How to check if an altcoin is a scam

[Bushdark]

Some of the things op had listed can be available on crypto project and the project still ended up to be a rug pull.
Many of these devs that are always creating new projects in the market allowing investors to put the money and withing a specific time, the token disappears and the liquidity drop to zero. Many of these scammers that are found of creating multiple project knows all these things and for their project to have large number of investors they would do everything possible to lure investors to put their money.

[gabbie2010]

Some of the things op had listed can be available on crypto project and the project still ended up to be a rug pull.
Many of these devs that are always creating new projects in the market allowing investors to put the money and withing a specific time, the token disappears and the liquidity drop to zero. Many of these scammers that are found of creating multiple project knows all these things and for their project to have large number of investors they would do everything possible to lure investors to put their money.

Exactly majority of features listed by the OP is not a yardstick to determine a real project care to know that some fake or scam projects do hire social media influencers to hype their project on various social platforms yet ended up as scam unfortunately crypto market is unregulated thus any Tom, Dick and Harry can create a token promote it vigorously such that it would look real and collect investors funds thereafter disappeared into thin air without a trace, I had personally experienced such a project in 2018 it developers created an impression of being a credible project unfortunately ended up as scam

[AnonBitCoiner]

Research the team behind the altcoin: Look for the developers, founders, or team members who are involved in the project. Check their background, reputation, and any claims they have made in the past. Signs of scams include poorly written white papers, excessive marketing pushes, and get-rich-quick claims

Yes by checking the team member and originator of token you can easily know about the project future but a newbies cannot do this activity easily because he is new and he Don't know about any team member of any project. In white paper all the details are exist about project so we can read it to see whether this project is based on scam project or is real.

Evaluate the altcoin's roadmap and future plans: Check the project's roadmap and future plans to see if they are realistic and achievable. Scam projects may have vague or unattainable goals.

Yes visualizing the goals of a project can help you to see about scam project because some project managers describe their goals only but are unable to fulfil them so keep an eye on the roadmap as it clarify about the team members and that of project  nature.

[oktana]

~~~

All your point you raise here are very valid, but for me what I mostly watched out for is if it's been listed on binance or bybit, if it's not been listed on any of it, I stay off that coin to avoid stories.

Neither Binance nor Bybit defines what project is a great project. Do you know how difficult it is to list on Binance? The requirements is a lot that some really great project still can’t meet up with it. It’s okay if that’s your assumption, however, I’ve invested in really good projects on DEX like Pancakeswap and Uniswap. And don’t you forget that Binance actually delists projects too, and that tells you that even their judgement isn’t always right because they were the same people who listed the project for trading.

[Sophokles]

Despite a lot of threads discussing How to avoid scams or to know scam projects still, a lot of individuals have fallen into their traps. I don't think all the tips really work, not for greedy souls and not those who think about easy money.

Perhaps, it was necessary to have an idea of which one is worth investing in and which one is a scam. But the big question mark is how to determine them when we don't spend time searching and knowing more about a particular project. To determine if that project is a scam, that lies on our capabilities.

Right now the problem is sometimes those scammers share fake airdrop url to hack users wallet and many users are falling for it. If we don't want to be more skeptical about clicking any airdrop link we found in the internet and cross-checking them from the project's twitter handle or their discord account then there is no way we can get rid of this kind of activity. Same things will keep happening and there will be nothing we can do. We need to spread awareness about it.

[wxa7115]

Some of the things op had listed can be available on crypto project and the project still ended up to be a rug pull.
Many of these devs that are always creating new projects in the market allowing investors to put the money and withing a specific time, the token disappears and the liquidity drop to zero. Many of these scammers that are found of creating multiple project knows all these things and for their project to have large number of investors they would do everything possible to lure investors to put their money.

The steps listed by the OP are not bad, it is just that scammers are too good at what they do and they can create a bunch of projects that at first sight may not seem to have anything wrong with them.

But it is precisely because of this we need to be very cautious, since a project that may seem to have everything in order could turn into a scam without any warning, and by the time you realize what is going, it will be too late to do anything and whatever money you invested in that coin will be lost.

[Oasisman]

Despite a lot of threads discussing How to avoid scams or to know scam projects still, a lot of individuals have fallen into their traps. I don't think all the tips really work, not for greedy souls and not those who think about easy money.

Perhaps, it was necessary to have an idea of which one is worth investing in and which one is a scam. But the big question mark is how to determine them when we don't spend time searching and knowing more about a particular project. To determine if that project is a scam, that lies on our capabilities.

These people are most likely a willing victim. I think they know the possibilities of a certain project being a scam, but they still want to take the risks because of the very attractive profit the project were offering. We may have a long lists of indications of a scam project, but any project could eventually become a scam regardless of how good the whitepapers is or how active the team behind it.
Not only that, most of the new alts created were terribly fail, which means it didn't bring any profit for the investors. This can be considered good as being scammed lol.
With hundreds of alts being created every year, it will be more difficult to make a research on what projects are most likely to succeed or the scam one. It's like 1 out of 100 ratio which would most likely to give you a good return. So, you need to find that 1.

[Bushdark]

Despite a lot of threads discussing How to avoid scams or to know scam projects still, a lot of individuals have fallen into their traps. I don't think all the tips really work, not for greedy souls and not those who think about easy money.

Perhaps, it was necessary to have an idea of which one is worth investing in and which one is a scam. But the big question mark is how to determine them when we don't spend time searching and knowing more about a particular project. To determine if that project is a scam, that lies on our capabilities.

Right now the problem is sometimes those scammers share fake airdrop url to hack users wallet and many users are falling for it. If we don't want to be more skeptical about clicking any airdrop link we found in the internet and cross-checking them from the project's twitter handle or their discord account then there is no way we can get rid of this kind of activity. Same things will keep happening and there will be nothing we can do. We need to spread awareness about it.

This time around, I am in very conscious on how I participate in airdrops. Scammers and hackers are utilizing different skills to make sure that they steal by all means from people that don't have the full understanding of what they are capable of doing. It is good when we choose rightly and not to become some how greedy when we are making decisions. It is obvious that everyone needs this money and we have to be calm and thinking well when we are questing for more so we can earn more.

[justdimin]

Despite a lot of threads discussing How to avoid scams or to know scam projects still, a lot of individuals have fallen into their traps. I don't think all the tips really work, not for greedy souls and not those who think about easy money.

Perhaps, it was necessary to have an idea of which one is worth investing in and which one is a scam. But the big question mark is how to determine them when we don't spend time searching and knowing more about a particular project. To determine if that project is a scam, that lies on our capabilities.

Right now the problem is sometimes those scammers share fake airdrop url to hack users wallet and many users are falling for it. If we don't want to be more skeptical about clicking any airdrop link we found in the internet and cross-checking them from the project's twitter handle or their discord account then there is no way we can get rid of this kind of activity. Same things will keep happening and there will be nothing we can do. We need to spread awareness about it.

Absolutely and I almost fell for one such scam!

I saw a wallet's private keys shared in a telegram group where some tokens were kept worth like $1000 and the tokens were indeed trading on reputed exchanges. Now here comes the catch, the tokens require some ETH/BNB to transfer them. As soon as you send the amount for gas, they move it out and repeat the process.

Some of these scams want you to connect your wallet and wipe out the funds as you mentioned.

[Volimack]

In my opinion, these checks are vital and necessary. Notwithstanding, new projects may be genuinely started with high prospects. But things may not go well as hoped for due to some circumstances.

New projects may not always bring high potential. Be careful before participating in new projects that can be scams. New projects must research different sites. All the information about who is managing the project can be found out and then it can be said as expected. New things may go well in the beginning but may also face tough challenges later on.

[Natalim]

In my opinion, these checks are vital and necessary. Notwithstanding, new projects may be genuinely started with high prospects. But things may not go well as hoped for due to some circumstances.

New projects may not always bring high potential. Be careful before participating in new projects that can be scams. New projects must research different sites. All the information about who is managing the project can be found out and then it can be said as expected. New things may go well in the beginning but may also face tough challenges later on.

They are usually scams and fake projects which is why they just fail. A reason why we should have carefully checked the background of the project and have suspicion is because scammers are too clever and smart, they use known personalities to hide their identity. Extra caution must be practiced and avoid investing in projects promoted by influencers as they are known for such things - scams.

But the best thing to do is to just only invest in old projects, they have records and use cases that are enough to think about earning a profit.

[Churchillvv]

One thing you must know is, all this points just helps a little bit to increase ones security or aid a bit in knowing where we are putting in our money but it doesn't guarantee anything. because tokens can surpass all this points listed by Op and yet be a scam.

I have seen tokens that are pure scam but lasted for a long time in order to prove a point that they aren't scam just to bring interests of investors and as soon as the target is gotten they disappear from the chart.

The only thing we have to do is (DYOR) do your own research on anything you wish to invest in and because of the rate of scam project that is why we hear most of the time that only invest what you can afford to lose, hence nothing is guaranteed.

[fapar]

Despite a lot of threads discussing How to avoid scams or to know scam projects still, a lot of individuals have fallen into their traps. I don't think all the tips really work, not for greedy souls and not those who think about easy money.

Perhaps, it was necessary to have an idea of which one is worth investing in and which one is a scam. But the big question mark is how to determine them when we don't spend time searching and knowing more about a particular project. To determine if that project is a scam, that lies on our capabilities.

Right now the problem is sometimes those scammers share fake airdrop url to hack users wallet and many users are falling for it. If we don't want to be more skeptical about clicking any airdrop link we found in the internet and cross-checking them from the project's twitter handle or their discord account then there is no way we can get rid of this kind of activity. Same things will keep happening and there will be nothing we can do. We need to spread awareness about it.

Absolutely and I almost fell for one such scam!

I saw a wallet's private keys shared in a telegram group where some tokens were kept worth like $1000 and the tokens were indeed trading on reputed exchanges. Now here comes the catch, the tokens require some ETH/BNB to transfer them. As soon as you send the amount for gas, they move it out and repeat the process.

Some of these scams want you to connect your wallet and wipe out the funds as you mentioned.

I found myself in a similar situation when I tried to exchange tokens from a spam airdrop for Uniswap. Fee for the swap were debited from my wallet, but the swap was not made. Selling wallets (seed phrases or private keys) directly is stupid and naive because both the seller and the buyer will have access to such a wallet.
From a recent scam I also remembered zkPEPE - a well-advertised airdrop with beautiful profit, which ultimately “sucked” money from the fee.

[nurilham]

New projects may not always bring high potential. Be careful before participating in new projects that can be scams. New projects must research different sites. All the information about who is managing the project can be found out and then it can be said as expected. New things may go well in the beginning but may also face tough challenges later on.

Nowadays, most new projects are low quality projects or scam projects. It is rather difficult to find out potential projects. Sure, we must be very careful to analyze the new projects and decide to join them. We can't focus on analyzing the whitepaper of the projects only, the developers become smarter to create good whitepaper. Sometimes, the whitepaper of the projects look very convincingly but in reality they are just projects with no clear improvement. And it is true that in some cases, the projects stopped suddenly and there are no more updated information from the teams/developers. As the results, the investors lost their funds because it is stolen by the scammers.

Because of this fact, I suggest to prioritize investing in old projects that have good reputation. The top projects can be the main target of our investment because they must be safer than the new projects.

[GreenStox]

Some altcoins can still pass KYC, have a licence, pass some audit verification, and still be scammed. It's very easy, and it's common during this period to acquire information that could be used to pass such verification. Such verification is common online, and that's why the dark web has been declared a bad place because they sell things like that.
 
We should always do our own research and see how serious those who are offering some tokens to us are and if what they say they are creating is being created and developed as they say they are developing, because most of them are just making fake promises and using that means to raise funds from investors, but at the end they end up using up the money for their own selfish interests.

I also agree that some are difficult to detect because at first they do it according to plan, then after getting the money they do things that investors don't want, basically all the money is turned back into the market.

[huu78]

I agree with your suggestion, although not all tokens can be on their blacklist, loading all the data takes time and I think the best thing to learn is to pay attention to the etherscan regarding supply and holders, comments usually occur when someone has experienced something bad/ Good.

[Kelvinid]

New projects may not always bring high potential. Be careful before participating in new projects that can be scams. New projects must research different sites. All the information about who is managing the project can be found out and then it can be said as expected. New things may go well in the beginning but may also face tough challenges later on.

Nowadays, most new projects are low quality projects or scam projects. It is rather difficult to find out potential projects. Sure, we must be very careful to analyze the new projects and decide to join them. We can't focus on analyzing the whitepaper of the projects only, the developers become smarter to create good whitepaper. Sometimes, the whitepaper of the projects look very convincingly but in reality they are just projects with no clear improvement. And it is true that in some cases, the projects stopped suddenly and there are no more updated information from the teams/developers. As the results, the investors lost their funds because it is stolen by the scammers.

New projects are usually scams and even seeing that a project looks so promising but can't guarantee its success. Because many of those projects turned into scams and ended their journey shortly. Some are gaining hype at the start but after a few days, they're gone. And this is the reason why we can't blame investors for rejecting new projects and with their bad experiences have made up their minds and decided to just choose old coins instead of new ones. In the end, only newcomers thought that new projects could be trusted and regretted later.

[rodskee]

thanks for all the heads up about how to check them as scam or legit but for me if ever
i consider investing in one altcoin? Will just drop the name here and I will let the community answers
this for me because we have lots of great altcoin checker here , those bounty hunters and those
airdrop hunters  are mostly great at these so they will surely help me out about how to find and
what is the faith on that certain project but thank you for this sharing.

[Y3shot]

Some of the things op had listed can be available on crypto project and the project still ended up to be a rug pull.
Many of these devs that are always creating new projects in the market allowing investors to put the money and withing a specific time, the token disappears and the liquidity drop to zero. Many of these scammers that are found of creating multiple project knows all these things and for their project to have large number of investors they would do everything possible to lure investors to put their money.

You are right, most of this scammers they know what investors are looking for they try to imitate what the standard of what Real projects exhibit.  People just need to be very careful with the project they are looking up to, some projects looks real but always end up to be a scam project.

Scammers can do anything just to capture the interest of investors,  some projects that claims to be good can end up to be a scam project.  Investors just need to be careful.

[Sophokles]

Some of the things op had listed can be available on crypto project and the project still ended up to be a rug pull.
Many of these devs that are always creating new projects in the market allowing investors to put the money and withing a specific time, the token disappears and the liquidity drop to zero. Many of these scammers that are found of creating multiple project knows all these things and for their project to have large number of investors they would do everything possible to lure investors to put their money.

You are right, most of this scammers they know what investors are looking for they try to imitate what the standard of what Real projects exhibit.  People just need to be very careful with the project they are looking up to, some projects looks real but always end up to be a scam project.

Scammers can do anything just to capture the interest of investors,  some projects that claims to be good can end up to be a scam project.  Investors just need to be careful.

Scammers mostly target retail investors because institutional investors have the resources and manpower to research a project before making any investment. So there is no way an institutional investor will fall for some high-paying farming contract by some scammers. There are mostly some retail investors who chase high rewards in multiple project and end up being rug-pulled by one of the projects along the way. The most common way for scammers to attract retail funds is by providing a high incentive for joining the project.