How to avoid ICO scam

[germa66]

to be honest to distinguish between the original and fake ICOs at the beginning, it will start to look authentic after some pra-ICO launch, but in case you need to know and be able to judge some members of the ICO team whether they can believe it or not.

[Rebellious]

Although you can never be sure, there are a few things you can check:

 - The team
 - The whitepaper
 - The hype
 - The community

If all the items in this list sounds good to you then it's *probably* not a scam

[wilhb81]

No matter how perfectly you've done your research for one ICO's project, there are still many unpredicted circumstances take place in our lives...

Hence, it's wise not to put all your eggs in one basket.

[adzino]

I mean, is there an exact list of rules that could guarantee that someone who follows them will surely not become a victim of another ICO scam. Of course there are obvious rules like event participation, reputation of team members among ather prifessionals, approve by well-known advisors. But potential scammers also know all these criteria and know what to fake exactly.

Is there a 'blockchain way' to create an algorithm, scheme or set of conditions allowing to recognise and ban scammers? Not government laws way which also good for the market in my opinion.

Would be appreciate a link to an old thread, perhaps I just didn't find it.

UPD Best Advices:

• learn about previous ICO projects, select viable ones and participate similar ICOs

You should do thorough research before you start investing on those ICOs. Most ICOs are shit and scam, with pump and dump schemes. So you need to spot those scams using your own sense. Look for projects that are promising and provides something unique which is possible to be done. The team should consist of well known and renowned developers. If they are renowned they will have thier LinkedIn  profile with a very good portfolio. Try to someone verify that they are involved in those project. Social media sites might help you in this case.

[omerchip]

You cant find the scam ICO's list but i read on there forum;s some guy explain it how to avoid from scam ICO's and its  a beautiful and helpfull thread.i sugest you to find and read it

[daplun]

I think we should be careful and learn in detail about the altcoin, altcoin team also determine the project is fraud or not. because so far not found a system solving to detect test altcoin website test.

[beerlover]

any project has a chance to failure

That is true but some projects are just bound to fail more than the others. With a good team behind a project anyway, it is usually very hard to see such projects fail.

Yes! They will work their butts off to make it a success since that is what they have always done.
Moreover that was even the essence of the crowdfunding so they can have huge stuff to bring the idea into limelight and make it blow even more and at least even if it fails, you know it was worth the try rather than some who just had the mindset of having a failed project from the onset and dashing away with your funds.

[PokerFace3]

Invest in companies with real products that have existing customers! This is why I'm an investor of worldcore, they have a product that is used by real paying customers. Avoid any me-too coins, those are coins that are clones of everything else. Avoid coins with names of animals or that make zero sense. Avoid anything that advertises 50% free coins, or anything else outrageous. Use common sense. Ignore trolls.

This is very important. I have even seen some ICOs coming up with unrealistic products that in your wildest sense will know this is just pure scam.

Some even go as much as having a coin for banana plantation (I didn’t mention names). The most important thing is to check out the team, if there is something they have done already and how successful not just some school guys or guys looking for ways to earn a living seeing ICOs as a way to enhance themselves from donations.

[abcd7]

you cant be 100% sure never , one good think is by making a good research about the team ,also a good research can help.

[Ta.Form]

I also do not know how to avoid the ico scam, all I do is look at ann thread as well as their official website, about the team, the allocation of bounty, and their own project

[Antropolis]

I mean, is there an exact list of rules that could guarantee that someone who follows them will surely not become a victim of another ICO scam. Of course there are obvious rules like event participation, reputation of team members among ather prifessionals, approve by well-known advisors. But potential scammers also know all these criteria and know what to fake exactly.

Is there a 'blockchain way' to create an algorithm, scheme or set of conditions allowing to recognise and ban scammers? Not government laws way which also good for the market in my opinion.

Would be appreciate a link to an old thread, perhaps I just didn't find it.

UPD Best Advices:

• learn about previous ICO projects, select viable ones and participate similar ICOs

I would agree, that this is possible to distinguish scam from sound ICO projects. But some ICO projects even looking sound as they are promoted in WP, mass media etc. (I'm not talking about crap-by-default-ICOs, those will do anything to look decent) may still not come to successful realization due to some external factors out of ICO team's control which were not properly assessed at the planning stage. Such projects would still be called scam in the end while in reality they should be understood as crap by poor planning/management. So my idea is crap-by-default ICO is an event planned to succeed only at it's fundraising stage and vanish afterwards, while some ICOs do struggle for success and do not come to life due to poor management or influence of external/internal factors (poor planning/management or legal changes, market changes, political reasons etc.). But all of the failed projects together will be still called scum, while in fact they should be divided in 3 categories: scam-by-default, crap-by-default, crap-by-external/internal reasons.

[chainese]

You will never be 100% sure if an ico is a scam or not. Of course there are indicators, some ico's are just so obvious that it's funny but others look extremely promising but then they suddenly fall of the grid. I don't really mess with ico's, I happily hold the majority of my assets in bitcoin.

I guess the best way to avoid ICO scam is not to invest in ICOs at all   That's the only way to be sure. And it is not really as bad as it sounds. One may still explore the ICOs which seem interesting and invest in them when the coins are released. I think that mostly the prices don't differ much from what they used to be during ico when the coins start to appear on exchanges, whereas the safety obviously grows a lot since you can be sure you'll be able to sell the coins just as you were able to buy them.

And that's exactly what I am doing. I am yet to invest in one single ICO (and I probably never will), one time however I did come extremely close to investing a couple mBTC's into one but I ended up not to (I am very happy I didn't. This doesn't mean all ICO's are bad, not at all (the BQX ICO, for example, could've turned your 0.5 BTC into 10 BTC),but the majority of them are and that is a risk I am not willing to take.

So you can say the same about Electroneum?

[DarkSi]

I have a link for you: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0

Deep dive into it patiently and you will not be an easy target for scammers 

[darylalban]

There's too many elements to consider
1. website
2. whitepaper
3. team
4. existing model

those are just the beginning of the research process. An ico I heard about that is pretty solid ico unikoingold that has really impressed me through my research.

[bcnaranjo]

This is also my question everytime there is  ICO popping in my computer, sometimes the website could no longer be reached. I really want to know the tips in knowing if its scam or not.

[sujonali1819]

I mean, is there an exact list of rules that could guarantee that someone who follows them will surely not become a victim of another ICO scam. Of course there are obvious rules like event participation, reputation of team members among ather prifessionals, approve by well-known advisors. But potential scammers also know all these criteria and know what to fake exactly.

Is there a 'blockchain way' to create an algorithm, scheme or set of conditions allowing to recognise and ban scammers? Not government laws way which also good for the market in my opinion.

Would be appreciate a link to an old thread, perhaps I just didn't find it.

UPD Best Advices:

• learn about previous ICO projects, select viable ones and participate similar ICOs

now a days there are several number of ico have been scamming people.it is very hard to find them before scamming. but taking some content about the ico you can find them. like you need to check their Ann thread, team member,And even bounty manager .because most of scammer hire low rank bounty manager or use them self to manage the bounty thraead.

[CasualSam]

Look for something with good technology and a trustworthy dev team, preferably with their real info out there.

[Anonaneadone]

The only way to avoid scam is learn about there progress,  check ICO's all about and what kind of ICO is that when you invest. Secondly make sure that your money is right with the profit and not like an instant big value because this is sometimes a scam.

[Fesatmas]

Actually knowing about which ICO's scam or not is really difficult even if the ICO's scam you cannot avoid because it can be happen anytime so that your money will lost.

[teddyelwyn]

LOOK AT THE TEAM! People=credibility

Ex. the co-founder of eth is an advisor for UnikoinGold and Mark Cuban backed it. Can't deny the power behind that.

Side note: whitepaper and website say a lot too.