If the project is a scam, it would be really silly of its team to show their true identities. In most cases, they just find some pics online and use them as the images of their “Chief Financial Officers” or “advisors,” as was seen in Empire Card who used a picture of French actress Sabine de Poncins, little known outside of France, as the portrait of their proud imaginary CEO Patricia Harrison. There have even been reports of Ryan Gosling “working” for a project as a designer under a completely different name.
Some scammers are, however, way more intricate. They know it’s quite easy to reveal a fake pic so they just hire people to pose as their CEOs, CFOs, and so forth. Rumor has it that certain scammers even pay homeless people to pretend they’re leading a disruptive startup to a bright and radiant future. This fraud is much harder to call out, but at least those guys help homeless people in some way, so here’s your silver lining.
Identifying the genuineness of a project team is one of the diffcult things in this space, in time past there were projects whose team was hidden but they didn't scam investors but nowadays any project whose team is hidden gives a second thought. Nevertheless, i think the best place to get started is through social media to track their online presence and to know a little about them; Google can also help to break down the search. Thereby, with the results from the search, link it to the idea they are trying to create and see if it adds up. Some scammers are, however, way more intricate. They know it’s quite easy to reveal a fake pic so they just hire people to pose as their CEOs, CFOs, and so forth. Rumor has it that certain scammers even pay homeless people to pretend they’re leading a disruptive startup to a bright and radiant future. This fraud is much harder to call out, but at least those guys help homeless people in some way, so here’s your silver lining.
