How to detect a scam ICO?

[Pattart]

There are many things you should check before you invest on ICO?
1. Dev team: clear, professional
2. White paper: clear, logically
3. Product: you should invest on ICO with real product

Good luck for you!

it is very clear what you describe above, it is a matter that must be considered to know the project is a scam or not .. it all must be built with the level of focus of each to be able to understand very well about the truth of the project.

The most important is to see in detail what is described in their Ann Thread. roadmap, full description on pre-ico, ico, crowdfund, etc. team formations, etc. usually ICO explaining with very detail of the project they are going to do. very likely they are a legit ICO because they are serious in doing their project. the most important is the idea of their ico that determines the future of the project

[fredforthewin]

this is the wild west. There can be scams that have alot of time put into them. They can have a great website, "great dev." lay it on real thick and turn out to be a scam. There is also small coins that are honest and have potential just dont have the right marketing. So you decide.

[ViktorM]

Always do detailed research on the team and read through the Whitepaper. I have seen several ICO's that have team members that don't seem to exist anywhere...and people still invest in them! Check If they have any 'real world' presence or associations with an existing real world businesses.

Also check the amount they are raising and if there has been a max cap applied.

I have had some success with ICO's but they have have all had a low market cap and haven't been trying to raise more than around $7m.

[ViktorM]

this is the wild west. There can be scams that have alot of time put into them. They can have a great website, "great dev." lay it on real thick and turn out to be a scam. There is also small coins that are honest and have potential just dont have the right marketing. So you decide.

Yep agree, plenty of small projects with great potential but don't have the marketing budget.

[btcholder]

Yeah that's a million dollars question at this moment. Cause we saw a lot of ico right now. It's too difficult to find promising ico. In my opinion more research and collect more news for project is the best option for this problem.

[bapetdik]

might be able to find out if the team is real. see the social media of the team. and learn about the project. like a whitepaper.

[Kr-sama]

My way, search for the team in google. Check their linked in/twitter profile to know whether they are really linked to the project or are just stolen photos.

I also do this when I'm checking if the ICO is a scam. You can also check their website or read their whitepaper to know for sure that it is certainly a legit ICO.

[iblistenan]

first your check escrow, if you have then make sure to be trusted and anyone who suspects an ICO is a scam can repot it to the FCA online.

[Gangy]

You should search everything about ICO. Their team , ambition of project and everything like that should be deeply searched. Unrealistic goals are the main thing that helps me to detect a scam.

[kirito1614]

You ought to dependably look into the greater part of the individuals on the group and check whether they truly exist and have the experience they guarantee they have. I generally keep away from ICO's with a mysterious group since it's quite recently excessively unsafe despite the fact that it's not really implies it's a trick. Check their connected in/twitter profile to know whether they are truly connected to the task or are recently stolen photographs.

[nelfel]

First you should check the website of the ICO, i don't say a wordpress page, is not okay because u could make great things in wordpress. But you could check the source, and very often if its a standard template, within the sourcecode, the template name is written. Check if the site looks decent. Read the whitepaper to the full extend, if u don't understand all tech talk, ask somebody who does know the tech part, and add its opinion of the tech part, to your opinion of the things you do have knowledge about.

- Take a good look at the team, look for starplayers with a great repsheet,
- Look at the roadmap, check for realistic goals.
- Check if they have a public repro where u can take a look at there code, (if u don't know how to write code ) look for commits, how many commits does the project has.
If the project doesn't have any, check the developers in their team, check for their contributions to opensource projects.
- Take a look at their linkedin, look for recommendations by others.

In the end its always hard to see if something is a scam or not, but atleast u can take some steps a a security measure for urself

[asdalani]

How to detect a scam ICO?

Do a little bit of a check when you go through the companies website. Look at the amount of information that they have as well, if you want to know more then you'd have to read their Whitepaper in full.

[imteaz]

Detecting scam ICO is probably one of the hardest thing to figure out, why? because almost all ICO start with great and promising projects, but in the middle of somewhere when someone decide okay i had enough, lets take some cash and run away. That's when scam happens, so its the people within the company, if they are not ethically fit, then it might get broke anytime specially top management level.

[sunk818]

Does the ICO actually have a working product?

Is the home page full of hyperboles but no innovative features?

Was anyone paid to have their name lent, but didn't disclose they got paid?

Has a celebrity (e.g. Paris Hilton, Jamie Foxx, or Floyd Mayweather) promoted or endorsed it?

[NoiseBoy]

There are a lot of ICO rating/evaluation organizations out there now that can do the basic due diligence for you. That won't necessarily tell you if an ICO will be successful or profitable, but should weed out the scams. Examples:

ANYTHING affiliated with Cofound.It (those guys are in the business of ICO mentoring and launching--they are the best out there as of right now)
ICO Rating: http://icorating.com/
ICO Bench: https://icobench.com/
TokenMarket: https://tokenmarket.net/

[bigdogdan2]

Look for a working product thats close to ICO date, something you can test or see other people using.  Best way to try and avoid a scam.

[jlp]

There are a lot of ICO rating/evaluation organizations out there now that can do the basic due diligence for you. That won't necessarily tell you if an ICO will be successful or profitable, but should weed out the scams. Examples:

ANYTHING affiliated with Cofound.It (those guys are in the business of ICO mentoring and launching--they are the best out there as of right now)
ICO Rating: http://icorating.com/
ICO Bench: https://icobench.com/
TokenMarket: https://tokenmarket.net/

Don't rely only on ICO rating organizations.  They may claim to be experts, but you don't know for sure.  You are likely more knowledgeable about your field, whether it be medical, engineering, gambling or finance, than they would be.

They would also be biased.  Some are staffed by mainly people from a certain country or region.  Does that mean that they are biased for ICOs that are from their region?  Putin hosted Vitalik Buterin in Moscow.  Russia wants to grow the crypto industry in their country.  After that, there has been an explosion of Russian ICOs.  Is Putin funding these ICO ratings organizations to favor Russian ICOs?  We just found out that Russia took out lots of ads in Facebook, to disrupt US and European politics, so it wouldn't be stretch to think so.

[Shamie1002]

I think if the ICOs has a profound and precise cause, intention and description of the project with strong foundations and sources. This kind of ICOs will provide enough information and data for transparency. 

If none is given then I think it's a scam.

[Goodween]

It is not so easy to detect a scam ICO, but first of all you should read a white paper several times, learn about team and members, read about advisors and their reputation. Ask some people about this project. after that do some research and take a discision.

[Eugenar]

How to detect a scam ICO?

I think ,there's no specific way to know if the campaign is a scam or not. Joining campaign is also like investing, there'll be times that you will earn nothing. But you may alsp look for factors such as checking and searching about the ICO. You may also consider checking the background of the ICO team. I don't know if this one is effective but I also prefer some campaign managers espexially those who has lots of experiences on managing campaigns.