What is the first sign of a scam project (ico) for you?

[amanojaku]

check the progress
if the dev give no info or update in long time
than its sigh that the project is scam

[Zrs]

First check their  escrow system. without escrow any project can easily scam a ICO. i never join any ICO that has no escrow.its the best way for detect a ICO that its real or fake. than the team member, future plan etc is the most important things that i followed. also their working progress is also a best source of know that its scam or real.

[batang_bitcoin]

As stated in the topic, what is the first thing that makes you raise the alarm?

Actually it's hard to identify if the project is scam. They can pretend to have a very strong, responsive and friendly support. Has a transparency, white papers and road maps are realistic. But there is still only one thing left in this type of projects, it should be backed up by anyone who has a positive and big trust rating in the market that will serve as guarantor and escrow.

[adzino]

I don't think so ? I mean no one knows Satoshi/creator of bitcoin ? Doesn't make him a shitty developer right ?

You are misinterpreting what I said.  I never said those who hide their identities are ne'er do well developers. 
I added "and" between the words, not  "is".

[xiaohang07]

Uncapped ICO is the first sign of a (potential) scam project.

[Febo]

Team is the most important thing. There should be at least one known and real person in the team.
Fake names, fake photos, fake titles are the first signs for me.

Exactly. First thing you do is to check people involved. Best is if you know some from before. Not know know, but had heard of them and their previous projects.

OP asked question a bit strange. I would never enter any non opensource project unless would know people behind it are trustworthy and passionate about the project. So latter on there will be no signs since scams will not happen.  


Thing is there are now so many good projects, you must be a real idiot to give money to scammers.

[shenjing85]

Here are my red flags (no particular order):

-  Anonymous Team  ie.  FuckToken
Is anyone comfortable handing over money to someone they have never met, seen, or heard of before?

-  Inexperienced Teams
I prefer to see teams and developers that have been in their respective industries for years.  Startup and corporate experience are very important here too.  

-  Fake Profiles
Integrity is perhaps the most important trait for me personally.  Once that is betrayed, it can't be recovered.

-  No Prototype
Teams with no prototype give me a good indication of a team's ability to execute and gain traction.  It doesn't require much time to develop a proof-of-concept for any demo.  And quite frankly, every team should be required to prove that they can sweat and hustle (in a short period of time) before trying to raise millions on the open market.

-  One Person Companies
Self-explanatory

-  A large number of team members and advisors  
This scares me for multiple reasons.  First, I always laugh when a startup has no prototype but displays a large team of employees and advisors.  Additionally, teams can not be efficient at the startup stage with both.  Having a large team increases payroll and operating expense.  If a team doesn't have a product or prototype, a large team is not going to be efficient in the early stages of the company.  The same goes with having a lot of advisors as the leadership team will be pulled in many different directions.

-  Quick ICO Timeline
Everything that is worthwhile in this world takes time.  Companies that drum up an announcement, website, and try to ICO in short period of time are always questionable.

-  Questionable ICO Terms
If a team is raising an large amount of funds despite not having a product or vision to accompany the raise amount, that is always questionable.  Additionally, if the token distribution favors the founders versus the investors.

-  Solution vs. Problem
If a team isn't solving a problem with a large pain point across many people, it is likely to not have a lot of impact and potential.

-  No Clear Roadmap
A team should be able to articulate the results and direction for the company the last six and next six months, respectively.  If not, then they haven't done the necessary diligence to plan and succeed.

Cool, you have listed almost all my red flags for a ICO project scam. I think the team and the idea are the most important factors to be a successful ICO project.

[Amevalentine]

What is the product they are offering? Does using blockchain. Actually make sense?

Tons of icos use blockchain simply to raise millions.

Also, the team is very important. I'd they are known in the scene it is generally more likely that they will not scam you (remember, the project can still fail!)

sure, team profile very important. since many ico coming and failed every moment.
and i seen Timeline is something that needed to pay attention.
when the announcement has short time period, it looks to fast collect money without long planning term.

[jzone23]

Well Im just newbie here in forum as well as in the world of ICO. At first, when I am reading on ANN section as well as altcoin marketplace where ICO related threads are posted, I have this idea that "if its so good to be true"( Im reffering to such things like really high value as start up or very insane amount of bounties) then possibly it wont be real. I see some ICO that even on the first bump of their thread you will be suspicious already on the way how their project would work. I even see some that moves like HYIP promissing insane profits in exchange of early investment without detailed information who they really are. In this world where scam is all around all of us just need to be really cautious to avoid being a victim.

[PauloRod]

Team is the most important thing. There should be at least one known and real person in the team.
Fake names, fake photos, fake titles are the first signs for me.

Yes, definitely. The team is the main thing IMHO. Second and also important things are escrow, project (am I need it or not? problem solving or not?)

[Shahin320]

at first time check their  escrow system. becouse without escrow many project can easily scam a ICO.so first think is you must be aware this. i never join any ICO that has no escrow.its the best way for detect a ICO that its real or fake. than the team member, future plan etc is the most important things that i followed. also their working progress is also a best source of know that its scam or real.

[European Central Bank]

the fact that it's an ico is enough. i don't need any other details. even if the people involved are honest it's shitty setup that'll provide a shitty experience for the majority.

[bohr]

As stated in the topic, what is the first thing that makes you raise the alarm?

I do not think I have a thing that tells me this is a scam, it is more about the whole picture, if the coin does not seem to solve any problem, if there is nothing to show for before the ICO, ridiculous bonuses, fake pictures, unrealistic goals, a complicated road map.

[bucciarati]

agree with team check advice first, then quantity of info about the project and timeline of development, then amount of funds needed (less Is better in my opinion), last how difficult is to contact team member or support in general

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[IamHigh]

I'll list the signs that I look for:

-If the team consists of people from the same country.
-If the white paper prepared properly
-If the road map prepared well
-If they use a known escrow agency
-If the teammates' history is clear

I check each of these criteria.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Team is the most important thing. There should be at least one known and real person in the team.
Fake names, fake photos, fake titles are the first signs for me.

Yeah, but how can you really tell if a photo is fake? 

Most new coins aren't anything new and shouldn't be purchased, and we all should know that by now.  And we all know damn well that's not going to stop people from buying them.  There's way too much money to be made speculating.  It's pretty safe to assume any new coin is scammy.  There are some good projects floating around, but new coins?  No way.

[Raven91]

As stated in the topic, what is the first thing that makes you raise the alarm?

I guess you need toa check this ann and then read the white paper where you need to be wise and then something wrong it is probably a scam and also when the dev is not updating in the campaign obviously probably a big scam in that ico we cant probably determine it easily i guess.

[investinator]

For me the first sign is a project trying to raise money with no working product, an unknown or anonymous team and an unprofessional website and managers.

[R.R. Toulkens]

There are plain scams, but also "soft" or elaborate scams. One very easy thing to do is to gather some ''devs'', pay someone to do webdesign and to write a good WP, create some hype. One can set up multiple profiles in linkedIn and fake those profiles with random photos and copied info from real profiles. This would give a false impression of a professional network.

GitHub can also be defrauded, albeit it is more difficult because there is a timeline there. So time of activity in GitHub is a good indicator of real or fake expertise. No one would intentionally fake 5 years of expertise since ICOs are more recent. Only if they buy profiles, or if they are mediocre programmers but already with years of mediocre code shared in GitHub. Or if they hack it somehow.

Even more difficult to get is a scam that also cheats the devs allocated, it is never the intention of the "CEO" to develop anything, but he manages to get some guys with real curriculum promising them a good share of the ICO revenue. Being a programmer is not exactly a highly paid profession in average, so some people would be more than willing to lend their names in exchange for a good piece of the ico pie. This might be done even signing legal documents, etc, but the effect is only to protect those ad hoc hired devs. The community thinks singed contracts are evidence of good will and seriousness, even better for the scammers. One life-changer shot of getting some millions in a few months...

After this, it is not difficult to squander the money since there is no compromise on successfully developing shit, after all it is a startup.

Be aware of all these details and simply don't put any money should a red flag pops up.

[hase0278]

As stated in the topic, what is the first thing that makes you raise the alarm?

The first thing that makes me raise the alarm if one ICO is scam or not is when an ICO is trying to raise too much money with just a little percent of tokens or coins for investors and bounty participants, having more than 50% of the tokens for the dev or team. Also, I think an ICO is scam when there are so many premined coins.