Newbie's guide to avoid ICO Scam

[Rengga Jati]

Although for some we may think that ICOs are already outdated but they are not.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.

Well, yeah, now, ICO is outdated and there is so small amount of ICO that can be seen. But, the scammers do not stop there. They may still have many more ways to scam and get the money from their victims. ANd many ore ways are newly likely scams in:
- Airdrop
- Youtube CHannel
_ Social media
- Sites with very great profits of investment
- And more
Sometimes, the projects are also likely very legit and they may also have IEO, But the IEO is not in the good exchanges so that probably the scammers still can make scams on there.

[plvbob0070]

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.

With the increasing number of ICO scams, we should have an idea of the things that we must check to determine the credibility of an ICO. Examining the white paper is significant, as it contains every detail of the project. But I don't think it's a sufficient basis to verify if the project is legitimate because it can be easily plagiarized.

Like this one: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5171613.0

[beerlover]

Specially the unrealistic goals part, that is one of the most important parts because there are tons of coins and tokens right now that already achieve something awesome and they are legit good ones so the scam ones try to outdo them and claim a lot of features on top of the ones that are legit, if they do not claim great deal of new innovation they will not get any attention so that is why they have unrealistic goals.

If we believed all innovations to be fake we wouldn't have any new innovation so some of them turns out to be true and achieve but the odds of finding that one are lower than 1 in 100 so there is no reason to go for all those unrealistic projects. Others are good suggestions as well but the highest and most important one is to check the goals.

[desticy]

It seems to me that the creator of the topic fell asleep back in 2018, and woke up just now.
The fact that most of the ICO scams have been known for a long time, moreover, if you look at the ICO market, you will not see almost any projects, and those that you see do not receive any funding because they are suspected of being a scam.
Now we need to look at the market for DeFi projects, not ICO. It is HYIP DeFi that is now repeating the same thing that happened with the ICO in the past.

[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.

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

The hype is very much with defi projects but I think it will be gone just after one more week or eventually there's no more hype on it by after a month.
It is the target of scammers because they know that a lot of newbie investors are going to go there and have their cake investments. While the newbie investors not being vigilant, they are prone and likely to be scammed if they are not practicing to research.

[Pamadar]

It seems to me that the creator of the topic fell asleep back in 2018, and woke up just now.
The fact that most of the ICO scams have been known for a long time, moreover, if you look at the ICO market, you will not see almost any projects, and those that you see do not receive any funding because they are suspected of being a scam.
Now we need to look at the market for DeFi projects, not ICO. It is HYIP DeFi that is now repeating the same thing that happened with the ICO in the past.

The patterns are similar so make sure to keep doing a hard research before doing any participations.

DeFi re making it's way and many investors are fomoing to participate, from that views scammers are also taking advantages
to avoid being victimized make sure to learn first everything regarding to the DeFi project that you are looking to invest don't quickly
jumped do your DYOR,.

[goaldigger]

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.

Now this is the trend, we should know by know how to identify scam projects and a hype projects. Newbies have to do their job to analyze before investing and don’t just listen for big profit promises. Old investors knows already that a lot of ICO is just a scam, but now that DeFi is on a hype we should also know that many scam project exist and better to avoid joining those projects.

[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.

Now this is the trend, we should know by know how to identify scam projects and a hype projects. Newbies have to do their job to analyze before investing and don’t just listen for big profit promises. Old investors knows already that a lot of ICO is just a scam, but now that DeFi is on a hype we should also know that many scam project exist and better to avoid joining those projects.

Defi is bit more complicated to analyse because many project team wants to stay anonymous so it is impossible to check the legitimacy of them and also they doesn't have problem with listing because now they have decentralized exchange so they can just make money and fades away in no time within this hype.

[ololajulo]

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.

Defi has produced many crowdfund with anonymous team and that has reduced the scam, whatever the hype in the space I will never acknowledge a project with anonymous team. It does not cost a team anything if they got nothing to hide. A team with track record in the space is more attractive to raise fund. Go beyond the Linkedin information to verify the authenticity of the team, Linkedin can work with any date and we know older account could be easy to accredit.

[Pffrt]

While you have shared some valid points through which people can find scam ICO (better ti avoid every ICO lol), there is another good article made by forum member coolcryptovator which I found very interesting as it has some more different approaches. You may find it interesting- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4586576.0

[carter34]

So we have to check the ico project from all aspects before looking to invest.

This is a good way to go and not regret in ICO investment. A research is needed always before any further step can be taken. Some ICO team have the purpose to only run with investors money. So you need to observe the whitepaper against any duplication or dubious content.

[KimmyF]

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.

Well, yeah, now, ICO is outdated and there is so small amount of ICO that can be seen. But, the scammers do not stop there. They may still have many more ways to scam and get the money from their victims. ANd many ore ways are newly likely scams in:
- Airdrop
- Youtube CHannel
_ Social media
- Sites with very great profits of investment
- And more
Sometimes, the projects are also likely very legit and they may also have IEO, But the IEO is not in the good exchanges so that probably the scammers still can make scams on there.

The exchange doesn't care, because some new projects also make a fake announcement about IEO. Newbies can't safe from all these scam sites. I think some newbies obviously get involved in those processes. Or do research on some new scam coins. Now we are relying more on the DeFi projects instead of some good exchange IEO.

[Kasabus]

So we have to check the ico project from all aspects before looking to invest.

This is a good way to go and not regret in ICO investment. A research is needed always before any further step can be taken. Some ICO team have the purpose to only run with investors money. So you need to observe the whitepaper against any duplication or dubious content.

Yes. It's always good and advisable to DYOR first before investing in ICOs. We are not sure where will this project go so to be sure, we should be more skeptical in choosing which projects to invest so we won't be making regrets if we found out late and they have already stole our funds. Studying on the whitepaper alone is not good enough. We should go on the details on the staff behind the project so we can confirm if those people are legit and not just scammers trying to fool us.

[jdnthny]

A very informative and very substantial information and sentiments which is really very useful to all the newbies who needs to have a very good guide in order for them to avoid several ICO scam. I totally agreed to all the following important highlighted information to be considered in avoiding those scam project.

[WalkerIVIV]

Now we are relying more on the DeFi projects instead of some good exchange IEO.

It's caused by the instant return and easy requirement to particiapted in the defi. It was happening last month but this month the popularity of defi has already drowned caused by the exchange sites have already launched the launch pool for the defi projects which have already robbed a lot of demand from the defi project again.

The competition between cex and defi are very strict especially uniswap that can compete with all of cex at once time. That looks so crazy.

[rz20]

Sometimes if a project has an MVP (minimum viable product) it too plays a big role. Mostly the project is only into raising money for the project, but if you find an ICO which already has an MVP than you could pay more attention to that project.

[hongchao123]

Is ICO still alive? I thought that defi is a new meta

[Reid]

Isn't it too late to provide these tips?
DeFi had been popular and most hyped now and I think investors are already forgetting about ICO's.
I did.
They became just history for me.
Although I still see some good projects on that platform, it's difficult to risk money there by now since they might not reach the right cap to continue.

[NavI_027]

Okay, that's great criteria to have a clue whether the token you are investing with is a future scam or not. But take note, these can be your guidelines when you are about to join them but what would you do if things don't go well in the middle? What if they said to you that "I'm sorry we didn't hit the hard cap." or "Oops there is a technical error on our codes." Etc. How can you cope with those alibis?

As far as I'm concern, you can't do anything about it but to pray on God that team only encountered a problem and don't have an intention of scamming at all . Therefore, I am not advising everyone (especially the newbies) to become an avid fan of ICOs because the risks are greater than the potential profits. Realtalk.

[michellee]

The ICO era has over, and IEO is also over. And now, the trend has been replaced by DeFi projects. The DeFi project has already begun, and there is no sign of the project to end. But I think the @OP gives the thing that we should concern to find the scam project, but I am sure there are many more to find that scam project. The scam project will search for the other way in the new trend, and they will try to get the new target in the crypto world. We need to be careful to invest in any project.