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

[BitUsher]

It having a crowdsale/ICO in the first place. We all came to this space for proof of work and that is the correct and fair way to issue out tokens

[flippener]

First sign ?

..it's an ICO

Cynical, much!

[Jenn09]

I think the for me the signs of ICO being scam is # 1 their payments is very good to be true, 2nd no one known that ico really paying like your friends or other colleges in this site didn't even know or encounter that site even paying.

[o0o0]

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

asking for btc and having nothing to show ps a whitepaper doesnt count. remember when devs made things or released trials and asked for cash?

its so easy to steal with ico thats why they do it. give you a whitepaper and empty words and they get cash. icos will stop when all btc is bled from morons and only smart people with btc left that dont invest in icos.

then youll all cry that most btc is in hands of few. fact is idiots were robbed in scams because they were greedy thinking thwy could turn 10k into 10 million.

would you give the nigerian prince some cash? no.... well icos are your nigerian princes.

[ChinkyEyes]

This topic is amazing for future scammers...

[Bay_Harbour_Butcher]

Well, First, check the profile of their team, because it's the easiest to know if their team profile is fake. Then what is the idea of the product? or their ico goal is realistic? That's all I can say

[kynaz]

I think there is no way to distinguish between good ICO and ICO scams because they use a lot of advertising and set up a very good information about the future. They use this method to entice investors and then release to users the TOKEN no value. For me, if a good ICO project they will update a lot of good news about the project and try to develop with the investor in the future.

[hanlieuiypm9832]

For me, the rule is very simple. If the price is lower than 50% of the ICO price, the project is a scam.

[illiki23]

I have been considering doing some data mining to build a model to predict scam ICOs based on a number of features we can extract from their websites and BCT threads.   I would need to compile a list of scams versus non scams and then do some data gathering but building a classifier wouldn't be too hard (thank you Kaggle contests) using decision trees or other standard methods.

Anyways, my hypothesis is that coins which offer real high 'early investor' bonuses will be scams.  People do this to take advantage of greed as it causes people to jump right in without a chance for discussion or proper research.  If it is a legit project then they do not need to use this tactic.  While this is not always the case as there have been successful projects which did this my gut tells me scammers will do this.

Then there is the presence of shilling.  I am currently doing another project with Amazon reviews to detect shilling (and shillers) so may have to come back to this.  A product with actual mixed reviews will have a different distribution of ratings as a product with shilling where two disjoint clusters of review scores form.  Sentiment analysis methods can be used to assist with this, along with some semantic analysis.

Then we have poor spelling, quickly written up webpages, short whitepapers, unrealistic claims, no escrow etc.  BUT NOT ALWAYS.  For example some scams have escrow just to throw people off.

It is good to be back Bitcointalk..  Maybe its time to start calling out scams again to keep my peeps safe.

[miningnew]

- Is the token website a single app page ? What is the tech used ? (Aka website builder, bootstrap theme ...) ? Is the website secure ? (Not ony meaning https there, but also from common security vulnerabilties)

- Are translations bounties well verified ? Or is it google translate ?

- Is the whitepaper a mashup of words or are there real technical aspects ?

- Are the devs participating to events or videos ? Or do we just have some photos without proof of the persons behind the project ?

[savon2k]

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

But to me it all depends on what do you define scam? something that you cant make money of , or just something that will dippasear into abyss. Some times scam coin are the ones which pump hardest 

[jacafbiz]

For me it is when obvious question is being asked and the team is not asking them, that is when I notice something is wrong, no matter how stupid the question is the team should be able to provide answers to the questions

[Grant Hero]

I have been considering doing some data mining to build a model to predict scam ICOs based on a number of features we can extract from their websites and BCT threads.   I would need to compile a list of scams versus non scams and then do some data gathering but building a classifier wouldn't be too hard (thank you Kaggle contests) using decision trees or other standard methods.

Anyways, my hypothesis is that coins which offer real high 'early investor' bonuses will be scams.  People do this to take advantage of greed as it causes people to jump right in without a chance for discussion or proper research.  If it is a legit project then they do not need to use this tactic.  While this is not always the case as there have been successful projects which did this my gut tells me scammers will do this.

Then there is the presence of shilling.  I am currently doing another project with Amazon reviews to detect shilling (and shillers) so may have to come back to this.  A product with actual mixed reviews will have a different distribution of ratings as a product with shilling where two disjoint clusters of review scores form.  Sentiment analysis methods can be used to assist with this, along with some semantic analysis.

Then we have poor spelling, quickly written up webpages, short whitepapers, unrealistic claims, no escrow etc.  BUT NOT ALWAYS.  For example some scams have escrow just to throw people off.

It is good to be back Bitcointalk..  Maybe its time to start calling out scams again to keep my peeps safe.

I think that this would be great.  Or come up with a weighted analysis that allows the community to provide an overall ranking (score) for ICO's.

Seems like a lot of ICO's scams are giving a bad rep to those that are actually trying to help create real authentic solutions for this world.  Ultimately, this hurts the entire industry including the growth of cryptocurrency.  We need to collectively come together as a community to report and discourage scams as much as possible.  Otherwise, it cripples the growth of this industry and hurts all of us... 

[sieemma]

For me I consider if they pay high for bounty campaigns and also have a low minimum token price (most at time that's the trick many project use to get people buy plenty tokens and also use it to take the poor man's little money as he can also buy with the little amount of money he has)
And whether they pay high for refs system. As this will help them get more people.
I also consider the security and location as well.

[jjacob]

For me, the rule is very simple. If the price is lower than 50% of the ICO price, the project is a scam.

The price on listing? Actually, this is not a very good indication. Most ICOs (even scams) get listed at a very good price. But if there is nothing backing the coin, the price is bound to crash eventually.

[Grant Hero]

For me, the rule is very simple. If the price is lower than 50% of the ICO price, the project is a scam.

The price on listing? Actually, this is not a very good indication. Most ICOs (even scams) get listed at a very good price. But if there is nothing backing the coin, the price is bound to crash eventually.

I agree with JJacob on this.

[btcxyzzz]

domain name whois protection

[jk_14]

Is this a "How do I run a scam ICO without being spotted" kind of thread?

While I doubt it is, I don't want to give any con artist any ideas. If you want to protect yourself always try to think from the position of a scammer. You will always learn something new that way, and will eventually learn how to keep your funds growing.

[Haesoo]

As the saying is, when it's too good to be true, it's a scam but in ico I think its half meant.
We should site first the white paper if it's good and realistic and second its product and roadmap and of course the team if it's trustworthy.
However, we can't really know at first if an ico is a scam, we can just say " we're scammed" after the ico and until the campaign manager didn't give us our bounty. So better to trust our guts.

[SenSeiSoKo]

no one knows it and shitty reasons to buy