My advice To avoid fraud in ICO projects Check team background, look for transparency, work experience and signs of their emotional maturity. if there is a lack of business experience in the core team, how they will overcome difficulties or big fund raises (emotional maturity is needed here ).
There must be a definite 'need' that is fulfilled, the market with solutions and ideally long-term vision must be clear and profitable. Read their whitepapers carefully, see the roadmap and check the currency industry and Blockchain addressed.
I think it's pretty difficult to reveal the real team's background. It's easy to create a fairy tail abou tthe person in the internet world... How to be sure that the person is from real life and isn't an ex-defrauder?
I think a big trust signal is the transparency of the ICO - if the thread includes links to peoples LinkedIn profile, twitter accounts (that have existed for a while) and other legit social media profiles, than that is a sign that there are real people behind the ICO, who put their identities and reputations at stake for the success of the project. That might not make scams 100% impossible, but at least, you will see that there is an actual existing person behind it.
Unlike, for example, the recent fraud ICO "Lust", where they posted a nice set of pictures of the "founders" (without any links to profiles), and, of course, it was quickly revealed that the pictures are from a stock photo site and the ICO was a scam promoted by hacked accounts and bots.