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 .
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 .
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 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 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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:[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]:
(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:
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. All the accounts are newbie how is that possible. 
.
