Newbie's guide to avoid ICO Scam

[Snappycoco]

Initial Coin Offering SCAMS
HOW TO AVOID?

Let's define first what is Initial Coin Offering or ICO? 

ICO is an unregulated means by which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture.
My idea on ICO is CROWD FUNDING .

Now let's move on how can we avoid ICO SCAM

      Crowdfunding is shaping the future of finance. No longer does investment belong to the few and no longer does launching a project mean having to go through all the required conditions of Venture Capital investment. There are now multiple platforms where users can crowdfund their dreams and projects into reality.

Observe this things to avoid it.
Unrealistic goals
Buzzword salad
Whitepaper
No Code Repository
Team



Unrealistic goals
     
       If the project does have that potential, professional developers will never make such promises. They will let you know about the potential of their project and that’s it. No serious team will ever make a price prediction about their token or claim it can fix the world.

Buzzword salad

      “Our decentralized blockchain-based platform will disrupt the landscape of cryptocurrency investment while building a trustless network of pseudonymous users that leverage swarm intelligence technology to provide real world financial services in a tokenized ecosystem.”

       Some people may have a tendency to use buzzwords as a means to turn a boring text or announcement into something exciting. However, these will have a certain amount of information on it, even if you have to filter out some of the nonsense. Still, if a project needs to do this, then the project is likely to be as boring as watching paint dry.

Whitepaper
   
         Whitepapers usually explain how the platform works both on the high-level and specifically. This often includes charts, calculations, simulations, specifications and so forth. If your project claims that it is building some sort of decentralized service or token with new features and actually provides no explanation of how it works specifically, then just close the document and walk away.

No Code Repository

      This is what matters. Like someone said before “Code is law”. Even if the project announcement and whitepaper are complete trash, you can always count on Github or Sourceforge to put an end to all doubts. If the project provides no link to the code at all or if the project is nothing more than a clone with a few changed lines of code, then it’s not worth your time nor money.

Team

      This is very important. Who is behind the project? Is the team made up of well-known members of the cryptocurrency community? Are they known in other areas? Have they been involved in previous projects? If the answer is yes, then this may be an interesting opportunity. Just remember to check if the person is actually aware of the project as scammers may use famous names just to get people interested even though these are not part of the team.

Source: https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/guides/how-to-avoid-scam-icos/

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[qazgroup]

Sometimes the initial look of website or whitepaper is enough to judge a project because professional and serious projects will not compromise even on the quality and design of the website. So we have to check the ico project from all aspects before looking to invest.

[sangjoewara]

Sometimes the initial look of website or whitepaper is enough to judge a project because professional and serious projects will not compromise even on the quality and design of the website. So we have to check the ico project from all aspects before looking to invest.

Yes, obviously the appearance is the main thing that the project must show to the crypto public, so that they can be attracted and glimpsed by investors, but don't forget about performance and how to build projects are also very necessary because at this time there are so many projects that only rely on their outward appearance but in origin they are a scam.

[kotajikikox]

this can also Help since scam and blackmailing is really happening nowadays and they are rampant specially this season when December is coming
and people desires to take advantage of others.

https://bitcoin.org/en/scams#blackmail

and also this thread that has been posted last year that is a good help also in fighting scammers in this forum

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5210409.0


Just be careful in everything we do ,specially in engaging with others because sometimes Looks can be deceiving ,those who
 pretend to be helping is the one that
 will attack us soon.

[batang_bitcoin]

Although for some we may think that ICOs are already outdated but they are not. Projects in ICO are still existing but you can see a few of them go into success.
The new scam for these projects is now inlining with the Defi market. They can easily create a project and will just list it on swap platforms and it's up to them how they will do the trick.

[Reatim]

Sometimes the initial look of website or whitepaper is enough to judge a project because professional and serious projects will not compromise even on the quality and design of the website. So we have to check the ico project from all aspects before looking to invest.

But scammers nowadays are good at it,sometimes they look more professionals than the right one,ICO scammers now are growing and learning.
so they tend to mislead people and cheat them in their looks,Some of them copying Good whitepapers to  look good,or hiring professional people for them to become a legit looking team and projects.
they are really deceiving the victims.

Although for some we may think that ICOs are already outdated but they are not. Projects in ICO are still existing but you can see a few of them go into success.
The new scam for these projects is now inlining with the Defi market. They can easily create a project and will just list it on swap platforms and it's up to them how they will do the trick.

exactly the Popular Defi projects now are the target of these scammers because there are many noobs investing on those also.

[lovesmayfamilis]

OP, perhaps you can say that you are a beginner and do not know the rules of the forum. But explain to me why post a copy of the 2017 article, even with the original link?


As you know, the time for ICO has passed, and all this information has been rewritten here several times. As Defi projects are gaining popularity, reviews with new types of scams will be more useful.
Your topic does not contain any of your own thoughts, but only copy-paste, which is not welcome on the forum. What new have you discovered just by copying everything?
This is more like a search for merit than a desire to inform the community about something new.

[zasad@]

Although for some we may think that ICOs are already outdated but they are not. Projects in ICO are still existing but you can see a few of them go into success.
The new scam for these projects is now inlining with the Defi market. They can easily create a project and will just list it on swap platforms and it's up to them how they will do the trick.

Swap services allow you to create a pool and sell your tokens, but creating a pool requires a minimum of several hundred thousand dollars.
If the price of the token falls, then the liquidity providers will lose money.
Read this article
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5276515
Every day 20-40 projects were listed on uniswap, but this does not give any result, except for saving payment for listing on the exchange.
Therefore, the creators of the project need to look for buyers for their tokens.

[Warkop]

Your suggestion does look good to see the details of an ICO project before investing, the method above is absolutely mandatory if you don't want to be hit by an ICO scam, but for now ICO is no longer used with projects, because now all projects have used Defi to convince everyone and invest in their projects, so always be careful and always see first if their team has social media, such as LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook and the projects they are on are visible on their profile or not.

[Viscore]

ICO is quite dead already, IEO and Defi projects are what we are facing right now, and so much flooded on the market. It could be nice OP if you are making a guide to avoiding IEO or Defi projects.
But anyway, ICO and the new projects today have a few similarities and it was obvious to see by then the strategies that these scammers had use are still the same. These things aren't new to us, to the market, and I know even newbies have some ideas about this. Just only for them to know more about the market and have their own understanding of scamming, then it was not difficult for them to find it.

[yazher]

Sometimes the initial look of website or whitepaper is enough to judge a project because professional and serious projects will not compromise even on the quality and design of the website. So we have to check the ico project from all aspects before looking to invest.

This was the case before but those crooks learned some method that will also completely changed these things and make it look real until they run away with your investment. Most of the time they just plagiarized their site and whitepapers but right now they can completely make a new one and make it look like legit. Right now we need to be vigilant when choosing some ICO, the only thing I can advise is look for those ICO that promoted by the known bounty managers like Hhampuz and the others because of the bounty they've been promoted has some highest success rate.

[TopTort777]

OP, perhaps you can say that you are a beginner and do not know the rules of the forum. But explain to me why post a copy of the 2017 article, even with the original link?

People are ready to do everything to get merit But this guy is too late with this hints. The era of ICO is more dead than alive. I don't even remember anyone that ran an ICO and had finished with success (speaking only within this forum).

I would not mind if he would write his own thoughts on this guide, but editing an introduction was all he could...

[serjent05]

Aside from the given pointers by OP, the best thing to avoid ICO scam is not to be greedy.  Greediness nullifies all sorts of reasons and risk thinking only an unrealistic profit promised or falsely conveys by a scam ICO project.

OP, perhaps you can say that you are a beginner and do not know the rules of the forum. But explain to me why post a copy of the 2017 article, even with the original link?

I am curious what rule does OP breaks?

People are ready to do everything to get merit But this guy is too late with this hints. The era of ICO is more dead than alive. I don't even remember anyone that ran an ICO and had finished with success (speaking only within this forum).

ICO is still around, it is that IEO and DeFi outshine it.

I would not mind if he would write his own thoughts on this guide, but editing an introduction was all he could...

This kind of posts has been a practiced by sometimes now, you better get use to it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

OP, perhaps you can say that you are a beginner and do not know the rules of the forum. But explain to me why post a copy of the 2017 article, even with the original link?

I am curious what rule does OP breaks?

Are you interested in reading old articles? What new have you learned from it? I can agree that not all old information is out of date. But if everyone posts information on the forum that is not unique, not written by him with his own hand, but simply copying it and then uploading the source. Wouldn't that be considered a low-quality post?
I can provide a rule in Russian locale.
Use a translator for your understanding.

Messages must be original. "Stuffing" the number of messages made by the copy-paste principle from another resource is unacceptable. Such messages fall under the first paragraph of the rules.

7. Cooбщeния дoлжны быть opигинaльными. "Haбивaниe" кoличecтвa cooбщeний cдeлaнныx пo пpинципy кoпи-пacтa c дpyгoгo pecypca нeдoпycтимo. Пoдoбныe cooбщeния пoдпaдaют пoд пepвый пyнкт пpaвил.

[gwapoinside2]

Indeed what you mention are red flags when investing in crypto and newbies and new investors should learn to watch out for. Also I would add to that the social presence and community support of the project. Scam project normally does not have a good community support that would aid investors in answering inquiries about the projects and the people running it.

[Princejebs]

Since the emergence of DEFI, ICO (initial coin offering) has been rebranded by many projects in many form after ( IEO ) initial exchange offering  hype by reputable exchanges, this encompasses  bonding curve, believers reward offering and many more for early adopters.
ICO comes with high risk and high reward because of the bonuses and less price when compared to public sales, however, one need a proper research before enrolling in any project that offer this form of crowdfunding.
Recent DeFi hype has left get quick rich investors in darkness because of immense profits, their laziness to read the warnings on the forum and lack of interest on news blog about the recent scam in this field.

[fortunecrypto]

Team

      This is very important. Who is behind the project? Is the team made up of well-known members of the cryptocurrency community? Are they known in other areas? Have they been involved in previous projects? If the answer is yes, then this may be an interesting opportunity. Just remember to check if the person is actually aware of the project as scammers may use famous names just to get people interested even though these are not part of the team.

For me this is very important we are talking about capability if you are going to hire someone to build your house he should have the credibility and the expertise to show that he really can do it and he has clients and projects to back it up.

This is where majority of the ICO fail they cannot come up one so they create fake their team members and their credibility, no coder will let other use his credentials so they cannot hire these good coders, they resort to photoshopped team hoping that they can get away with it, unfortunately there are members here that are good in catching fake credentials.

[serjent05]

OP, perhaps you can say that you are a beginner and do not know the rules of the forum. But explain to me why post a copy of the 2017 article, even with the original link?

I am curious what rule does OP breaks?

Are you interested in reading old articles? What new have you learned from it? I can agree that not all old information is out of date.

Yes I am, sometimes we forget things that were written in the past.  So it is a good thing to refresh once in a while.

But if everyone posts information on the forum that is not unique, not written by him with his own hand, but simply copying it and then uploading the source. Wouldn't that be considered a low-quality post?
I can provide a rule in Russian locale.
Use a translator for your understanding.

Messages must be original. "Stuffing" the number of messages made by the copy-paste principle from another resource is unacceptable. Such messages fall under the first paragraph of the rules.

7. Cooбщeния дoлжны быть opигинaльными. "Haбивaниe" кoличecтвa cooбщeний cдeлaнныx пo пpинципy кoпи-пacтa c дpyгoгo pecypca нeдoпycтимo. Пoдoбныe cooбщeния пoдпaдaют пoд пepвый пyнкт пpaвил.

Sadly this isn't a Russian locale but whether this is a low quality is subjective.  Each person do have different views on what is quality and what is not .  Report to moderator link is there if you think this thread shouldn't be here.  I believe that is much better.

Indeed what you mention are red flags when investing in crypto and newbies and new investors should learn to watch out for. Also I would add to that the social presence and community support of the project. Scam project normally does not have a good community support that would aid investors in answering inquiries about the projects and the people running it.

Most of the time scam project have paid shills.  The moment the project have an ICO goin on, their community group are very active with people that are paid to shill the project.  So somehow it is kinda hard to determine especially if the one they hire are professional shills.  I think asking sensitive question that have something to do with the credibility of the developers and verifying it can also help to determine whether the project is a scam or not.

[jrrsparkles]

Its defi season so guide to identify defi scam project is more important than ICOs which is almost died in 2020.

By the way good compilation of existing information in single thread but still you can construct it better for more visiblity.

[Cornia]

Source: https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/guides/how-to-avoid-scam-icos/

Why you avoid this two point?
1. Compromised Escrow
2. Fake pictures?!
I think you try to do something by yourself without copying/pasting directly from the website. And as long as you can't do that, spend more time in the forum and gain knowledge.

We have very good quality topics related to your topic in our forum.  Please have a look ..
1. 🌍 Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔
2. 🌍[Guide] Prevent scam!!! Some useful tools for find scam / fake ICO team 🌍.