September 09, 2018, 06:54:03 PM
It is good to suggest that many newbie are victims of scams, and now scams are becoming more and more embarrassing because they are not regulated, so it is very necessary for newbie to provide a way to avoid being cheated.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: thecoinisseur on September 12, 2018, 11:48:11 AM
I think you cover everything! Very impressive.

If anyone is interested, I go more into detail on how to spot an ICO scam here: http://www.coinisseur.com/what-to-look-for-in-an-ico/

I cover fewer points than the original post but provide more details regarding the most important things mentioned in it ;) I also looked into what academia has to say about ICOs. Not many sources yet, but some interesting points were made. 


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: SuiMikira on September 15, 2018, 08:42:22 AM
Thanks Coolcryptovator, i didn't concern about domain before while researching about ICO. It's obviously that ICO that has domain registration below 1 year is very very suspicious.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: The Cryptovator on September 16, 2018, 12:12:26 PM
 With your permission (and of course a linked citation), we'd like to incorporate some of your advice into our article.

The article itself will be under creative commons with no content gates

Permitted, you can use content from this post. This is for help people's so you are free to use it. On the others hand it will be much appriceated if someone translate it local board , if course you should add original reference link. So that every one will know the processor.

For your info, don't qoute whole thread for reply. It's not looking good.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: BlockTreeClub on September 16, 2018, 12:37:11 PM
Sorry about the faux pas. Thanks for the heads up.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Theb on September 16, 2018, 02:46:01 PM
You have a very nice guide going and I have one suggestion that you might want to add in your post. You should also add how their airdrops are ran as an indicator. Usually this scam ICOs also take advantage of people who are aiming to have their tokens for "free" but mostly they are being lured in their trap. Some of their trap consists of asking for their private keys, having some kind of donation in order to "verify that its their wallet", and even some kind of KYC requirement before they send the tokens but what really is happening is they are stealing from you.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: The Cryptovator on September 18, 2018, 08:34:34 PM
Snip

Thanks for remind it. Added on OP. I have experience about it. But unfortunately I forgot to add on OP.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: rosezionjohn on September 28, 2018, 06:51:48 AM
Good list. Although I do not agree to some as I think there are some exceptions, some teams are forced to break earlier promises, but this should be a good guide that could help every investors. I wanted to give merit to this post but I have nothing left  ;D


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Ucoz on September 28, 2018, 07:00:35 AM
I invest in ICO only when there are famous personalities in the development team who have already created something in their life, in general there are few such ICOs, it seems to me that smart scammers can make such ICO that it will be almost impossible to accuse them of scam in the stage of fundraising, and when there are eminent developers in the team, the likelihood of a scam is much lower, since they risk their reputation and it will be hard for them to hide with money, so in my opinion ICOs are  building mostly on trust, so you have to trust people whom you are giving money.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Jatawneh on October 02, 2018, 07:46:05 PM
hi I agree with you regarding all of your points except this: Weak Community:

Weak Community:
A strong community  is the key of success. Even for existing coin, always need strong community to support them. With out community a token is useless. Say, a token listed on exchange, but there is no community for trade it. So who will buy your token ? Community need before ICO and also after ICO. But maximum project never care about community after crowd-sale. You can check their media environment to guess how strong their community. Community real or fake. You need observe it. Also how is their social activity. Only way to build community is social media. So you can gusses what is going on.

What you stated above i agree with you but if an ICO has a weak community that may be because of  bad marketing. 
and will not lead that the project is scam, project may delayed due to weak community and may face difficulty.

so pls you can remove the Weak Community from the condition of scam ICO.
and we can put weak community under the
unsuccessful ICO due to weak community.

thank you for your subject


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Diacris on October 02, 2018, 08:51:06 PM
I appreciate the presence of such informative and assisting posts that lead the beginner investors and teach them the first steps that must be followed when they first research a project. Be it ICO or IPO.

This is a must bookmark post, or at least save the instructions provided by OP in a text book whereby any time you intend to invest in an ICO, you do your checklist properly.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: richan on October 27, 2018, 10:25:43 PM
Airdrop trap is the recent scam that I fear newbies into crypto are fallen into everyday. Airdrops sites mostly lead to phishing sites that will get away with your details to track your crytpo usage and funds availability. I recommend anyone using a brand new wallet for airdrop collection if you are addicted to it and find it hard to desist from it.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: nakamura12 on November 10, 2018, 07:11:02 PM
Bumping this thread for visibility. Knowing how to spot scam ICOs would prevent you from losing your money if you are an investor. Unsuccessful ICOs due to "WEAK COMMUNITY" will turn into a scam ICO if they want to and also ICO won't refund your money if you invested and their ICO failed. I'm sure this guide woukd surely help investors and bounty hunters spot ICO and report it.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: bobthegrownup on November 14, 2018, 01:25:26 AM
As part of my series on Bitcointalk on hackernoon, I'll be writing part 3 - - Using BitcoinTalk for Evaluating ICOs

This thread will feature prominently, so thank you for putting this together and thank you everyone for keeping it uptodate

If you have any recommendations of what needs to be in the article please PM me

Here is part 1

https://hackernoon.com/satoshis-2nd-gift-bitcointalk-52148c14885c

And part 2

https://hackernoon.com/satoshis-2nd-gift-part-2-guide-for-newbies-f44d1ceabf06


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: bobthegrownup on November 17, 2018, 08:10:43 AM
The article is now live - thanks again for the massive contributions you've made to make the community better

https://hackernoon.com/satoshis-2nd-gift-part-3-ico-research-d8e1abd48e8e


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: The Cryptovator on November 26, 2018, 01:57:58 PM
The article is now live - thanks again for the massive contributions you've made to make the community better

https://hackernoon.com/satoshis-2nd-gift-part-3-ico-research-d8e1abd48e8e

Thanks for help community. Keep it up.


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: Legolass on November 27, 2018, 01:17:08 AM
great instruction. but to say shorter, the main marker in scum ICO is team. if there is some hint that the team is fake - better to stay away
But how can we find out whether this team is fake or not. They can make fake team profile, i can not know about it. Is there any clear way to find out?


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: Marshall14 on December 08, 2018, 05:49:21 AM
But how can we find out whether this team is fake or not. They can make fake team profile, i can not know about it. Is there any clear way to find out?
Yeah, you're correct,to an extent it's almost impossible to be 100% certain a team/ico is a scam, but it's very possible to make an attempt and be correct.
If you study @OP'S guidelines thoroughly it'll aid you to spot a SCam ICo, so you can stay away from'em to avoid losing your money..

One way to know a fake team is through a project that doesn't look feasible,just laden with promises and high expectations that you damn well know for sure that a new coin wouldn't be able to achieve this..


Title: Re: Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively.
Post by: Rap0Father on December 08, 2018, 07:38:34 AM
One way to know a fake team is through a project that doesn't look feasible,just laden with promises and high expectations that you damn well know for sure that a new coin wouldn't be able to achieve this..
Yeah, better to stay away from projects which promise about high profits, bright future of token price. Whenever i read promises like these, it sounds like a ponzi scheme, i quit.
Projects which prefer to talk about their products and technology are more worth to trust.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: kingpin4321 on January 07, 2019, 06:37:45 AM
Well there are some scam ico that can still beat all this characteristic.

I have been in an ico that looks so real and still ended up as a big time scam well I would just say you do you observation and still never trust an ico hundred percent


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Erickan on February 13, 2019, 04:45:54 AM
This article is very useful, new members who can read this article can avoid scam ICOs. But for my own experience, when choosing ICO at this time, I usually give priority to the following two things:

1. At the present time, good and bad ICOs, scams mixed together, even if ico is good, it is not sure to mobilize capital successfully. So whether you are an investor or a bounty hunter, the key is to choose a successful ICO. I often check the project files on ICO evaluation sites, they will help us check the project file to avoid losing time.

2. The most important thing I need in an existing project is the organization of conferences, meetings, meeting partners to promote the project.  The best way to evaluate a project is to meet directly at the meeting.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: The Cryptovator on April 18, 2019, 01:22:52 PM
The best way to evaluate a project is to meet directly at the meeting.
Obviously this would be best way. But question is how many ICO's team members are ready for public meetup? Although we can see few teams meet with celebrity and post video or picture but publicly we can't see too much. Most of ICO's using fake team so how they will meet with public? That's the problem now a days. If team stay anonymous then that's different case, but using fake team is too dangerous.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: tranthidung on April 19, 2019, 01:16:59 PM
hi I agree with you regarding all of your points except this: Weak Community:
It is only true for old projects, with ICO projects, the criterion can not apply even we see huge community want to invest in a specific ICO. They mostly greedy to invest in ICO, but later, they might all go away after taking profits or taking losses.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Indamuck on April 25, 2019, 02:47:24 PM
I don't agree with many of your points but I'll touch on a few.

"free airdrop trap"- you must be new here but realize that many projects have had success with free distribution: Nano, NEM, Ripple, hell even bitcoin had free distribution in the early days.

"no usage of token"  Hate to break the news to you bud but most crypto is pure speculation, barely anyone is even using this stuff

"anonymous team" HELLO, satoshi was anonymous

"Mixing name with existing coin" Ok so you calling bitcoin cash, ethereum classic a scam? lol..........

"Disharmonious Distribution" Go look at how large a percentage of coins the ethereum foundation holds, same goes for ripple and those are the #2 and #3 cryptos



going by your rules,  every crypto is a scam


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: nostrings on August 18, 2019, 05:23:35 PM
I don't agree with many of your points but I'll touch on a few.

"free airdrop trap"- you must be new here but realize that many projects have had success with free distribution: Nano, NEM, Ripple, hell even bitcoin had free distribution in the early days.

"no usage of token"  Hate to break the news to you bud but most crypto is pure speculation, barely anyone is even using this stuff

"anonymous team" HELLO, satoshi was anonymous

"Mixing name with existing coin" Ok so you calling bitcoin cash, ethereum classic a scam? lol..........

"Disharmonious Distribution" Go look at how large a percentage of coins the ethereum foundation holds, same goes for ripple and those are the #2 and #3 cryptos



going by your rules,  every crypto is a scam

Ya, looks like every single crypto is a scam if we go by OPs idiotic logic.  My favorite is mixing name with existing coin,  I'm sure this idiot op wouldn't turn down 1000 free bitcoin cash into his wallet, lol what an idiot.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: The Cryptovator on October 05, 2019, 11:14:08 AM
I don't agree with many of your points but I'll touch on a few.

"free airdrop trap"- you must be new here but realize that many projects have had success with free distribution: Nano, NEM, Ripple, hell even bitcoin had free distribution in the early days.
Do you know meaning of trap? If no then learn first.


Quote
"no usage of token"  Hate to break the news to you bud but most crypto is pure speculation, barely anyone is even using this stuff
If there is no real use of token then its worthless, no doubts about it.[/quote]
Quote
"anonymous team" HELLO, satoshi was anonymous
HELLO ! Are you thinking all ICO creating by satoshi ? Then you are watching day dream.

Quote
"Mixing name with existing coin" Ok so you calling bitcoin cash, ethereum classic a scam? lol..........
Not only scam, that's all were biggest scam. You have enough knowledge them you should understand.


Quote
"Disharmonious Distribution" Go look at how large a percentage of coins the ethereum foundation holds, same goes for ripple and those are the #2 and #3 cryptos
If project is Ethereum based it doesn't mean they are Ethereum. And if you compare a token with Ethereum then it's really idiotic calculations.


Quote
going by your rules,  every crypto is a scam
You might say every upcoming! If they are not able to fill all criteria.

Ya, looks like every single crypto is a scam if we go by OPs idiotic logic.  My favorite is mixing name with existing coin,  I'm sure this idiot op wouldn't turn down 1000 free bitcoin cash into his wallet, lol what an idiot.
Hello idiot! Show me how many dollars you earned from ICO starting with 2018.

Both of you should learn first what is ICO, Hardfork, softfork, IEO, STO, and different between token and coins.


Title: Re: 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
Post by: Crytodon on October 09, 2019, 06:16:27 AM
This is such a comprehensive guide that no serious individual should ignore.
Scams may be different in names but are same in operation