To invest in any ICO now, you have to be very discerning and circumspect as a lot of them fraudsters masquerading as projects on the blockchain. These days, a project may tick all the right boxes and end up being a scam, but in analyzing an ICO, look out for the following;
1.
Do they have a working product? This shows they're not trying to sell an idea and collect millions of $$ while the investors wait for a long period
2.
What's the Team composition and history? It's important to check out the team and find out if the have the requisite skills and cognate experience to deliver on the project. Also check their names on Google to see if they've been connected with any fraud in the past or part of a scam ICO in the past.
3.
Is the website nice designed? While this may not necessarily be a major determinant, but check to see if there's a lot of work put into the design of their website. If it is looks like something designed by child, that will be some red flag as it doesn't show how serious they are with the project.
4.
Read through the whitepaper This could be such a daunting task especially for people who aren't tech savvy as most whitepapers are usually filled with technical jargons. But it's important you try and know what their value proposition is, check their roadmap and how they're following it, token matrix and how much they're looking to raise in the ICO. If the amount they're asking for is too much in comparison with such projects requires, then be weary of such project.
5.
Is there a community for the project? Check to see if the project has a community on various platforms. An ANN thread on Bitcointalk, a Reddit page, etc. Also check the community on Telegram. In fact,this is where you should really pay attention to. Look at the number of members on Telegram and see if it tallies with how long the project has been in existence. If the project is barely a week it was launched and the Telegram membership is already over 20k people, that's a red flag right there, and it shows the growth thereon isn't organic. It also implies the project team will lie about a lot of things as well.
6.
Is there a competition? Check to see if the project is a mere copy of an existing project in the space, and if not, who are the competition for the project and how are they going to be better
While this is not an exhaustive list, but this should serve a guide in your decision making and due diligence. Good luck
