Here are some tips to avoid getting scammed in an IPO and to avoid any kind of problems.1. Stop Sending funds directly to developers, Use escrow, there are many available who charge low fees.
If developer is legit he shouldn't have any problem.
2. Read escrow agreement carefully.
3. Stop sending funds from trading/exchange sites, it just creates problem in verifying investors identity and giving refunds.
(Use wallets like Bitcoin QT, Multibit, Eelectrum, Blockchain.info, Armory, Android wallets)
4. Don't go on fancy images,logo or GUI looks, sometimes reality can be different. (for example: Edgecoin,numus,stackcoin)
5. Stop jumping on the bandwagon, think twice if coin is worthy or not.
6. Read what developer is promising you in ANN, Escrow will just protect you till you get your coins,but after that you are responsible for any kind of loss. ie: wallet not working properly, fork or some other issues.
7. Check source code. Developers are coming up with new algorithms but what if it's not what they promised.
Frankly how many of you check source code or try to know about algorithm before investing funds in an IPO ?
8. Check if common services are available for coin at the time of launch or not, for example: website,social accounts, blockexplorer etc
I've seen people doing IPO's and launching coin without having a block explorer website.
9. Ask your escrow to release bitcoins only once you got what you were promised.
I've seen developers coming up new ways to fool users, ie: Giving coins on alternate client for eg:
numus or by asking escrow to release bitcoins right after giving coins to him for distribution before launching wallet files publicly.
Escrow provider should avoid this until they get confirmation from users or they check source code themselves, since every wallet looks same, developer can give you a normal scrypt wallet and transfer coins but those coins will have 0 value without the features etc he promised.
10. Steps for signing a message on blockchain.info, electrum and bitcoin-QT (I've made this long time ago)
http://pastebin.com/hEf3EP4L Images:
http://imgur.com/a/z9DzX#0