[*Note: this is not something a self-admitted Canadian and American citizen would write.*]

Once again while venturing out of my comfort zone sections, I went looking for posts in Bitcoin Discusion to merit and found another old account that was either bought or hacked.  In this case, it's ShadowBits, registered on August 21, 2014.  Notice how excellent his English was back in 2014.  This is one of his earliest posts:

Honestly, I'm a Quebecois & recently also an American citizen.  I'm moving back to FL because of personal reasons but I wouldn't mind doing PR for this coin.  I love that people saved it from the scam it initially was.  I love that the fork made the wallet nicer to use too.  I can read/speak French, but I can't write it for shit, so I won't be writing at all in French.  I can try by using a hybrid mix of Google translate and correcting for the obvious errors (many) it makes.  I like the low difficulty as well and now that the scam is over, we have a coin we can believe in and know is honest.  I won't be in Quebec for at least two years, so I can't do much locally, so we need help from residents.  Do we know of any merchants who are in talks with devs (are devs still here?)?  Is there a way of closing the original ANN since it contains misinformation such as "being listed on Bittrex Exchange", which we aren't anymore because of low trade volume.  I was one of those who had to sell my coins as I saw the coin tumble.  I have less than $100 in crypto, I can't such a hit at this early stage unfortunately.  Either way, I'll now keep an eye out of this forum thread more if others are still active.  I really like seeing people from all over the world (also provinces) finding interest in this country coin.  Thank you all!

Then there was a gap between June 7, 2017 and July 20, 2017.  The post that ended that gap was this one:

Bitcointalk username: shadowbits
Forum rank: sr.member
Posts count:  420
WAVES address:3PAJvDRkwWCab5kSxR9TfczF2WwNRFrWu32

After that, his post went from excellent English ones to typical bounty shitposting nonsense like the following:

i also join the sig campaign
hoping for the success of ICO and looks like it will
Yes goodluck for the whole shadow token team
keep it up

when you say banned in my country
it means i wont be able to do any access right?
its not that i dont want to use it but how if its not allowed. if it happens that would be very sad and dissappointing in my part

*Note: this is not something a self-admitted Canadian and American citizen would write.*

...and that post quality continues to the present.  It seems obvious to me that the account changed hands in 2017.  I did check bpip to see if there was any password/e-mail change, but I'm not sure if that info shows up on a member's profile page or not.  In any case, there's no doubt in my mind this account was hacked or sold, so I'm tagging it.  Any input from the community that's constructive would be appreciated.

Self-moderated thread to keep the trolls out. 

This member cr7 registered his account on August 3, 2014.  In the first couple of years, he was pretty much a shitposter with a penchant for Games & Rounds, Off-Topic, and gambling posts.  His posts were usually one line garbage, but when he did put some effort into writing a relatively long post, the quality of English was pretty good:

Anything extra is good, no matter if small.

Promotions that require a big rollover over a initial deposit usually aren't good because you may bust and lose everything, but if you for example want to make a bankroll build plan, they probably are good, because you'll slowly increase your capital, if things goes right

Best ones are the ones you win just by playing, without rollover and such.

You would play anyway, so they are an extra

He posted kind of sporadically up until April 18th, 2018, when he wrote this post:

I think yes, it is possible.
Cos bitcoin is the coin of "1st generation" and inspite of forks and imrprovements its blockchain is not the best.
And once some coin (may be ETH) will overtake it, who knows.

This post came after a huge gap, with the previous post being on August 10th, 2017.

Since his return, he suddenly started posting with unnecessary exclamation points all over the place, and his posts became the typical generic bounty hunter shitposts:

My assumption is that Satoshi Nakamoto is a whole team of developers! Perhaps in the near future we will find out about it! The mystery always becomes obvious!

According to analysts, bitcoin remains the first crypto currency not only in terms of creation time and total capitalization, but also in terms of status and universal recognition. So there is a high probability that it will cost much more!

If you choose from these two coins, then I'm for Bitcoin. At least he will bring a stable profit, and from Litecoin do not know what to expect!

And it goes on from there to this year, with posts continuing to be like this:

The only thing that I think if oil will rise in price and the price of gasoline and diesel fuel will rise! The rise in price of gasoline will affect everything else... Connection with oil and cryptocurrency do not see!

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this before tagging him, and if anyone can find additional evidence I would be appreciative. 
Self-moderated thread to keep the trolls out.

Separate thread for this, as I'm using it for a reference in the neg I'm going to give the member in question.

The efxtrader account was created in November 2014 and could obviously create posts in English that were quite eloquent, like this one:

Nice article, any chance you could do something more in depth around the xMarket offering. For me this is a real killer bitcoin 2.0 application. A first real world practical Distributed Autonomous Corporation (DAC). This is actually much bigger news than folks realise. If this really creates a market place that is self regulating and it has the potential to displace eBay/Amazon/Silkroad all of which are centrally regulated and hence expensive to manage and run.

efxtrader continued to post (in English) up until October 13, 2015, when he wrote this:

I think think he's working on it as a long term project?

Then there's a huge gap, and when the account resumes posting on December 1, 2017 it is on the Indonesian local board with this:

semuanya masih menanti bro btw yang gajian duluan malahan peserta bounty telegram ni yah

He continues to post in Indonesian up until March 26, 2018, and after a gap of a few days he starts writing in English again on April 7, 2018--only this time, the quality of English has turned from eloquent into something that should look familiar to those of us who fight against shitposting:

From my opinion, there is something positive from that policy. That policy can avoid from criminal action like money laundrying and for goverment, that policy can prevent from massive outflow capital.

Cryptocurrency market will more growing in my opinion and its growing bigger. In the future, maybe cryptocurrency become currency and we can make transaction with people instantly and because internet become common

...and so on to the present day.  Thus, I strongly believe this account changed hands at least once in 2017 and is therefore worthy of tagging.  This thread is just to serve as a reference as I said, and efxtrader is more than welcome to defend this accusation.  It's self-moderated to keep the trolls and other assorted useless individuals away.

As an aside, I often hear the complaint that there are a lot of high-ranked accounts that are shitposters and that newbies get picked on unfairly.  I'm on the lookout for high-ranked shitposters with old accounts, because I suspect that some of them have been bought or hacked and have quietly slipped back into the spam megathreads.

Edit:  Dammit, I forgot to make the thread self-moderated.  Oh well.

Just making a reference thread, because I'm going to give the account a neg for being bought.

Note that the account nebiki was registered in 2011 and started off posting in German:

die adresse wird nach jeder transaktion geaendert. du kannst allerdings deine alten adressen weiter benutzen. unter "settings -> your receiving addresses" kannst du nachsehen, welche adressen du benutzen kannst.

but also made posts in English, which were structurally pretty good (except for capitalization):

generated 2 blocks within the last 2 days at 425mhash/s. that's 3.5 btc. mining btcs i make about 0.25 a day, so i'll keep pushing my luck on solo mining for bitcoins for another 12 days

He posted very sparsely throughout 2012-2013, with the last post in 2013 being this:

hello. i have this jalapeno which has 15 active engines on both chips, reported max hashrate is 8745MH/s and it runs at freaking 2.6V. my other one has 15 engines on both chips, reported max hashrate of 7569MH/s and runs at 3.5V. both very low hw error rate (bfg reports <0.5%). if i apply some pseudo-logic to this, i'd think that the 8745 one is a beast which could run even higher. is it possible with current fw to get this done?

Then there was a huge gap in posting until this post in June 2017:

Your words can't able to pump of the price.  

and the posts thereafter are on the Indonesian local board, like this one:

ya kalau sekarang ini sy mengira btc sebagai sumber pendapatan sampingan bukan utama karena sekarang ini saya udah ada pekerjaan utama

, and over time developed somewhat of a hard-on for huge quote pyramids until he starts to post in English in 2018:

I also think that Waves will grow. Do not sell it yet.

hopefully the wave will be able to ride the song so we can sell it again. if for now do not sell it first better in store first, no loss if you save it first.

Right now this member is a typical bounty shitposter dropping gems like these (notice lack of punctuation at the end of his sentences.  He appears to have made a new year's resolution to stop using periods on 12/31/18):

surely because the paper money will never die or be replaced by a digital currency, so whenever paper money will be used anytime and will never be lost

That's right because the blockchain technology is very useful to use, so right now there are many countries that have received or used this technology well

it's true because most people are now holding back from doing daily trading, because the market today is still difficult for us to get profits or income

the real risk of crypto is loss and loss if in my opinion, because there are already so many people who have experienced massive losses and lost a lot of money in my opinion

....and so on.  So there's no doubt in my mind that the account has been bought and is currently being used by a shitposting bounty hunter.  If anyone has any good arguments against this, I'm all ears.  

This thread is self-moderated to keep the spammers and trolls out (cryptohunter, etc.).

This is a weird one for me.  Usually when I figure out that an account has been bought or hacked, there are two main factors:  

1)  A large gap in posting.
2)  A change in posting quality, usually from decent/excellent English to piss-poor bounty hunter shitposting fare.  

I was taking a look at saulzaents' account, and there's a gap but not huge.  It's from July 30th 2018 to Jan 7th, 2019, with a single post in one of the local boards breaking that gap on Oct. 23rd 2018:

dostlar son durum nedir şimdi ? uzun zamandır yoktum aranızda signature bounty devammi hala ? ödül toplayabilen varmı imzalardan ?

Bu 2018 bizi her anlamda perişan etti. Hem elimizdeki kripto paralardan zarar ettik hem de ne kadar imzaya girdiysek fos çıktı. Bu sene henüz ödeme bile alamadım. Neyse bu ikisi birbiriyle orantılı, inşallah 2019 da tekrar doğru düzgün ICO'lar çıkar da, biz de kazanırız onlar da kazanır.

piyasalardan dolayı işte proje para toplayamıyor toplasa ödüllerinde anlamı olacak ne bilim söz verdiği tokeni dağıtacak borsaya gircek vs globalde durumlar nasıl acaba bounty anlamında herkes perişan sanırım

What is strange is that saulzaents went from posting like a typical bounty hunter:

Verge has a hard-working team. They are doing good deals with companies. I see the future good. But there is a lot of volatility right now.

...to making posts in excellent English, appropriate punctuation and everything, like this post:

I don’t use the word “never” very often (unless we’re discussing my loyalty to my favorite sports teams) but I don’t think BTC will be able to survive in its ecosystem without transaction fees.
Without miners, there is no BTC.  Miners will always want to be paid for their work.  
Nice sentiment but very unlikely.  

I would also mention that saulzaents has recently changed his password and e-mail.  This might be my inherent bitcointalk paranoia kicking in, but I've got a weird feeling that this account has been hacked or sold.  I'm looking for opinions on this, and maybe for a little volunteer help to get some more evidence (if any exists).  If I was certain this was a bought/hacked account, I'd tag it right away, but I'm not certain at all.  

Input would be appreciated, and don't be afraid to tell me this is all in my head.

This is a self-moderated thread in order to weed out the garbage posters and trolls, but I won't delete posts simply for disagreeing with me.  I just want advice and to stay on-topic.  Thanks.

Hope that got your attention, Theymos. 

I respect that you made me a merit source even though I did not ask to be one.  I'm trying to give merits to the lower ranks (Newbie-Sr. Member), but I'm always falling short of sMerits.  Always.  And I've earned quite a few sMerits from my own posts, and those are all gone now too. 

I would absolutely love to give something like 5 merits to a great post, but as it stands I feel like I have to use my sMerits in an ungenerous, miserly, ass-squeaking, and niggardly way.  Can you please, please, please up the amount of sMerits I get?  If you take a look at my meriting history, you can see what I'm talking about.  I give them out in dribs and drabs and I'd like to be able to give them out more liberally. 

Got no idea how merit-givingly active I am in comparison to other merit sources, nor do I hear any other merit source complaining about their monthly source allotments, so I don't care if you increase any other merit source's monthly sMerit number.  I just want more so I can give out more.  I would respectfully ask you to consider my request, and I thank you in advance for doing so.

I noticed this post by xysheeh03 in B&H, a section which I recently unblocked:

Because of this, many newbies will be inspired and motivated because of your understanding and goodwill. I hope I belong to those who are granted.

It's obviously a typical shitpost written in piss-poor English.  Since I'm on the hunt for newbies to merit, I checked his post history and found this one he made recently:

What is the blockchain technology? A simple and easy explanation for beginners about the basics of technology.
If you start out in the world of digital currencies, either by investing or mining in any currency, "Blocking Technology" will be the word you listen to, also known as block chain technology, and you will see its connection to topics such as encryption, currency protection from theft, how to transfer information to others and decentralization.

The importance of your understanding of technology and your understanding of the fundamentals of blockchain will improve your understanding of the digital currency and help you understand the market faster, especially as we see a large number of companies and governments that are starting to take advantage of the technology of the Blockchain because of its features and characteristics.

Basics of Blockchain Technology:
First of all, we must know that everything has a method of transmission. This method has a system of protection or encryption. For example, funds are placed in banks and must be withdrawn by the same signature or presence. However, in the world of blockchain technology and speed, a modern principle is emerging which is better, faster and safer than any other means.

Blockchain technology is a decentralized technique for storage and financial transactions and can not be modified or manipulated. For example, when you request transfer of funds to another account anywhere, this currency moves to a pool of currencies or lumps. The blockers send the agreed number or number of funds to the other account and register The number of blocks within this account.
The word "blockchain" means block mass and follows the numbers together. In this way, it can be said that the technology of the blockichain is a large digital book recorded within millions of figures such as transfers and accounts and dates of their own, the production of a fictitious person called the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, and also must be aware of the huge amount of funds transferred by the Blockchain and more than one hundred billion. All of which were made safely and easily without the need for an intermediary.


The safety of Blockchain technology does not rely on storing data stored in one place, but depends on storing it through millions of servers and places within a common database for all. This, of course, is difficult and even impossible to penetrate because millions of devices can not be accessed simultaneously. This information is available and available to all. In other words, but it is impossible to change them and tamper with them, and it is similar to the BitTorrent download system, which makes all its data decentralized.
One of the most important features of encryption for the current security situation, such as username, password is the adoption of the technology of the Blockchain to encrypt and protect information, and the origin of the existence of a network of safety (public - private) as the company produces the public safety is a sequence of symbols and letters and numbers, Private security is the number that the account holder creates and must save and protect.

Uses of blockchain technology:
The technology of the block chain is not limited to its use of financial services through the conversion of digital currencies, on the contrary, some countries, such as Honduras, are used to register land and know their owners through full encryption and smart contracts, which means away from paper transactions such as contracts and others and the trend towards more means, and followed by many countries such as Georgia and Sweden, although the details of the project is not 100% clear, but a very wonderful step.
It can also be used in the elections in all its forms. The citizen can identify his candidate during the election period and send his opinion to the General Election Commission, which in turn receives the information and knowledge of the winning candidate, and with the development of various stages and technological trends. So that it is not only for money.

"Know Your Customer" or (KYC) and anti-money laundering procedures:
The currency of Bitcoin and some digital currencies can be abused by some to take them away to suspicious tracks, but today some companies are anti-money laundering services, which may help in the spread of the technology and acceptance of the Blockchain by more countries, is to follow the global anti-money laundering systems for and a number of new projects have emerged in this area, including the traceto project, which aims to build a decentralized network of customer identification procedures.

The above post is nothing like what he usually posts, but after googling parts of it I can't find proof of plagiarism.  There was a question asked in that thread as to whether he'd translated it from somewhere.  

Does anyone feel like doing any detective work on this post?  I have a very strong suspicion that this is plagiarism.

I have a sinking suspicion that the supermine account was sold or hacked at one point.  For one thing, he used to make posts with excellent English like this one in 2015 and also seemed to have extensive knowledge of TA jargon:

Nice pics. Nevertheless what we have today is not quite the same if you look closely. Today we are seeing an text-book bear flag (sym triangle with slowing volume) indicating  lower levels in an Wave 4 Elliot Cycle. Sure it could rebounce, but that chance would be 40/60, so my bets are on bear until I see a rounded bottom or similar reversal indication.

And then there was a huge gap in posting, which seemed to stop in January 2015 and resumed on November 8th, 2017, whereupon he applied for a signature campaign 2 days later.  His posts now are typical bounty spam like this:

As you said the bitcoins are not dying the price just fell sue to the huge demand for bitcoin but in the coming days the price of ethereum will start to rise because many people got the knowledge of crypto currency so new investor will come in the near future.So it is good time to buy altcoins because the price of most altcoisn are cheaper so people who is looking for long term investment will pick their coin now foe cheap price.

and like this post, which I don't know how to quote, since the thread has been locked.

Can someone with some brains take a look at his post history and tell me if they agree with me or not?  I'm considering tagging him for using a bought/hacked account.  A lot of them popped up at the end of 2017, and I'm thinking this is another one of those.   You can go from poor English to good, but as I've said before only something like a brain injury or a drug problem would account for the quality change going the other way.

Can someone please take a look at this thread and the claims that the OP is making and then specifically take a look at this reply of mine?  I've done a lot of chemistry mathematics in my life, but it's been a hell of a long time since I've done calculus and although I took a course in econometrics in college, that also was a long time ago and it didn't teach me much about TA and how calculus is applied to stock market analysis.  I suggested that the chart he presented wasn't inflation-adjusted and that the Dow components have changed over the years.  I'd like to hear some smart people's opinions on that.

Specifically, OP is claiming that the DJIA is linear from 1989-present and that

Adjusting the chart for inflation would only lower the slope of the linear trend. My point is not the % gain (the slope).

...and if I'm not mistaken, that's completely wrong, as I explained in my last post there.  I'd like to know if I'm correct from some people who know how to do serious math as it pertains to the stock market.  I know we've got a lot of brilliant folks here and I'd like to know if what I'm reading in the linked thread is a bunch of BS or if it has some validity.

Since Economics is full of spammers, this is going to be self-moderated.  Shitposts will get deleted, while thoughtful posts that teach me something will most likely earn some merit.  I'm a merit source but I'm not sure how many sMerits I have left.  If I run out and think someone who posted here deserves merits, I'll keep track and merit him when I get topped up.

Cryptohunter has been trolling the forum extensively as of late, and there is no reasoning or rebuttal that will get through to him.  He is spreading lies and espousing a conspiracy about a "gang" that exists in his own fantasy world. 

I am therefore vowing to cease replying to any of his posts and put him back on ignore permanently, because I refuse to feed a troll who is so obviously vicious, disturbed, and hungry for attention.  This thread is for members who would like to take the same vow.  I would encourage you to do so, because that's pretty much the only way to get the trolling to stop.

If you want to take the same vow, just write your response here--that's the sole purpose of this thread and is not one for cryptohunter or his sad little alt account to post in.  Those posts will be deleted.

Dig Bicks, you started a Meta thread here, and I assume it was you who locked it.  It was a pretty cowardly thing saying I couldn't pass an algebra test and then rage-locking the thread.  I'll have you know that while I'm not a computer scientist or engineer, I made it through differential equations and linear algebra in college.  That may not be an accomplishment compared to a lot of members here who are math geniuses, but my point is that you have no idea what my level of education is.

I also don't know what your problem with signature campaigners in general is, because although many people who wear advertising in their signature space are part of the spam problem bitcointalk is facing, not all of us are part of that problem.  I get that you're a troll, but when you mention me specifically, at least be a man and keep the thread open.

Edit:

Why do you care what he writes infers?

I don't know, I can't think of a better way to pass a Wednesday night than a little verbal fencing with a troll.

I just got a PM from kingsman03, and that account is a newbie one that has a copper membership.  I have my settings such that PMs from newbies should be blocked, and I'm not sure why I got one from him.  Is that a copper member benefit or something?  I don't recall ever reading about that.

I'll lock this thread in a jiffy if I missed something or otherwise get a good answer to my question.

Edit:

<snip>

Shit, I forgot to make this thread self-moderated.

[Edit: I'll do this for preev 1:1, which is changing quite a bit as I'm waiting for people to respond.]

As stated in the title, I need 0.01BTC and have $76 PayPal, which is slightly more than preev 1:1 in your favor.

I will not send first, so please don't even ask.  

This will be a neutral feedback transaction.  

Drop me a PM with your PP e-mail, and I'll send you my BTC address.

Edit:  I'll do this for preev 1:1, which is changing quite a bit as I'm waiting for people to respond. 

I don't usually make threads about this, but these motherfuckers are pissing me off.

There's a current thread (the alts are still posting in it and I don't know if they're done) where multiple accounts, all registered on 6/30/18 in the morning hours, all with the same broken-English style, all usernames in the same "style", and all of them posting with annoying line-breaks, are posting nonsense in a nonsense thread that doesn't even make sense.  The accounts so far are:

                                Registered
franziskakuhn            6/30/18  8:36 am
tanzaholzmann          6/30/18  9:02 am
heikeweib                  6/30/18  8:03 am
utapapst                   6/30/18   7:47 am
danielafink                6/30/18   8:21 am
marianabeiber           6/30/18   7:33 am

The other members who posted in that thread are also shitposters, but the registration dates don't match the pattern, so who knows.  Can a mod maybe take a look at this?  I think this rises to the level of a ban, but that's not my call.

As stated in title, I have 0.025BTC and am looking for PayPal (Friends & Family), 1:1 Preev.  That's about $160.05 at the current rate.

Local rule:  I don't deal with anyone under Full Member and never with untrusted individuals.  Don't even post in this thread if you don't meet those criteria.

I would prefer to deal with those I've already dealt with.  You go first, preferably.  The PP party always has the upper hand anyway, with the option to charge back.

Please post here if you're interested as opposed to PM, though I'll have to send you my PP address that way.

As stated in title, I have 0.0178BTC and am looking for PayPal, 1:1 Preev.  That's about $119.32 at the current rate.

Local rule:  I don't deal with anyone under Full Member and never with untrusted individuals.  Don't even post in this thread if you don't meet those criteria.

I would prefer to deal with those I've already dealt with.  You go first, preferably.  The PP party always has the upper hand anyway, with the option to charge back.

Please post here if you're interested as opposed to PM, though I'll have to send you my PP address that way.

I made a thread about this yesterday in Altcoin Discussion, which looks to have been deleted--and it got no replies anyway, which isn't surprising since 99% of posters in that section are just looking for an easy place to post their garbage.

Anyway, I wanted to exchange a small amount of bitcoin for Dash on Changelly yesterday and noticed that Dash is no longer in their drop down menu.  Does anyone know if they've officially ditched Dash?  There's nothing on their website that I can find, and I haven't seen anything about it on bitcointalk. 

Just for the hell of it, I wanted to exchange some BTC for Dash, as I think the latter has been beaten down more so than bitcoin has, and the only way I've been trading coins for the past year or so is through Changelly.  Today when I went to do the switch I noticed that Dash is missing from their drop-down menu.  I don't see anything on their website that they stopped dealing in Dash, didn't get an e-mail (not that I would expect one), and I haven't noticed anyone talking about it on bitcointalk.

Anyone know the details about this?  I really like Changelly since Shapeshift dumped US customers, and Dash is one of my favorite altcoins.  I would hate to see this be the case that they're not exchanging Dash, but it looks like that's the reality.

My sincere apologies if I somehow missed the answer to my question somewhere along the way.  I came down with the flu when Theymos rolled out the merit system, and most of what I read for the first week of it was in a feverish daze.

I was just attempting to merit a really old post in this thread, because I really liked one of AfricanHunter's responses--and yes, I'm fully aware that it's a wasted merit.  You don't see this level of literacy much on bitcointalk anymore.

The message I got was "YOU CANNOT MERIT THIS POST".  So can someone clue me in as to whether we're not able to merit posts based on how old they are?  I assume that's the reason for the rejection.  The thread is from 2012.

Man, those old threads are some great reading.

Edit:  Hey!  I just tried meriting a new post in bitcoin discussion and it said the same thing.  Something screwy is afoot.

Mate there are no such statement anywhere that you can not merit an old post so technically you can merit to anything if you want.

Yeah, glad I'm not losing my mind--but nevertheless, I am seeing that statement when trying to merit a post by Discourze.  It's not even letting me quote the post.  It's telling me that "The post you are trying to quote either does not exist, was deleted, or is no longer viewable by you.", which is a message I've seen before but this thread hasn't been deleted that I know of.

Edited to correct THIS vs. THAT error.

Whilst perusing this hideously shitty spam megathread, it became obvious very quickly that it was created as a vehicle for some hardworking account farmers, all using crypto[something] as their usernames.  And they pretty much all suggest the same things as an answer to the OP.  The alt accounts are all registered within a month of each other and are all registered in different altcoin bounties.

I apologize if I'm pointing out to the community what I'm sure a lot of people have already noticed.  It's unbelievable to me that they have the balls to do this right out in the open.  My intention here is just to point out how bad this situation has gotten, even with the merit system.

The following accounts are connected, and I've tagged them as being spammers:

Not good strategy though it is one of the factors that i am checking,you should add some extra checkings,like the github accounts,the ICO should have some good working product or MVP! should have some good vision,roadmap and should have online presence and shouldnt be hiding their faces into someone else the whole team should be verified so that people wont hesitate to invest.

Few things that you should consider too,the github account and social media accounts should be active,they should show themselves to the people! The product is either working or with an alpha version so that you wont need to worry about how will the project be worthy! because without a working product the development will be worthless.

If you are going to join signatures you will need to do a lot of digging so that your efforts wont be wasted as far as in my experience these new projects are mostly scams,that is why we need to be sure that the team behind the ICO are real so that there will be less chances of getting scammed by these ICOs,it is more complicated than we can ever imagine.

Theres a lot of things to be considered,in addition to your posts,the team should have a github account,active social media engagements,some events that they have participated on,of if they have some good working product,MVP or if the the team has a good roadmap that is my strategy of checking the ICO if theres a potential scam.

1. Website and whitepaper. If the information the project puts out about themselves is lacking, it’s likely a bad sign.
2. Bounty pool and number of hunters. If the pool is large and the number of applicants are small, you could make more off it. There is probably more risk that the project doesn’t do well, but the reward could be worth it.
3. Bounty requirements. There may be bounties that you want to do, but don’t meet the requirements for. Research what you can actually do before putting in any work.

4. products,must have some alpha or mvp!
5.team members should be real people,if someone is hiding his identity do not join.
6.github and social media accounts should be active,

these are just the basic things you should check to lessen the risk of joining scam projects so that you wont be wasting your time and effort from these projects,always do some background check before joining so you wont regret when you have found these projects are scams ! do not rely to other's speculations always do your own digging.

Not really going to work if you didnt check the whitepaper and the roadmap,github and the social media accounts if they are active probably they are legit,people in the team shouldnt be hiding their faces or else its redflag that is why we should be doing oir own research to avoid those scams in the community!

Product,the development of the project check it in their github,the whitepaper and roadmap! theres many factors that we should be checking so that we can avoid those scam projects because almost every new projects that are being launched are scams! which is why we need to be sure that these projects that we have joined arent going to scam investors!

Product or atleat an aplha version should be existing, the github account shouldnt be outdated,and theres a lot of things that you should consider not only those what you have listed,joining signatures is indeed profitable when you have picked good bounties out of these shit projects that are commonly going to steal the investor's money.

You need to know even these things are good,these ICOs can easily turn the table upside down which is why we need to know the people behind the projects, to where the company was located,the business permit that they have so that you wont be losing your time and effort with these scam projects which are normally nowdays.

You shouldnt relying to those things because theres a lot of things to consider,the team's capability,product,platform token allocations,and other stuffs for you to confirm that the campaign is legit or atleast wont steal the bounty hunter's stakes because some of the good managers are doing shady business as they are going to have most of the rewards.

Lets suppose the things you have mentioned are all good,will you still join to the bounty campaign if the team doesnt have any github account? or the team has no background or previous successful proejcts? or atleast has MVP or working product? would you want to particiapte? if i were you i wont because these things are the most important factors you should be considering if you want to have successful ICOs.

Well if you have researched the above mentioned things you shoul have check im sure you arent going to join any scam or potential scam projects which is we should be doing our research so we wont be losing our time and effort joining potential scam projects,you shouldnt be joining campaigns which has redflags with the team member,or anything looks like scams.