Newbie's guide to avoid ICO Scam

[isaac_clarke22]

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Community as well. When we're speaking of community, we're also talking about communication. Does the team update well in any social media channel? Forum? Telegram? Because even if those teams have good reviews in sites like ICOBench, but they don't update the project progression, that's still a red flag, at least for me. Some reviews are paid also, and people should be wary of those.
Repositories are kind of an indicators as well. How many pull requests were made within a month? One would be too unrealistic considering that even the most updated softwares, although non-crypto related, are being update almost daily.

[1714876136]

1714876136

[Pamadar]

this is discussed frequently on this forum but there are still many crypto users out there who are vulnerable to scam projects for several reasons. Moreover, they are tempted by high rewards and are not what they expect. I think anyone needs to be vigilant and not put their money in a shady project. and also be careful with the Defi project.

Very important before you release your money to any investment is to know the business / project much deeper.

every developers have promises but to value your money investors needs to take time in dealing with research, never to blindly
invest your money as it will hurt you once you become a victim of those so many scammers inside this industry, be very vigilant
and skeptical, better than being sorry after you made a mistake and loses your money.

[pungopete468]

Good reason sharing information to newbies about Scam ICO's I think the community would appreciate if you would create Newbie's guide to avoid DeFi scam since ICO's hypes was few years ago also if your target readers are really newbies then you can post it to beginners and help section.

[panganib999]

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.

Absolutely agreeable. The appearance is the very first thing that people are always seeing including potential investors because they are being attracted on the offering included in the ICO itself. But the appearance must not be just the one being observed for looks can be deceiving most of the time. Better go deep down on tracking necessary information about the ICO before doing any engagement to avoid wasting your time, effort and of course not to get victimized by a scam ICO. Some scam ICOs are indeed easily to be determined by just a glance but that does not always apply for you might be having a wrong judgment or impression with regards to their appearance making you to stay away without taking into consideration other information. But yes indeed appearance is important for it shows professionalism and sincerity so at the glance it must be appropriate already.

[forexandcryptoauditor]

Very well explained! Apart from what you have mentioned, I would like to add a point of telegram channels and community of the project. Before ICO, everything will be realistic, very active admins, developments as per roadmap etc. But once IcO ends, you will see delay in response and total silence down the line of few days.

[nomenclatur]

ico for today really should be avoided because too many scams to fraud no prevalent in ico even if those who want to invest they mostly lose the money they had been long enough ico almost forgotten and investors prefer to buy coins IEO in large exchange for safer and more profitable.

[Danslip]

ico for today really should be avoided because too many scams to fraud no prevalent in ico even if those who want to invest they mostly lose the money they had been long enough ico almost forgotten and investors prefer to buy coins IEO in large exchange for safer and more profitable.

Unrealistic goals and being greedy are two main problems for new investors, they want to believe in the get quick rich schemes. Investing wisely requires experience and a deep understanding of money management, newbies investors are inexperienced in both field. Profit will flow after the experience, getting experience can't be done without losing in the market too.

[fammy]

Very informative thread and very useful guide for all the newbies in the forum. A very keen observation which is totally true that mostly all scam ICO are having those ideology.

[nicecrypto]

  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.

I think this particular point really depends on the type and nature of the project, i have seen projects who do not have or i have not seen their code repository because mainly they are on eth blockchain and still do well with a great and dedicated team behind it,
You did made some valid points but scam project have different method to scam, some project may possess all this and still end up a scam.

[GreenStox]

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.

even vitalik said that defi is hype, so many projects will take advantage of this moment, and create their own defi project and will follow the ongoing hype, especially projects with the initials Y, which mimic project yfi.
be careful if you buy one of these coins, and make sure you have made a profit then immediately release it because we don't know when the form will end.

[themohit]

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 exact logic let down a lot of people who thought "oh this ICO has fancy site and a decent whitepaper, also a lot of people already invested in it IT MUST BE LEGIT".
This only allowed not so stupid ICO runners to scam people for millions of dollars.
Always check the code and trust yourself only

[ibuddy122505]

On any type of investment primary concern is, the more you get familiar with the more you're permitted to contribute. Decentralization is key factor, in case you're not investigating your coins and their teams you're fundamentally in a difficult situation. Beware of hype tokens and most importantly thinking about the future, please don't overlook the point of crypto investing.

[kapalmabur]

to avoid the ICO scam, it's very easy if you want, I just give you a few ways,
the first is you don't buy ICO outside of the trend, like now, Defi is a trend, and Defi ICO is certainly a trend,
you can buy it, and secondly, you have to buy an IEO or ICO that is completely informed, or is hosted on the best exchange

[hakertajniak]

It is hard to see some successful ICOs nowadays because there are only few ICOs.
IEO is more common than ICO, we should know how to avoid scam IEO as well.
I think we better to join IEO on trusted exchanges to avoid scam IEO on unknown exchanges.

[bitcoin carpenter]

If your a newb forget everything about ICO's or altcoins, you probably dont even know what blockchain is yet.....

I have introduced so many people to cryto, and almost none of them have heeded this advice.

sure invest, but only buy Bitcoin, trade bitcoin, research blockchain, research exchanges and decentralized exchanges research, research, and research some more....

learn how to trade,  learn what blockchain can do to simplify world trade, to record data, to create inventory and rid us of redundancies, learn about all the major scams in this space, learn about the successes.....

when your no longer a newb consider venturing outwards, but only into waters your very familiar with... take every piece of advice with a cube of salt, and every piece of critisism should be taken as truth until proven otherwise...
dont sweat the missed opportunities.
but get ready, when your ready...
this is the wild west baby..
newbies need to learn before they go shooting from the hip.

bitcoincarpenter.

[SquallLeonhart]

Unfortunately those people who still fall for these type of things are not people who read these type of warnings. They are people who see something that promises them 100x return and they think their 100 dollars could turn into 10k and if they find one more it will be 1 million dollars, that is all it takes to get 100 dollars into life time guarantee of happiness, just two big winners if you can find them.

This logic makes them lose a lot of 100 dollars along the way, they do not realize that now they are down few hundred even few thousand dollars because they believed they could have made a million dollars from these. They just get caught up in all the hype around some projects and they fall for that hype, which causes them to leave all the caution out of the window and get in without much thinking or research.

[kotajikikox]

to avoid the ICO scam, it's very easy if you want, I just give you a few ways,
the first is you don't buy ICO outside of the trend, like now, Defi is a trend, and Defi ICO is certainly a trend,
you can buy it, and secondly, you have to buy an IEO or ICO that is completely informed, or is hosted on the best exchange

Don't be a Guru here because all you've said are basic in finding scams in ICO yet it is not completely perfect.
there are many coins hosted by Best exchange than in the end comes to be scams.

same as what you send is trending today but in the next days will dump drastically .

the truth is no one really knows perfectly so never say it is easy way.

[Wawa2013]

The best way to avoid ICO scams is not to invest in ICO projects, after all, what is the use of investing in ICO projects if they are
no longer profitable. Since 2019 ICO projects are no longer worthy of being followed, almost 99% of ICO projects are scams. If you
want to invest, it's better to choose IEO projects or DeFi projects which are more profitable, but keep doing research before investing
in IEO or DeFi projects. Because not all IEO or DeFi projects are good, and for newbies, you should first invest in Bitcoin which is
definitely safe and profitable.

[Crypto_lion]

Have a look at the amount of money they are trying to raise. If the hard cap is too high or if they promise guaranteed returns then thats usually a big red flag. Also look at fully diluted market cap after full circulation. It should not be too high.

[barbara44]

Nice topic and some useful tips but these unrealistic goals is what people fell for and invest and it is more like something that is too good to be true is usually scam but people because of being in crypto expect big things and when a project is promising big things one feels like if he does not invest now he might miss a big opportunity and hence the FOMO brings more and more victims.

I personally never invest in any ICO that does not have any model ready but is planning to change the world very soon because a team that is actually interested in their project will always have something build up and at least some progress to show to their investors. Promising too much for the future and having done nothing in past for a project is also a classic sign of a scam or at least dull project. The developers might never work on the project since all they wanted was money.