How to spot an ICO SCAM

[ecnalubma]

These are good and simplified guide, but we must always remember that we must trust no one. We have always been warned, we must think twice and investigate first before we engage in any form of investments.

[1715459927]

1715459927

[1715459927]

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[user_]

Hello, everyone.
I am just wondering if there is any industry known company that does audit of ICOs? Such a company could be beneficial for both ICO issuers and for the users who want to invest. I know that the very idea of decentralization is going against such a company, but still it will be interesting to know if such companies exist. If not - that is another idea for a startup.

[CrypticGambit]

Check if the team is legit and if they habe linkedin pages

[Johnnywelsh]

Be active on forum, take others opinion on board and do your research but ultimately I think alot of it comes down to gut feeling. It's also worth taking into account risk of investing in ICO vs investing once they hit the exchanges.

E.g. Monetha ICO price is now around 3/5 on the exchange so massive drop already.

Kyber on the other hand is now 5x on exchanges. So can swing both ways.

[rudolfaxl]

These steps of spotting scams are static. I prefer interactive methods. I like to ask as many questions as I can directly devs/managers 

[dunikowski]

I hope this helps: ico.scam.network

[sangdn]

In my opinion, the most important are the project's prototype. It should work with some basic functions.
A MVP worth more than a fancy white paper.

[coingrow]

Look into the prior history of the team members. If they have not been around for a long time into social networking websites and have new accounts in websites like linkedin, it should be an instant red flag.

[anzach87]

my personal opinion is that 90% OF ICOS is just unsuccessful and failed with stupid ideas is not a scam. but there is 5% that is a scamers also there is a 5% which is a successful  and you have to make a good research to find them , do not trust anyone just trust the idea if it makes sense only .

[hua_hui]

As i am having quite active in finding good ICO, one of the best factors to determine ICO is good or bad is by the team dev. For example, we look at omisego, we have vitalik as advisor. And in fact, this factor determines how hype the ico is. A lot of people decide to join the ico is by the team members. And with hype, this will allow investor to make money out of it. So if you invest in OMG, you would have x24. Another example is knc which is x5.

[gonzalo10]

Hi guys, I want to share with you my simple methodology (beta) of spotting ICO scams.

The methodology

There are criteria with various risk points. Summarize all the points of the criteria that the ICO meets to get total score. Total score represents a risk grade on which you can lean to take a risk or not.

Scam points and criteria:
1 point: minor suspicions (for each)
3 points: anon devs; no code snippets, videos, or beta; rushing
5 points: unrealistic goals; fuzzy whitepaper; self-mod topic
10 points: bought account; no escrow

Risk and total score:
low (0-5)
medium (6-10)
high (11-15)
very high (16-20)
extremely high (21 and more)

Example

Let's imagine there's an ongoing ICO of Supercoinxxx in which you want to invest some money.

The topic is self-mod (5 points) with devs that have unrealistic goals (5 points) like creating a decentralized stock market in 2-3 month and a fuzzy whitepaper (5 points) with no technical details. Also you found two minor suspicions (2 points) based on your experience. Which gives 17 points in total. Based on that score you conclude that risk is very high and skipping this ICO.


Updated: added "no escrow" criteria.

Very good list, Also check out for those that have huge number of contributors but little amounts bordering on 0 amounts just to pump their ICOs.

[Bridgebuilder]

PM me or post here I will review them.

How do you view Envion's ICO? See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2348435.0;all
Looks legit...

[CrackDonald]

i think the actual future use of the coin/token is the most important thing

[baxupota]

The things I am looking in every ICO in which I invest is how old is the domain if it is 2-3 months old, so for me is created just for the crypto-hype and it is probably a scam. Also I look at the team and what kind of people are in it, if they have background for something familiar or something like that, so they probably are good and the project will scale. And last but not least - the smart contract, I am looking for github history and committed smart contract on their repo, just to see how it is written.

[CryptoAlphaStar]

Research to the bottom and all the darkest corners of the project - team members, social media profiles, etc. That's how I am doing it. And that's waht everybody who is contemplating investing big money in an ICO should be doing.

[Brothersav]

Solid advice. This is also true for new shitcoins that turn into pump and dumps. Take ETHD. What a fuxkin mess that was. No white paper and traded up to $5 each!

[ClvrGmr]

There many more thing to consider. Not just because they are fuzzy and decentralized team we can conclude that it is a scam. Sometimes it is not just successful. We can't easily judge such things so i suggest to have just a deep research about an ICO before anything else.

[kirikmax]

thank you for your tip, I will try your tips to choose ICO

[bitcoinbox]

The team is probably the main factor to look at before investing in a ICO.
The whitepaper is important as well. Does it look doable? realistic?

[DRVX]

I love this methodology, and I am sure it works. However, as you see, people — I mean dishonest ones — are ready to risk and invest into developing their fraud sites to steal much money further. They become more and more sly, and it is more difficult to catch the scammer.