I think these are perfectly legitimate concerns actually but the way I found out whether Bitcoin wasn't a scam and the way I find out anything else isn't a scam is this:
. Is it open source? If it's open source then that means people will be able to look at the code and find anything suspicious or even help to improve it if the developer is unwilling, it's very difficult to plant something bad if people can investigate it with a microscope
Be careful here. As a coder, I can hide some pretty fancy run time code that calls a script from a server that can update with malicious intentions.
Or if I am really lazy, I can have an open source on git, but a private one that I compile from with the bad code.
You are not protected on most of these, the laziness of the stupid people copying/pasting the new alt-coins is the only thing that is protecting you.
If a group with the education/willfulness somewhat smarter then the average 15 year old coder decided to reek havoc on all of the folks that race to mine the alt-coin on launch; the damage wouldn't be measurable.
Thought experiment:
Pre-announce alt-coin
On release link to source on git. Publish a binary with hidden code.
Include code in binary to copy all wallet files from all altcoins traded on cryptsy.
On the server that the wallets are uploaded to, run a test to see if it is encrypted.
For unencrypted wallets send the coins to cryptsy/coins-e wallet and sell for btc/ltc.
Have code self-patch to remove the function call.
...
Wait a few months, rinse and repeat.
The above project can be done by anyone with coding experience in a matter of days. You are not protected, please start being somewhat cautious.
HTH.
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