How to recognize scam

[aleksandra_kickcity]

Hello everyone!

Today I've read a couple of articles and I've noticed that the most people are used to label each ICO as a scam. That is not fair, I know. Especially when you work in a startup launching ICO and do your best to make a project successful. However, having worked in ICO industry I learned how to recognize a scam just from one conversation with a Founder. I don't know how to explain this feeling. Probably, my subconscious translates knowledge, but I could not say a have a large experience.

So I decided to make a list of scam signs: (and this is just my own opinion)

- A founder and a team are not open.

Talking with a founder is always nice. They are usually full of energy and ready to talk about their project for hours. No matter how tired he/she is: when one is asking about a project, a founder starts talking about it with eyes burn with a fire. No matter who you are. When a founder deflects, tries to escape and avoids it makes you think that he/she just can't tell you anything important. What is more, it is crucial talking to a team. When a team member doesn't know how to answer a simple question about a product, it is also a bad sign.

In case of the lack of opportunity to visit an event and to talk to a team, you always can contact a founder and a team online. They should be open and answer patiently all your difficult questions. Even if you ask it every minute.

- Spending a lot of money on marketing isn't always show professionalism.

Just think. A company needs ICO to raise money for a company development. Isn't it a little bit queerly when an unknown company is too fancy. How? And Why? Why do they need ICO if they already have money on expensive advertisement? I don't know too  

- You know nothing about a founder. And you cant find any information about him/her.

Always google the founder. Always. And now I'm not talking about his/her FB page. I'm talking about his experience, education, photos, events he took part in. A founder should not be a mysterious person who came from nowhere. His background should be open to everyone.

- They don't have a readymade product.

Let's make a sober recognition. The competition is high. In the end of 2017 - the beginning of 2018 you just can't appear with an idea and ask for money. You need to develop your product before ICO. It should not be an amazing one. It could be just prototype. But investors need something real. They need to touch and try your product. However, just 16% of all ICO has a product.

And what do you think about it? What are your signs of a scam?

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[worldofcoins]

Well I figured is better to invest in a company that already has some kind of establishment or function going.  Investing will always have risk, just because a business fails does not mean it was a scam.  Look soon Ill be starting an ICO maybe,  The thing with these ICO, They take to much money and credit to themselves.  Look at Spectrocoin, they really need that much money?  There time frame is fine but that amount of money is a question.  I dont see that market very lucrative at this point to give them that much funding.  I have a product that is worth more then they are asking but I will not ask that much, because more money you get, can arrive more problems as well.

[knien]

I never spoke to a founder in person, but keep in mind that even if someone has a good idea and speaks about it "with fire in his eyes", this doesn't necessary mean this person is a great businessman, that knows how to build a company or is able to gather the right people around him to help him doing so.

[kevoh]

Please also add these to your list of signs of scams

1. A ICO scam can involve going ahead as far as opening their own exchange to have their coin/token listed on such exchange in order to exhibit an air of authenticity.

2. Try and do a whois search on the ICO website. This should produce the contact details of the owner and other technical details you can use in influencing your judgement on a possible.

[aleksandra_kickcity]

I never spoke to a founder in person, but keep in mind that even if someone has a good idea and speaks about it "with fire in his eyes", this doesn't necessary mean this person is a great businessman, that knows how to build a company or is able to gather the right people around him to help him doing so.

for sure, it doesn't mean that he is a great businessman. But unwillingness to talk and answer questions is not good

You should talk to founder. No matter how busy he/she is. `a founder always have to find some time to talk to

[btcprospecter]

One of the biggest signs of a scam is that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. The whole point of a ico is to make money if the project has alot of promise it could all well be a good idea. If the founders won't talk answer questions then that has to raise doubts.

[Dendy69]

Hello everyone!

Today I've read a couple of articles and I've noticed that the most people are used to label each ICO as a scam. That is not fair, I know. Especially when you work in a startup launching ICO and do your best to make a project successful. However, having worked in ICO industry I learned how to recognize a scam just from one conversation with a Founder. I don't know how to explain this feeling. Probably, my subconscious translates knowledge, but I could not say a have a large experience.

So I decided to make a list of scam signs: (and this is just my own opinion)

- A founder and a team are not open.

Talking with a founder is always nice. They are usually full of energy and ready to talk about their project for hours. No matter how tired he/she is: when one is asking about a project, a founder starts talking about it with eyes burn with a fire. No matter who you are. When a founder deflects, tries to escape and avoids it makes you think that he/she just can't tell you anything important. What is more, it is crucial talking to a team. When a team member doesn't know how to answer a simple question about a product, it is also a bad sign.

In the case of the lack of opportunity to visit an event and to talk to a team, you always can contact a founder and a team online. They should be open and answer patiently all your difficult questions. Even if you ask it every minute.

- Spending a lot of money on marketing isn't always show professionalism.

Just think. A company needs ICO to raise money for a company development. Isn't it a little bit queerly when an unknown company is too fancy. How? And Why? Why do they need ICO if they already have money on expensive advertisement? I don't know too  

- You know nothing about a founder. And you cant find any information about him/her.

Always google the founder. Always. And now I'm not talking about his/her FB page. I'm talking about his experience, education, photos, events he took part in. A founder should not be a mysterious person who came from nowhere. His background should be open to everyone.

- They don't have a readymade product.

Let's make a sober recognition. The competition is high. In the end of 2017 - the beginning of 2018 you just can't appear with an idea and ask for money. You need to develop your product before ICO. It should not be an amazing one. It could be just prototype. But investors need something real. They need to touch and try your product. However, just 16% of all ICO has a product.

And what do you think about it? What are your signs of a scam?

Vitalik Buterin has good scam filter. He, on one of conferences, just said: "Dear scammers, don't use ICO for your bad scam projects, please."

So. Do the same. You see ICO? Just have a contact with them and ask if they are scammers? If they answer no, everything is ok. You can participate))

[bear100]

It is a very good list. And this information can be easily found in the web. You just make some structure for it.
I can add something about marketing. Avoid projects, which make pre-ico. Usually pre-ico needs for 2 reasons: selling LOTS of tokens to invest founds or raising money for massive marketing campaign. Both options are not very good for private investor, especially the first one. As these founds will dump the price of token in a minutes after it goes to exchanges.

[aleksandra_kickcity]

Hello everyone!

Today I've read a couple of articles and I've noticed that the most people are used to label each ICO as a scam. That is not fair, I know. Especially when you work in a startup launching ICO and do your best to make a project successful. However, having worked in ICO industry I learned how to recognize a scam just from one conversation with a Founder. I don't know how to explain this feeling. Probably, my subconscious translates knowledge, but I could not say a have a large experience.

So I decided to make a list of scam signs: (and this is just my own opinion)

- A founder and a team are not open.

Talking with a founder is always nice. They are usually full of energy and ready to talk about their project for hours. No matter how tired he/she is: when one is asking about a project, a founder starts talking about it with eyes burn with a fire. No matter who you are. When a founder deflects, tries to escape and avoids it makes you think that he/she just can't tell you anything important. What is more, it is crucial talking to a team. When a team member doesn't know how to answer a simple question about a product, it is also a bad sign.

In the case of the lack of opportunity to visit an event and to talk to a team, you always can contact a founder and a team online. They should be open and answer patiently all your difficult questions. Even if you ask it every minute.

- Spending a lot of money on marketing isn't always show professionalism.

Just think. A company needs ICO to raise money for a company development. Isn't it a little bit queerly when an unknown company is too fancy. How? And Why? Why do they need ICO if they already have money on expensive advertisement? I don't know too  

- You know nothing about a founder. And you cant find any information about him/her.

Always google the founder. Always. And now I'm not talking about his/her FB page. I'm talking about his experience, education, photos, events he took part in. A founder should not be a mysterious person who came from nowhere. His background should be open to everyone.

- They don't have a readymade product.

Let's make a sober recognition. The competition is high. In the end of 2017 - the beginning of 2018 you just can't appear with an idea and ask for money. You need to develop your product before ICO. It should not be an amazing one. It could be just prototype. But investors need something real. They need to touch and try your product. However, just 16% of all ICO has a product.

And what do you think about it? What are your signs of a scam?

Vitalik Buterin has good scam filter. He, on one of conferences, just said: "Dear scammers, don't use ICO for your bad scam projects, please."

So. Do the same. You see ICO? Just have a contact with them and ask if they are scammers? If they answer no, everything is ok. You can participate))

Could you please tell more what Vitalik said?

[aleksandra_kickcity]

It is a very good list. And this information can be easily found in the web. You just make some structure for it.
I can add something about marketing. Avoid projects, which make pre-ico. Usually pre-ico needs for 2 reasons: selling LOTS of tokens to invest founds or raising money for massive marketing campaign. Both options are not very good for private investor, especially the first one. As these founds will dump the price of token in a minutes after it goes to exchanges.

thank you =) this came up with my experience

However, I disagree about Pre-ICO. Firstly, investors have an opportunity to buy tokens with discount. Secondly, a project can invest this money for development and advertisement. Projects still need to promote their ICO campaign

[Bryan13]

If you will read carefully about the forum or transaction. You need to be sure first of all if there is so many active by that thing. And most important check if there is a proof of transaction or what for many people.

[losik43]

I can agree about all the points, first of all team should be opened and it regards to all the members of the team, not only founder.
You can text community manager or marketing director and you should get a normal and full answer.

Second thing for me is participation in the events. Sure, not anyone can afford visiting all the global conferences all around the world but team should appear there at least every 1-2 months and community should know them and their project.
If I come to some event, i can easily ask people from the community whom I know and trust if they've heard of such a project - that will be a plus.

Also I pay attention to the website, to the whitepaper. It should be prepared well and look solid.

Existence of working product is a huge advantage but let's not forget that sometimes even big and rather known companies has gone broke or lied to their customers.

[De Suga09]

If you will read carefully about the forum or transaction. You need to be sure first of all if there is so many active by that thing. And most important check if there is a proof of transaction or what for many people.

If it's too good to be true. It is probably a scam. If you think that it is too ideal,it can be a scam. We also need to do further research about the company and even in the processes of the investment to be familiar with it. We are still talking about money in investment so we should be wise in spending it.

[aleksandra_kickcity]

If you will read carefully about the forum or transaction. You need to be sure first of all if there is so many active by that thing. And most important check if there is a proof of transaction or what for many people.

If it's too good to be true. It is probably a scam. If you think that it is too ideal,it can be a scam. We also need to do further research about the company and even in the processes of the investment to be familiar with it. We are still talking about money in investment so we should be wise in spending it.

I absolutely agree. You need to research, research and research some more. I think you can also ask some experts about a project

[Mandoy]

It is hard to determine if an ICO is a scam or not. But as investor we must also be careful in joining any ICO's to protect our investment. To check we must always read the whitepaper and the roadmap of the coin. Also, you must check if it has a pysical asset or a guarantee that when you invest on it you will earn. A good ICO does not depend on the volatility to be successful there must be a income generating programs behind to sustain the program. And lastly, trust your intuition and consult the experts.

[aleksandra_kickcity]

It is hard to determine if an ICO is a scam or not. But as investor we must also be careful in joining any ICO's to protect our investment. To check we must always read the whitepaper and the roadmap of the coin. Also, you must check if it has a pysical asset or a guarantee that when you invest on it you will earn. A good ICO does not depend on the volatility to be successful there must be a income generating programs behind to sustain the program. And lastly, trust your intuition and consult the experts.

In your opinion, what is crucial for a roadmap?

[vergel24official]

There's a lot of it, after they gather a member invest in there website they just close without notice. For me just be sure if you invest money do some many research about to that site and look if this site has capability to pay back ask people using that site if it's real.

[@ngelcryptopia]

there are so many such scammy project in bitcointalk. some just disappear from the radar after a while. maybe there should be some sort of warning about such projects in bitcointalk.

[jrrigs]

Still boils down to due diligence. You can't just really on what they show on their website specially the whitepaper. Lots of people are offering to write one in fiverr. Research is a must.

[Bryan13]

First of all, you need to check or make a research about that thing is. See some proofs, or talk to someone had experienced with it.