i disagree, in fact i say IEOs are even less safe than ICOs because exchanges are involved. they don't care about legitimacy of the projects they advertise, they may only do it at first but eventually they will end up promoting only those that pay them the most. and before you know it you will start seeing only big scams being promoted in these exchanges that can cause so much damage to the whole market.
I agree with OP IEO is safer as compared to ICOs, IEO is not the new concept this method has been used in the past successfully. The IEO fund raising model is again in the demand because of two recent succesful IEO BitTorrent & Fetch.AI launched by Binance & we are seeing competition among the exchanges like OKEX, Kucoin, Huobiprime, Binance, Bittrex.
To conduct an IEO, the project team must meet and comply with the exchange’s requirements in order to launch the token sale. Contributors are, therefore, protected by the exchange. Although some may argue that the exchange may go along with the project team to scam customers, this will put the exchange’s reputation at risk. Exchanges that look for a sustainable business model would not consider taking such an unethical move. Instead, the exchange is risking their credibility when doing IEOs, since it has no control over the IEO project team’s operation and product delivery as promised in the latter’s white paper. To maintain trust with its customers, the exchange must carry out a comprehensive assessment of the project before launching the IEO. This provides an extra layer of protection to contributors.
Compared to ICOs, the risk of IEOs is much lower for both the project team and contributors.
On the customer’s side, not only will the exchange help them review the projects and filter out scams, but it also provides better liquidity for trading afterward as a large user base is already guaranteed. The exchange will also offer a convenient platform for contributors to manage their funds as all assets can be stored in the exchange account instead of different wallet addresses.
For project teams, they are eased of operational hassles. For example, all the exchange users have been vetted by the exchange’s KYC/AML verification. The exchange will also provide liquidity with its user base, and also help on marketing promotions.
With all the scams and frauds out there, an IEO is no doubt a better model for the contributors/customers. Despite more processes required for both project teams and contributors for the token sale, the extra protection offered is worth the cost.
Reference :-
https://dailyhodl.com/2019/03/13/initial-exchange-offering-ieo-vs-initial-coin-offering-ico-what-are-the-differences/