For the love of god think twice before buying! Newcomers please read.

[Engineered]

As the kids of today grow up more and more learn about the wonder of bitcoin. They read stories of people getting rich in a day and how it was 2$ in the beginning. Its pretty obvious that everybody wants to make money and be rich or at least be above average money wise which opens the door to the people who prey on the weak.

Welcome to my scam coin guide!
Did you ever ask yourself if a coin is legit? Well now you are gonna learn how to know if a coin is a scam and to avoid it in the future.

As most of the older member are aware of pyramid schemes the newer generation seems to be a magnet for such things. The older people for sure remeber things like Herbalife,Bavaria,Timeshares,watchgo and so on.

What is a pyramid/ponzie scheme?

As the word says it its build as a pyramid. People on top get the money while people underneath lose it.

How do i know if a coin is a scam or a legit startup?

I always tell my friends to follow these easy steps.

1. Does it have a stupid slogan?
2. Do you have to be invited?
3. Do you have to invite people?
4. Do they tell you its the new bitcoin?
5. Do you need to buy "mining power"?
6. Do you have to buy premium packages for 100-1000€'s and cant sell the coins before a year is over?

For an expample we are gonna take #onecoin but it applies to all scam coins. This coin is a new trend in eastern and western Europe ( already under investigation for fraud in germany(https://[Suspicious link removed]/jrvpb9t ))

1. Does it have a stupid slogan?

   -  One coin, one life           Stupid slogan check!

2. Do you have to get invited?

  - Only for people with invitations, you can get invited from a person that is already a VIP          Check!

3. Do you have to invite people?

   - Inviting people gets you bonuses and more mining power          Check!

4. Do they tell you its the new bitcoin?

   - Dooh, of course its the new bitcoin right? Right guys?          Check!

5. Do you need to buy mining power?

   - At onecoin you mine with their mining power with huge servers. WHO MINES WITH SERVERS?          Motherfucking check!


6. Do you have to buy premium packages for 100-1000€'s and cant sell the coins before a year is over?

   - Of course you have to buy a mining and coin package for 100€ and cant take it out for at least a year.          Check!


In conclusion
It matches all the obvious pyramid scheme criteria. If you have to invite people to get more hashing power and you can not mine the coin alone because you dont have big enough servers (lol) its obviously a scam and please avoid those. 100-500€s is a lot. They are gonna met with you on drinks and in fancy Hotels with flashing lights and people singing and people talking how they are the best coin in the world and future is theirs. Be careful, be smart! If it sounds too good to be true,it probaly isnt true!


For any new pople interested into alternative crypto coins, you can always hit me up. I'm in the mining business for almost 7 years now. Trading coins and stocks for a living i just hate it when bad people take advantage of young people who want to make a quick buck.

Hit me up or follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/Bitradamus) for coin and stock updates.

Have a nice day and be smart. Think with your own head.

[Henkkaa]

This doesn't really fit for the altcoins announced here. There is usually ICO or premine, and you don't get anything by inviting others (pyramid scheme). Only thing is that ICO coins usually can't be sold for a good while, which gives devs good time to prepare scam. Pretty much only thing that applies to some of the alts going around here is the "This coin is the new bitcoin" thing. I think this list would fit better in the Securities section, where the investments are somwhat close to what you described.

tl;dr This list doesn't help when looking for investing opportunities in altcoins section here, so use common sense and do your own research!

[dinofelis]

Its pretty obvious that everybody wants to make money and be rich or at least be above average money wise which opens the door to the people who prey on the weak.

In a token game where no value is produced (like in a factory say), the only way to "make money" is to rip off someone else.  Token games like crypto currencies are zero-sum games.  What A wins, B loses.  There wouldn't be winners if there weren't just as many losers.

You may say: "no, with bitcoin, many people made money !"  This is not true.  All the (fiat) money made by some people has been paid by others.  Those buying bitcoin now at these prices finance the benefits of all those that bought lower and are selling it now, and the only hope you have is to sell those same coins to people at even higher prices.
It is pretty obvious that this cannot go on for ever.  You will not be able to find greater fools forever.  One day it will have to stop growing.  At $2000, at $10 000, at $100 000, I don't know.  But one day it will be evident that it will not be able to grow any more.  The last layer of buyers had then financed about all benefit that people made, and there's no hope for them to make a single dime any more.  So what's going to happen then ?

What is going to happen to a stash of bitcoin of which you KNOW that it cannot rise ?  How many years are you going to keep it ?

[Spoetnik]

Its pretty obvious that everybody wants to make money and be rich or at least be above average money wise which opens the door to the people who prey on the weak.

In a token game where no value is produced (like in a factory say), the only way to "make money" is to rip off someone else.  Token games like crypto currencies are zero-sum games.  What A wins, B loses.  There wouldn't be winners if there weren't just as many losers.

You may say: "no, with bitcoin, many people made money !"  This is not true.  All the (fiat) money made by some people has been paid by others.  Those buying bitcoin now at these prices finance the benefits of all those that bought lower and are selling it now, and the only hope you have is to sell those same coins to people at even higher prices.
It is pretty obvious that this cannot go on for ever.  You will not be able to find greater fools forever.  One day it will have to stop growing.  At $2000, at $10 000, at $100 000, I don't know.  But one day it will be evident that it will not be able to grow any more.  The last layer of buyers had then financed about all benefit that people made, and there's no hope for them to make a single dime any more.  So what's going to happen then ?

What is going to happen to a stash of bitcoin of which you KNOW that it cannot rise ?  How many years are you going to keep it ?

What is like a pyramid is the amount of winners vs losers.
You are quoted saying they are equal basically.. that is not possible mathematically.
A large gain is directly sourced from the loss of MANY.
And it is like a pyramid because all of these coins have a handful of BIG winners which are rare.

And the OP here was referring to a growing type of coin.. the MLM scam coin i think.
But it is not just that.. most coins have elements of an MLM coin scam.
You don't need to have all the boxes checked for it to be scammy.

Problem is people don't care.
It's like buying a lottery ticket for some big 50 million dollar draw.. they all know there is no chance at winning but buy into it anyway.
And users here in the Altcoin seen don't care about a coin being scammy.
All they care about is the prospects of getting in and back out again before the Pyramid collapses on them personally.
Which is tied to what coins are attractive here or not.
All the users simply gauge the amount of risk it will be for them buying into the scheme.

In reality the majority do not have any interest in what is scammy.
They really only care about whether that trade symbol on Poloniex will give them ROI'z.
So preaching to them is rather pointless.
If you point out a scam with lots of victims it will probably just attract more.. like an advertisement.

[jacaf01]

Be careful, be smart! If it sounds too good to be true,it probaly isnt true!

Engineered, I really appreciate your effort in putting this guide together. All your points highlighted above are true for newbies getting into Bitcoin because we were told it is easy to make quick money from it. I have also fall victim of these scams before from investment, ICO, Cloud mining, HYPEs etc.

The main issue is that by nature humans are greed and lazy always looking for quick bucks and shortcuts. I realize my mistake when I came to conclusion that the only free food unless it is poison.

Most of them will only learn from experience like myself.

[aioc]

Good point worth reading and a good guide for newbies,but this guides are for mlm coin not for crypto currency ico coin,but the big difference is people gets attracted to mlm type coin,because they want to be on top of the pyramid type placement,they will end up nothing..