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Topic: How to detect a scam ICO? - page 3. (Read 2513 times)

sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
Sound. Fury. Signifying.
October 04, 2017, 02:46:11 PM
There are a lot of ICO rating/evaluation organizations out there now that can do the basic due diligence for you. That won't necessarily tell you if an ICO will be successful or profitable, but should weed out the scams. Examples:

ANYTHING affiliated with Cofound.It (those guys are in the business of ICO mentoring and launching--they are the best out there as of right now)
ICO Rating: http://icorating.com/
ICO Bench: https://icobench.com/
TokenMarket: https://tokenmarket.net/
full member
Activity: 1176
Merit: 111
October 04, 2017, 02:19:19 PM
Does the ICO actually have a working product?

Is the home page full of hyperboles but no innovative features?

Was anyone paid to have their name lent, but didn't disclose they got paid?

Has a celebrity (e.g. Paris Hilton, Jamie Foxx, or Floyd Mayweather) promoted or endorsed it?

full member
Activity: 532
Merit: 107
October 04, 2017, 11:30:42 AM
Detecting scam ICO is probably one of the hardest thing to figure out, why? because almost all ICO start with great and promising projects, but in the middle of somewhere when someone decide okay i had enough, lets take some cash and run away. That's when scam happens, so its the people within the company, if they are not ethically fit, then it might get broke anytime specially top management level.
hero member
Activity: 882
Merit: 500
CryptoTalk.Org - Get Paid for every Post!
October 04, 2017, 11:24:28 AM
How to detect a scam ICO?
Do a little bit of a check when you go through the companies website. Look at the amount of information that they have as well, if you want to know more then you'd have to read their Whitepaper in full.
newbie
Activity: 44
Merit: 0
October 04, 2017, 07:17:31 AM
First you should check the website of the ICO, i don't say a wordpress page, is not okay because u could make great things in wordpress. But you could check the source, and very often if its a standard template, within the sourcecode, the template name is written. Check if the site looks decent. Read the whitepaper to the full extend, if u don't understand all tech talk, ask somebody who does know the tech part, and add its opinion of the tech part, to your opinion of the things you do have knowledge about.

- Take a good look at the team, look for starplayers with a great repsheet,
- Look at the roadmap, check for realistic goals.
- Check if they have a public repro where u can take a look at there code, (if u don't know how to write code ) look for commits, how many commits does the project has.
If the project doesn't have any, check the developers in their team, check for their contributions to opensource projects.
- Take a look at their linkedin, look for recommendations by others.

In the end its always hard to see if something is a scam or not, but atleast u can take some steps a a security measure for urself
full member
Activity: 336
Merit: 107
October 04, 2017, 06:56:25 AM
You ought to dependably look into the greater part of the individuals on the group and check whether they truly exist and have the experience they guarantee they have. I generally keep away from ICO's with a mysterious group since it's quite recently excessively unsafe despite the fact that it's not really implies it's a trick. Check their connected in/twitter profile to know whether they are truly connected to the task or are recently stolen photographs.
full member
Activity: 225
Merit: 100
Presale is live!
October 04, 2017, 06:53:00 AM
You should search everything about ICO. Their team , ambition of project and everything like that should be deeply searched. Unrealistic goals are the main thing that helps me to detect a scam.
full member
Activity: 462
Merit: 109
October 04, 2017, 06:19:40 AM
first your check escrow, if you have then make sure to be trusted and anyone who suspects an ICO is a scam can repot it to the FCA online.
full member
Activity: 266
Merit: 100
October 04, 2017, 06:09:20 AM
My way, search for the team in google. Check their linked in/twitter profile to know whether they are really linked to the project or are just stolen photos.
I also do this when I'm checking if the ICO is a scam. You can also check their website or read their whitepaper to know for sure that it is certainly a legit ICO.
full member
Activity: 373
Merit: 100
October 04, 2017, 06:08:05 AM
might be able to find out if the team is real. see the social media of the team. and learn about the project. like a whitepaper.
full member
Activity: 686
Merit: 102
October 04, 2017, 06:03:42 AM
Yeah that's a million dollars question at this moment. Cause we saw a lot of ico right now. It's too difficult to find promising ico. In my opinion more research and collect more news for project is the best option for this problem.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
October 04, 2017, 05:27:35 AM
this is the wild west. There can be scams that have alot of time put into them. They can have a great website, "great dev." lay it on real thick and turn out to be a scam. There is also small coins that are honest and have potential just dont have the right marketing. So you decide.

Yep agree, plenty of small projects with great potential but don't have the marketing budget.
newbie
Activity: 46
Merit: 0
October 04, 2017, 05:18:15 AM
Always do detailed research on the team and read through the Whitepaper. I have seen several ICO's that have team members that don't seem to exist anywhere...and people still invest in them! Check If they have any 'real world' presence or associations with an existing real world businesses.

Also check the amount they are raising and if there has been a max cap applied.

I have had some success with ICO's but they have have all had a low market cap and haven't been trying to raise more than around $7m.
member
Activity: 79
Merit: 11
October 04, 2017, 05:10:32 AM
this is the wild west. There can be scams that have alot of time put into them. They can have a great website, "great dev." lay it on real thick and turn out to be a scam. There is also small coins that are honest and have potential just dont have the right marketing. So you decide.
hero member
Activity: 1190
Merit: 500
October 04, 2017, 05:05:53 AM
There are many things you should check before you invest on ICO?
1. Dev team: clear, professional
2. White paper: clear, logically
3. Product: you should invest on ICO with real product

Good luck for you!
it is very clear what you describe above, it is a matter that must be considered to know the project is a scam or not .. it all must be built with the level of focus of each to be able to understand very well about the truth of the project.
The most important is to see in detail what is described in their Ann Thread. roadmap, full description on pre-ico, ico, crowdfund, etc. team formations, etc. usually ICO explaining with very detail of the project they are going to do. very likely they are a legit ICO because they are serious in doing their project. the most important is the idea of their ico that determines the future of the project
full member
Activity: 247
Merit: 100
Decentralized Continuous Audit&Reporting Protocol
October 04, 2017, 04:54:04 AM
How to detect a scam ICO?

It is not easy to detect an ICO if it is a fraud. With having many ICOs to be launch this coming months. It is imperative to differentiate between a good opportunity and a scam. First you have to look for the dev teams' profile. If it doesn't provide their profile, it is likely to be a scam. Second, check their whitepaper. Their whitepaper should composed of technical and their operational details. Lastly, Study their plan of their project if it is a realistic one. Even if they have a roadmap, you have to do your own research and judge it if the project is feasible.
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 101
trade.io - Join the Trading Revolution
October 04, 2017, 04:48:37 AM
Those linkedin profiles of nearly all ICO's are fake. I get it that people do not want to show their face. Just leave it empty. Is true that people are new to this industry.

We don't have to make out, that we are something we aren't. So lets make it simple, DO NOT USE FAKE PROFILES.

They are so easily spotted.
member
Activity: 105
Merit: 100
Get your share of the future
October 04, 2017, 04:06:46 AM
team members and their history is very important. they should be experienced ones and their previous projects should be successful. this is my main category to get rid of scammers.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
October 04, 2017, 04:04:48 AM
read some ICO review site to see how they check an ICO project is scam or not.

DO you know mostof these site are paid to promote those ICOs and  I have seen project called scam by someof these ICO rating site that happends to be not. The help rely but the decision is with you
newbie
Activity: 31
Merit: 0
October 04, 2017, 03:59:26 AM
Always check the following when investing a substantial amount of money
  • Team
Background, experience and SIZE of the team. Make sure there are experienced verified people (no fake linkedIn profiles with few connections or fake pics), you can google them easily and they are acting professionally. Team with less than 5-10 members sounds suspicious.  There should be content specialists, editors, PR specialists, SMM specialists, community managers, designers, software specialists, and targeted advertising specialists.
  • Whitepaper
Read the whitepaper carefully or related blogs/articles/FAQ to it from the creators. Or have somebody to read/check it for you. If the whitepaper contains a lot of superlatives, fairy-tales or non-cited sources, the ICO is certainly fake or the creators are just dumb. Whitepaper should be a legit scientific paper with cited sources.
  • Social media
Check their social media activity and people commenting/sharing/retweeting/TRUSTING the ICO and their trustworthiness and reputation. If there are any/a lot of fake profiles retweeting and liking posts, the ICO is probably a scam.
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