I totally agree. Scammers will without a shadow of a doubt try to get every penny out of their schemes. So you have to be extremely careful when investing/ disclosing this type of information. Make sure that the ICO has a solid office and a solid team that you can track via multiple platforms like linkedIn, Facebook telegram etc, etc. Do thorough research. Although there are some elaborate scammers out there, you can normally tell when something is fishy as most don`t go to extreme lengths to legitimize their front of being a legit ICO. Interacting on media platforms like telegram, whatsapp and twitter is another good way to figure out if they are scammers or not. Again, talking about the majority here but If they are a scammer, they will stumble on the more technical/ difficult questions as there will be no product to begin with, so be persistent, ask the same questions with different wording and if the answers are not similar/coherent/the same/doesn`t match with the white paper info then i would think twice before I give out the super personal information. Just a thought.
Often this does not help anymore. They make all those platforms themselves. Then they buy 10,000 friends, subscribers, likes and views for $ 50 on the internet.
Many platforms such as ico rating websites are also owned by scammers. Where it seems that the project has a high rating.
Even with partnerships, it seems a legal ico. But often these partner websites are also fake to fake the ico. Or become partners of other scam projects that are also of their own.
This is how i check if it is a scam project or have doubts:
I almost only use the technical things that the internet also has. The hidden things that you do not see when you visit a website.
1 ...
viewdns.info On this websites I use all the options what they offer. Within 2 minutes you already have a clear answer if you better avoid a crypto project. I already find answers 8 out of 10 times.
2 ... You are not completely sure yet. Then do a google reverse-analytics check. ist a code that looks like ua-15589237 or sometimes ua-15589237-1. This is a code that the webmaster can build in the website to analyze internet traffic. This code can be installed on any website by a webmaster. But it can also show many other secrets that dnsinfo did not show. Namely, all websites where the webmaster uses his code to keep track of information about the internet traffic can be viewed.
https://dnslytics.com/reverse-analytics.
3... Of the team members open in all photos in a new window so that they get to see the original size. There I check the face extensively when there is also photoshopped with eyes, beards, glasses and hair. You see unnatural things right away.
4 ... I copy all the text from the whitepaper. A piece of text written exactly between project names and paste this into google and search by word for word.
5 ... This is actually prohibited. This is only useful if they deliver something that must be safe. With Scam projects, the security of apps or web applications is often poor and you know that it can not be much.
That is attacking / hacking the system. The application with basic commands and tools attacks to test the vulnerability. Report allways a security problem to an admin on telegram via PM. If they dont solve something simple or do not change anything or convince you that it is safe and do not take you seriously.
Then you have the full right to destroy that application with vulnerables.
Assume that it is a scam project with people who are lax with security.