[Article] Over $1 Billion Lost to Sh*t Projects or How to Spot Red-Flags

[tokenlion]

Over $1 Billion Lost to Sh*t Projects or How to Spot Red-Flags

We all probably know the number of crapcoins, shitocoins and other matter-coins floating around in the crypto air. The Wall Street Journal says that the number of scammy and shady projects could be greater than in the early days (well, it’s not a surprise) by claiming that it estimates to around 200 projects.

Apparently, the Wall Street Journal analyzed over 1,450 tokens and found 271 ones which raised some red-flags.

What are the red flags for most crypto/ICO Projects?

• Ponzi Schemes
• Vague aims and values
• Website designed like no one cares about it
• Glitchy web applications (not always a red flag)
• Promises of huge ROI
• Good ol' stock images or really bad quality ones
• Poor/weak whitepaper
• Plagiarised whitepaper

The funny thing is that some projects were so reckless or ignorant that they left content pieces from original whitepapers and didn't even bother to change the names.

Link to the original article

What are the red-flags that you look out for?

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[coinwizard_]

Only 271 out of 1,450 tokens were found to be shady should be the main point. I thought there would be more than that considering all the scam accusation threads and coins that get dumped into nothing.

[Harlot]

Spotting red-flags are a good thing but I think not letting them launch an ICO in the first place is the best way to avoid billions of dollars being lost by investors. If all of the countries or even just the target countries have some kind of ICO regulation that will take place, this would prevent all the scammers and fraud artist entering the market. This criminals also have gone digital and is obviously taking advantage of the lack of regulation globally, we cannot really prevent this scams but the most effective way is by regulation.

[tokenlion]

Spotting red-flags are a good thing but I think not letting them launch an ICO in the first place is the best way to avoid billions of dollars being lost by investors. If all of the countries or even just the target countries have some kind of ICO regulation that will take place, this would prevent all the scammers and fraud artist entering the market. This criminals also have gone digital and is obviously taking advantage of the lack of regulation globally, we cannot really prevent this scams but the most effective way is by regulation.

G20 has something prepared regarding ICOs and if those regulations will be applied - maybe something will change for the better.
True, it would be best to stop fraud ICOs before they even start but that's a huge amount of work.

[alfstep]

Only 271 out of 1,450 tokens were found to be shady should be the main point. I thought there would be more than that considering all the scam accusation threads and coins that get dumped into nothing.

Only? Really?
It is like almost 20%? You dont think that is a huge number? You should set your mind right
That is why we really need regulations in crypto, crypto in this current state is like a wild jungle where the stronges survive like the hacker, scammer and also whale. While others keep losing money. And no, we dont want that

[amishmanish]

It is amazing how people are still falling for this shit. The third world bounty-hunters are understandable. We'll pounce at anything that promises money. But where are the investors coming from in the first place??
The recipe is too easy now. A website, a whitepaper, some uniques sounding shit taken from Sci-Fi RPG's, A bounty manager on bitcointalk, Lots of shitposters with fake twitter and FB followers and then a token sale with a false ticker on the website ("67.8% sold, HURRY!!").
Even if 1 out of 100 people watching it FOMO with a fraction of ETH or BTC, especially those that got theirs cheap, It's a solid win for the scammers.

Talking of which, Does anybody know any of these projects that started in around November-December and is doing alright in terms of value creation?? I see the DeepOnion scam still going pretty strong. Those who followed them know that those guys have truly been the masters of camouflage and deceit..LOL.

[HabBear]

What are the red-flags that you look out for?

This is such an important concern, but obviously it isn't unique to Cryptocurrency. The business world is full of failed projects - either genuine projects that failed or scam projects that lured in naive investors. It's important to acknowledge that this isn't a crypto-only problem.

Here's what I look out for:

(1) Does the project have a realistic business plan that's bringing real value to a corner of the market that needs such value?

(2) Do the developers/owners have the background to bring the business plan to fruition, reality?

(3) What's the contingency plan if the business plan runs into tough spots...and all business endeavors run into tough spots.

(4) For crypto specifically, does the project offer a utility to people who are not already invested in crypto currency? If so, this a gold mine opportunity!

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

Almost 80-90% of the Bounty Hunters are mad and they fall for the scams and moan all the way for money for the work they did. Investors on the other hand never check for the potential of the coin and doesn't investigate before joining an ICO and lose their Btc/Eth. In order to educate the investors about the potential ICO scams, US SEC launched an alleged ICO scam and has set up a mock website.

Theymos too trolled us with an ANN Thread of HoweyCoins

The third world bounty-hunters are understandable. We'll pounce at anything that promises money.

It is and still happening to one of the troll Bounty Thread I created for HoweyCoins. The replies from Bounty Hunters are ridiculous and made my day.  

[trupero_uno]

This is really crazy situation to be ignored, we as crypto community should help each other specially that kind of investors. Just a spot of madness will damage all the system, and this kind crazy thing is not only a spot....over 1 billion USD is not a spot but big number amount of fund and it should be from lot of investors....That is a reason why recently in 2018, ICO fund raised is not as good as in 2017. Filtering crazy people should be started from bounty parties, mainly bounty management team then bounty hunters.

[Lindsburke]

Scammers see a relatively untapped market where persons aren't really familiar and they know that they can write a 40-page whitepaper which confuses people have two pages of actual information and then the unverified information in the rest and people will invest because it sounds catchy and like you can make a lot of money. They are preying on people it's despicable.

[darklus123]

This is happening because of how broad can the bitcoin industry go. Plus the number of current new users who actually has no idea what they were investing for. Millions of dollars were actually goes to scamming which is really a big lose of the industry.

It can only prove one thing that the current system of the cryptocurrency really has a lots of big loop holes that needs to be fixed or atleast reduced

[drmilind2004]

Okay, so we have identified the 'scamster ICO' problem.

At present, the solution is a blanket 'Scam' accusatory thread on this forum, and maybe at some other crypto forum sites such as Reddit.

Is it possible to have a certification standard that can be applied to any upcoming ICO launch, that must be displayed by that ICO as a compulsory rating?

On the stocks and bonds market, there are several certifying agencies that rate an issue.  Can the same be developed for the crypto world?

Finally, can this forum play any role in such a certification?  Obviously, a certificate cannot be issued through polling, as that would form an essential ingredient of a bounty campaign!

Perhaps, a Certification board alphabetically listing the ICOs, and their ratings would be the way to go. These can also take advantage of any current reliable rating systems functioning in our crypto universe.