How to not get SCAMMED investing in ICOs!!!

[Trcream]

If this keeps one person from getting scammed, I will be happy.

According to a recent article from Investopedia, $9 MILLION is being lost on a daily basis due to ICO scams! Are you investing in the next Facebook or are you investing in the next Enron? This will be a short write up on how to protect your hard earned money from ending up in a an ICO scam. Disclaimer here, please do not take this as investment advice. Investing in Initial Coin Offerings can either be extremely rewarding or you could potentially lose all of your money! I recommend Alt Coin investing for advanced level investors only!



Team:

One of the first things you should look for in a good ICO is a PUBLIC team with advisers. However, having a public team is not enough. You need to manually go check every key member of the team to check that they are in fact real and associated with the ICO. Is the founder a CEO from a Fortune 500 company and is this a new project for him, or is he coming from an unknown town in Siberia? There should also be some decent advisers on the team that are willing to risk their reputation on the project. A lot of scams don’t list the team members or use fake team members/advisers.

White Paper:

Yes, you need to take the time and read EVERY white paper on every project you invest in. If you don’t read the white paper, you are asking to lose money. How well is the white paper written and how is the overall layout? Is the white paper offering something too good to be true like 500% returns in the first year? Is there a clear and thoughtful road map? A good white paper will clearly contain all the necessary information about the project. A lot of scam projects are ambiguous. Caution, a lot of scams copy white papers from other projects.

Social Media:

Check the projects overall social media presence. How many Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Facebook followers do they have? How often have they been discussed in bitcoin talk? Have they been posted on any famous news websites? A lot of fake projects will have little social media presence or fake followers.

The Code:

I must admit, this is not my specialty. Most ICOs will post their code for all to see on Github. Check to see if the code is something meaningful or a bunch of lines of nonsense. You may not be able to tell the difference so get a tech friend to help you.


Company Legal Status:

Make sure that the people conducting the ICO have registered the company in the country that they want to operate. A lot of ICOs create shell companies and are trying to hide their real identity. In most cases, you should be able to find an address.

Status of Product:

Does the company have anything to show? If an ICO has NOTHING to show for their project that can be a red flag. Most serious ICOs should have a working prototype, APP, or product in their Alpha or Beta stage. Again, manually check the product.

In Summary:

Scammers are getting smarter and know a lot of this. This is just to help you check off the boxes to reduce your chances of getting scammed. Even after you find a REAL project, your job is just beginning. You still have to determine if it is a good investment! This is why I recommend ICOs for advanced investors. With that said, good luck finding the next unicorn!  

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[Mallyx]

Nowadays all those points can be faked,
the one and most important you're missing is to check if the ICO is done by a registered company.

[illymoka]

In the absence of knowledge, it is almost impossible to evaluate technology. However, the results can even give a test of White Paper for plagiarism - simple short-term scams do not bother with the development of documentation. With the testing of technology can help the Internet. It is enough to ask a question to experts on forums or even in Telegram to developers themselves. As a rule, the scum can be determined even by the quality of the feedback - the answers of the scammers contain contradictions and rarely differ in detail.

[Trcream]

Nowadays all those points can be faked,
the one and most important you're missing is to check if the ICO is done by a registered company.

Thanks, I felt like I was missing a point. I have added that in  .

[Holla123]

Nowadays all those points can be faked,
the one and most important you're missing is to check if the ICO is done by a registered company.

That is kind of true. I am really careful but the scammers in crypto are really good. If e.g. someone starts a topic about airdrop on bitcointalk then moves to discord and suddenly offers to sell masternodes that should be cause for alarm. Also dont distribute your data to freely via airdrops. Some of the scam emails on ongoing ICO are really professional. If someone on telegram pretends to be admin for ongoing ico and wants to sell you tokens this is always a scam. In general never send money for any item you want to buy just like that.

[Holla123]

If this keeps one person from getting scammed, I will be happy.

According to a recent article from Investopedia, $9 MILLION is being lost on a daily basis due to ICO scams! Are you investing in the next Facebook or are you investing in the next Enron? This will be a short write up on how to protect your hard earned money from ending up in a an ICO scam. Disclaimer here, please do not take this as investment advice. Investing in Initial Coin Offerings can either be extremely rewarding or you could potentially lose all of your money! I recommend Alt Coin investing for advanced level investors only!



Team:

One of the first things you should look for in a good ICO is a PUBLIC team with advisers. However, having a public team is not enough. You need to manually go check every key member of the team to check that they are in fact real and associated with the ICO. Is the founder a CEO from a Fortune 500 company and is this a new project for him, or is he coming from an unknown town in Siberia? There should also be some decent advisers on the team that are willing to risk their reputation on the project. A lot of scams don’t list the team members or use fake team members/advisers.

White Paper:

Yes, you need to take the time and read EVERY white paper on every project you invest in. If you don’t read the white paper, you are asking to lose money. How well is the white paper written and how is the overall layout? Is the white paper offering something too good to be true like 500% returns in the first year? Is there a clear and thoughtful road map? A good white paper will clearly contain all the necessary information about the project. A lot of scam projects are ambiguous. Caution, a lot of scams copy white papers from other projects.

Social Media:

Check the projects overall social media presence. How many Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Facebook followers do they have? How often have they been discussed in bitcoin talk? Have they been posted on any famous news websites? A lot of fake projects will have little social media presence or fake followers.

The Code:

I must admit, this is not my specialty. Most ICOs will post their code for all to see on Github. Check to see if the code is something meaningful or a bunch of lines of nonsense. You may not be able to tell the difference so get a tech friend to help you.


Company Legal Status

Make sure that the people conducting the ICO have registered the company in the country that they want to operate. A lot of ICOs create shell companies and are trying to hide their real identity. In most cases, you should be able to find an address.

In Summary:

Scammers are getting smarter and know a lot of this. This is just to help you check off the boxes to reduce your chances of getting scammed. Even after you find a REAL project, your job is just beginning. You still have to determine if it is a good investment! This is why I recommend ICOs for advanced investors. With that said, good luck finding the next unicorn!  

I am watching a lot of manipulation on the size of telegram groups lately. What you might add as an indicator is existing prototype or even better working product and existing customers. Waltonchain or Cindicator spring to mind. I do not believe in ripple to say that again for missing proof of work and lack of decentralisation. Also Wanchain will start moving into the market soon.

[insomnia79]

I think its hard for me too because I have already failed in four bounty scam, and to help reduce of percentage of fail in ICO or bounty is join the bounty program from  experienced accounts who manage bounty better, and it will give the chance ICO to success higher

[Trcream]

If this keeps one person from getting scammed, I will be happy.

According to a recent article from Investopedia, $9 MILLION is being lost on a daily basis due to ICO scams! Are you investing in the next Facebook or are you investing in the next Enron? This will be a short write up on how to protect your hard earned money from ending up in a an ICO scam. Disclaimer here, please do not take this as investment advice. Investing in Initial Coin Offerings can either be extremely rewarding or you could potentially lose all of your money! I recommend Alt Coin investing for advanced level investors only!



Team:

One of the first things you should look for in a good ICO is a PUBLIC team with advisers. However, having a public team is not enough. You need to manually go check every key member of the team to check that they are in fact real and associated with the ICO. Is the founder a CEO from a Fortune 500 company and is this a new project for him, or is he coming from an unknown town in Siberia? There should also be some decent advisers on the team that are willing to risk their reputation on the project. A lot of scams don’t list the team members or use fake team members/advisers.

White Paper:

Yes, you need to take the time and read EVERY white paper on every project you invest in. If you don’t read the white paper, you are asking to lose money. How well is the white paper written and how is the overall layout? Is the white paper offering something too good to be true like 500% returns in the first year? Is there a clear and thoughtful road map? A good white paper will clearly contain all the necessary information about the project. A lot of scam projects are ambiguous. Caution, a lot of scams copy white papers from other projects.

Social Media:

Check the projects overall social media presence. How many Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Facebook followers do they have? How often have they been discussed in bitcoin talk? Have they been posted on any famous news websites? A lot of fake projects will have little social media presence or fake followers.

The Code:

I must admit, this is not my specialty. Most ICOs will post their code for all to see on Github. Check to see if the code is something meaningful or a bunch of lines of nonsense. You may not be able to tell the difference so get a tech friend to help you.


Company Legal Status

Make sure that the people conducting the ICO have registered the company in the country that they want to operate. A lot of ICOs create shell companies and are trying to hide their real identity. In most cases, you should be able to find an address.

In Summary:

Scammers are getting smarter and know a lot of this. This is just to help you check off the boxes to reduce your chances of getting scammed. Even after you find a REAL project, your job is just beginning. You still have to determine if it is a good investment! This is why I recommend ICOs for advanced investors. With that said, good luck finding the next unicorn!  

I am watching a lot of manipulation on the size of telegram groups lately. What you might add as an indicator is existing prototype or even better working product and existing customers. Waltonchain or Cindicator spring to mind. I do not believe in ripple to say that again for missing proof of work and lack of decentralisation. Also Wanchain will start moving into the market soon.

Thanks, it is a good point that I have added in. This should be a very good list by the end with everyone's input  Grin

[breadginger56]

Nowadays all those points can be faked,
the one and most important you're missing is to check if the ICO is done by a registered company.

I agree and also you cannot even trust your gut feeling on an ICO you are looking for. So you can ask questions for some people who join in that ICO to really know if that is a scam or not..asking questions is easy and nothing will be lost if you ask.

[SnapFX]

I agree with the people who wrote the previous posts that to counterfeit many moments of ICO for swindlers doesn't represent work.
Seriously to make secure it is necessary to study the project very in detail.

[helin9108]

If this keeps one person from getting scammed, I will be happy.

According to a recent article from Investopedia, $9 MILLION is being lost on a daily basis due to ICO scams! Are you investing in the next Facebook or are you investing in the next Enron? This will be a short write up on how to protect your hard earned money from ending up in a an ICO scam. Disclaimer here, please do not take this as investment advice. Investing in Initial Coin Offerings can either be extremely rewarding or you could potentially lose all of your money! I recommend Alt Coin investing for advanced level investors only!



Team:

One of the first things you should look for in a good ICO is a PUBLIC team with advisers. However, having a public team is not enough. You need to manually go check every key member of the team to check that they are in fact real and associated with the ICO. Is the founder a CEO from a Fortune 500 company and is this a new project for him, or is he coming from an unknown town in Siberia? There should also be some decent advisers on the team that are willing to risk their reputation on the project. A lot of scams don’t list the team members or use fake team members/advisers.

White Paper:

Yes, you need to take the time and read EVERY white paper on every project you invest in. If you don’t read the white paper, you are asking to lose money. How well is the white paper written and how is the overall layout? Is the white paper offering something too good to be true like 500% returns in the first year? Is there a clear and thoughtful road map? A good white paper will clearly contain all the necessary information about the project. A lot of scam projects are ambiguous. Caution, a lot of scams copy white papers from other projects.

Social Media:

Check the projects overall social media presence. How many Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Facebook followers do they have? How often have they been discussed in bitcoin talk? Have they been posted on any famous news websites? A lot of fake projects will have little social media presence or fake followers.

The Code:

I must admit, this is not my specialty. Most ICOs will post their code for all to see on Github. Check to see if the code is something meaningful or a bunch of lines of nonsense. You may not be able to tell the difference so get a tech friend to help you.


Company Legal Status:

Make sure that the people conducting the ICO have registered the company in the country that they want to operate. A lot of ICOs create shell companies and are trying to hide their real identity. In most cases, you should be able to find an address.

Status of Product:

Does the company have anything to show? If an ICO has NOTHING to show for their project that can be a red flag. Most serious ICOs should have a working prototype, APP, or product in their Alpha or Beta stage. Again, manually check the product.

In Summary:

Scammers are getting smarter and know a lot of this. This is just to help you check off the boxes to reduce your chances of getting scammed. Even after you find a REAL project, your job is just beginning. You still have to determine if it is a good investment! This is why I recommend ICOs for advanced investors. With that said, good luck finding the next unicorn!  

Hey Trcream, first of all I would like to thanks you for this detailed post about how to avoid scam project because I have seen some newbies in this forum and also in the crypto world  willing to earn huge profit from ICO like 3-5x but they dont know or they have no knowledge how to research about that project and in this post you given all things in details so this will help them most.

[Trcream]

If this keeps one person from getting scammed, I will be happy.

According to a recent article from Investopedia, $9 MILLION is being lost on a daily basis due to ICO scams! Are you investing in the next Facebook or are you investing in the next Enron? This will be a short write up on how to protect your hard earned money from ending up in a an ICO scam. Disclaimer here, please do not take this as investment advice. Investing in Initial Coin Offerings can either be extremely rewarding or you could potentially lose all of your money! I recommend Alt Coin investing for advanced level investors only!



Team:

One of the first things you should look for in a good ICO is a PUBLIC team with advisers. However, having a public team is not enough. You need to manually go check every key member of the team to check that they are in fact real and associated with the ICO. Is the founder a CEO from a Fortune 500 company and is this a new project for him, or is he coming from an unknown town in Siberia? There should also be some decent advisers on the team that are willing to risk their reputation on the project. A lot of scams don’t list the team members or use fake team members/advisers.

White Paper:

Yes, you need to take the time and read EVERY white paper on every project you invest in. If you don’t read the white paper, you are asking to lose money. How well is the white paper written and how is the overall layout? Is the white paper offering something too good to be true like 500% returns in the first year? Is there a clear and thoughtful road map? A good white paper will clearly contain all the necessary information about the project. A lot of scam projects are ambiguous. Caution, a lot of scams copy white papers from other projects.

Social Media:

Check the projects overall social media presence. How many Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Facebook followers do they have? How often have they been discussed in bitcoin talk? Have they been posted on any famous news websites? A lot of fake projects will have little social media presence or fake followers.

The Code:

I must admit, this is not my specialty. Most ICOs will post their code for all to see on Github. Check to see if the code is something meaningful or a bunch of lines of nonsense. You may not be able to tell the difference so get a tech friend to help you.


Company Legal Status:

Make sure that the people conducting the ICO have registered the company in the country that they want to operate. A lot of ICOs create shell companies and are trying to hide their real identity. In most cases, you should be able to find an address.

Status of Product:

Does the company have anything to show? If an ICO has NOTHING to show for their project that can be a red flag. Most serious ICOs should have a working prototype, APP, or product in their Alpha or Beta stage. Again, manually check the product.

In Summary:

Scammers are getting smarter and know a lot of this. This is just to help you check off the boxes to reduce your chances of getting scammed. Even after you find a REAL project, your job is just beginning. You still have to determine if it is a good investment! This is why I recommend ICOs for advanced investors. With that said, good luck finding the next unicorn!  

Hey Trcream, first of all I would like to thanks you for this detailed post about how to avoid scam project because I have seen some newbies in this forum and also in the crypto world  willing to earn huge profit from ICO like 3-5x but they dont know or they have no knowledge how to research about that project and in this post you given all things in details so this will help them most.

Thanks for the feedback. I have just seen too many newbies losing their money. I wanted to write a straight forward guide that people could quickly read and take action with.

[nightmanisrightman]

I enjoyed that whole post OP, just one minor suggestion for you. Add to that list abstinence. I believe it is a worthy way of avoiding scams, it is what I am currently doing in regards to ICOs.

[megalith researcher]

The problem here lies in the fact that the creators of a project can create fake accounts and buy coins from themselves, and there is not way to prevent that kind of practice without any type of regulation that involves verification of IDs.

That's why I think that, in the future, if ICOs will continue to exist, they will be regulated.

[Trcream]

The problem here lies in the fact that the creators of a project can create fake accounts and buy coins from themselves, and there is not way to prevent that kind of practice without any type of regulation that involves verification of IDs.

That's why I think that, in the future, if ICOs will continue to exist, they will be regulated.

Yeah, if scammers are extremely motivated they can go to huge lengths to look real. However, this guide should cover at least 90% of the scams. The really good scams are even hard for pros to detect.