1) Detailed research about the project and people behind the project.
I don't really understand the situation at the moment but just remember when ICOs were very booming how many projects used fake names and photos to deceive their investors and also if he wasn't a well-known developer of course we couldn't know his actions in the crypto world and also see how some well-known developers actually make their projects cause losses to their investors so this cannot be used as a guarantee.
2) Asking about the project on forums like bitcointalk where more experienced members can give proper advice.
And I feel this is better because many members on this forum are honest in expressing their assessments about new projects except for newbies, I quite doubt it.
Another step that we can take is to continue to monitor developments or news about cryptocurrency, this will increase knowledge, including new forms of scams launched by developers or also potential projects that are scams because their fundamentals are very weak.