How do you know that new/existing ICO is not a scam?

[semobo]

We have to research about the project team and need to read their whitepaer.If they have long term goals then the chance is less for scam.But it is highly unpredictable the scam or not until the end of ICO sale.

[Acguy]

You just simply do your own research and not get in cause someone told you about it.

[Clefnick]

For me, I think a thorough research on the part of anyone who want to participate in any ICO is very crucial and important so as not fall into scam. Knowing a lot about the team handling the also necessary as this goes a long way to determine the success of the project.

[Lindazz]

In my opinion, most ICO is a fraud.
But even if it's a scam, that doesn't mean you can't make a profit, because the entire cryptocurrency market is now in a serious bubble.

[LancelotRay]

Research their site, whitepaper, dev. team, etc.

Most ICOs are a scam but they can be easily avoided by doing the above.

[emmmmm]

Generally speaking, I will study their white paper, although I can't understand it very well.
Then I will search for the scores and details of the ICO in icordrop and icorathing. If the score is high, then the ICO is not a scam.

[phr0stbyt3]

According to me most ico are scam it doesnt matter who is the team because ico are copy of ipo but here there is no limit people can issue unlimited amount of tokens to customers or even raise a huge amount with the permission of the regulators, there are some who take the hard work to be legit but most of them don't follow this

[Betwrong]

Frankly speaking no one can say for sure if a particular ICO will be a scam or not. I have seen many promising ICOs go scam and some genuine projects getting very less attention. But yes, the general formula to decrease your chances of investing in a scam is same.

First of all, read the short description and analyze if the project is unique, is there really a need of the product or service they are offering. If the description is mainly about token price increase, trading and so on, then that's a good sign that the ICO will be a scam. And if the project is focused mainly on their concept then read the whitepaper. Whitepaper can be very boring, but just go through it and try to understand how will they work in case they get the funding. Try to research about their team, like contacting the team members on given social media accounts to verify. If the company claims to have some well known projects and companies as its partners, then verify that also. Many a times ICOs will claim to have partnership with Amazon, Google etc. whereas they are only using their hosting services!! So verify these things. Read about the project on sites like Cointelegram (not the sponsored one). Read the replies on their Bitcointalk topic. Are they answering difficult questions or ignoring it? Are they self moderating the topic or allowing open discussions? Are other members interested in their concept (not price)?

Go through all these things and you will know for yourself if you should invest in that ICO or not.

Of course if you are more of a technical person, then try to analyze if their technology is feasible or not, or is it just some science fiction stuff going on!!

I've come here from the sMerit Post-Review thread and I think your post deserves a merit. Indeed it is better to verify whether a partnership claimed by an ICO is real. I would even suggest to do it before reading their whitepaper and stuff to save your time, since if they are lying about partnership there's no need to read other documents.

I have one question though. Did you mean  to write Cointelegraph instead of Cointelegram?

[Bastime]

As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

It's really difficult to know whether the ICOs are scam or not and based on my experiences I joined a lot of signature bounty campaigns that are actually scams and trying to get money from young investors and innocent people.
You can't usually rely on their website, their team and staff, their project and their white papers because everything can be fake in internet.
For me telegram channel will tell you a lot of stories because the number of people or members of their Telegram will likely enough to be true or not.
But, in the end of the day we couldn't tell the difference between scam and legitimate.

[cryptocue]

As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

If you read the whitepaper of a scam ICO,you will notice it is just created to raise funds,it has a business minded whitepaper which will trigger people like me to start searching for the founder's and developers background and if there is no informations about them it would be enough for me to say that this another shitty ICO project.

[Bastime]

Research their site, whitepaper, dev. team, etc.
Most ICOs are a scam but they can be easily avoided by doing the above.

I think doing what you mentioned in your statement affect always true.
Everything could be fake, everything can be copied and invite you to invest into their good project or ICOs.
You need to find good sources that their project is real and their company is real as well.
Seems like the number of telegram channel will tell you their reputation.

[toygg]

As we know, currently they are many developer trying to do ICOs and some of them scam other people too. So how to identify these kinds of scams?

It's really difficult to know whether the ICOs are scam or not and based on my experiences I joined a lot of signature bounty campaigns that are actually scams and trying to get money from young investors and innocent people.
You can't usually rely on their website, their team and staff, their project and their white papers because everything can be fake in internet.
For me telegram channel will tell you a lot of stories because the number of people or members of their Telegram will likely enough to be true or not.
But, in the end of the day we couldn't tell the difference between scam and legitimate.

Well said. As what Bastime has pointed out, everything can be fake. One might ask why should I do my homework if everything could be faked. At least doing ur homework reduces the chance of one investing in a scam ICO. Statistics. Simply invest wat u can lose and pray that it is not a scam.

[nik9990]

you need to look at the rating, team, support

[dzhan]

If the project have a good experienced team behind it, clear whitepapers and roadmaps, nice and attractive concept, secure and well designed website, many active social media accounts, then it is legitimate, most likely, and have good potential. Otherwise it is a bit risky and better to keep away from it.

[Haywhy1]

With new coins being launched at an accelerated pace, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify legitimate coins worthy of investment from elaborate hoaxes designed to capitalize on investor FOMO.

With initial coin offerings all the rage, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for projects with little more than a basic concept, a flashy name and some fluffy marketing and packaging has never been easier.

To be sure, a certain percentage of these projects will likely become success stories but we can also be certain that many of these blockchain based tokens are pure smoke and mirrors and nothing more.

Scanning the ICO landscape, one is particularly struck by the sheer number of ICOs that are currently underway and followed by another wave of new ICOs preparing for launch in the near future. Even though government regulators in China and Korea are clamping down on ICOs, there’s still no end in sight when it comes to novel token offerings.

[siddartha1492]

Frankly speaking no one can say for sure if a particular ICO will be a scam or not. I have seen many promising ICOs go scam and some genuine projects getting very less attention. But yes, the general formula to decrease your chances of investing in a scam is same.

First of all, read the short description and analyze if the project is unique, is there really a need of the product or service they are offering. If the description is mainly about token price increase, trading and so on, then that's a good sign that the ICO will be a scam. And if the project is focused mainly on their concept then read the whitepaper. Whitepaper can be very boring, but just go through it and try to understand how will they work in case they get the funding. Try to research about their team, like contacting the team members on given social media accounts to verify. If the company claims to have some well known projects and companies as its partners, then verify that also. Many a times ICOs will claim to have partnership with Amazon, Google etc. whereas they are only using their hosting services!! So verify these things. Read about the project on sites like Cointelegram (not the sponsored one). Read the replies on their Bitcointalk topic. Are they answering difficult questions or ignoring it? Are they self moderating the topic or allowing open discussions? Are other members interested in their concept (not price)?

Go through all these things and you will know for yourself if you should invest in that ICO or not.

Of course if you are more of a technical person, then try to analyze if their technology is feasible or not, or is it just some science fiction stuff going on!!

I've come here from the sMerit Post-Review thread and I think your post deserves a merit. Indeed it is better to verify whether a partnership claimed by an ICO is real. I would even suggest to do it before reading their whitepaper and stuff to save your time, since if they are lying about partnership there's no need to read other documents.

I have one question though. Did you mean  to write Cointelegraph instead of Cointelegram?

I am glad that you liked my post. And you are right, partnership thing should be confirmed even before reading the whitepaper.
LOL about the Cointelegram thing!! I always get confused there. So yes, I meant Cointelegraph and not Cointelegram.

[cryptospear]

You will know it when you read the whitepaper,a decent ICO doesnt have a business minded whitepaper,its goal shouldnt be only to raise funds,check the developer's team if they are capable of their goals,roadmap should be clear too,check the founder's credibility if they has something bad in the past i suggest to stay away from it,and the most imporatant thing,ICO should have a good working product or services that has use in real world,these are just the basic things you should check before getting involved with these ICOs.

[shirackjs]

It is not easy to identify scam projects, that is why it is high risk investment. And research is very important to analyze whether the project is worth investing in.

[helin9108]

For good ICO first you have to research all important things like Develop team, White paper, Roadmap etc.well because by this doing you will know easily that the project will be successful or not. And also check that if in real life the coin will solve that problems or not for what the coin came. And there is also good sites that can give you list of good ICO's as well.

[Benarand]

We need to thoroughly and thoroughly study the essence of the upcoming project, the team that is working on it, the road map, white paper, the value of the token, plans for the future. And when you make sure that this is exactly what you were looking for, you can safely invest.