how to know that ico is scam or legit ?

[tek123]

how to know that ico is scam or legit ?

[dChichoCryp]

Scam ICO usually don't show their team faces and only have whitepapers, which are usually mostly copy & paste.

If you can find the team on linkedIn and on their profiles it shows the name of the company, it would be very rare for it to be a scam, because they would be held accountable after the fact. This doesn't work with advisors, who often don't have the ICO name on their profiles but are advising them anyway (which I find very annoying...).

Also googling ''ICO name scam'' is very useful, and sometimes you can find ICO who have non-deserved FUD and then the thing clears up and you are in for the gain!

[cryptothief]

Few things I have picked up along the way to spot scam projects.

1. They promise huge returns and state a future price on their coin way above the current selling price.
2. Website has been set up recently and with no real way to find out who registered it.
3. Either no links to team profiles on LinkedIn or other professional sites, or brand new accounts with few endorsements and minimal connections.
4. Lack of (or poorly ran) social media channels, minimum should be at least two or three of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, Telegram, Reddit etc.
5. Using the term 'blockchain' for the sake of it, no real need for the project to use it.
6. Coin/token distribution heavily waited towards founders/developers/early investors etc.
7. Lack of (or minimally detailed) whitepaper and roadmap, need to know what progress the team has made so far, and where they plan to take the project.
8. No open source code access available on GitHub or similar.
9. Stock photos used for team members or project details (can always back check them using google image search).
10. Project is too vague with no real information on what they are planning to do and how they are going to do it.
11. Google the project name plus review, and be aware that many of the reviews will be paid reviews.
12. Bottom line is do as much research as possible, it is your money you are going to be investing.

[masterkrypto]

In addition to all the great responses on this posts, I would also add that it's very important to read the whitepaper and fully understand their reason for doing the ico because some projects don't necessarily need to have blockchain in it.
Sometimes the ico can be legit in a sense that they have real team and company etc. but their reason for doing the ico could be for the wrong reasons like more as an exit plan from the current business rather than for blockchain development. - And that's obviously not good for ico investors.

 

[cryptothief]

Agreed that the whitepaper is hugely important, but for some reason I missed mentioning it specifically  I was just trying to point out the other areas that indicate the 'trustworthiness' of a project. Even after doing all the research you possibly can, unfortunately there is still the risk of a project being a scam, just an extremely well organised one. These are just ways of reducing the risk, and even then the project could just flop. It's a dangerous world out there.

[evantco]

In addition, in addition to having whitepapers and teams, they always dare to contract with one of the popular virtual currency to work together with mutual benefit. Usually, we smell fraud through the website and form AIRDROP alone we can recognize SCAM.

[Kmdr]

Look for a working web site.
Look for an active social media presence.
Look for a team & LinkedIn profiles/details, also advisors.
Look for a White Paper.
Check forums/Twitter, etc., to find out more background info.
Check web site and white paper for spelling mistakes or copy/paste of others material.

[benres]

At this time ICO can be a scam if the persons who is developing the coin or token are anonymous or they are hiding their true identity, another is when the information regarding their project is a copy from other projects like the roadmap, whitepaper, or even their site is similar to a site that has already been offline. So we have to do a thorough research on an ICO before investing and putting our trust on them.

[sieemma]

how to know that ico is scam or legit ?

it is not easy to know it even if ICOs are regulated but you can do a few things to prevent falling a victim for scammers.
Readwhite paper, look for identity of team, layout of site, advisers, reviews from investors and check their social media profiles.

[Icon]

Few things I have picked up along the way to spot scam projects.

1. They promise huge returns and state a future price on their coin way above the current selling price.
2. Website has been set up recently and with no real way to find out who registered it.
3. Either no links to team profiles on LinkedIn or other professional sites, or brand new accounts with few endorsements and minimal connections.
4. Lack of (or poorly ran) social media channels, minimum should be at least two or three of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, Telegram, Reddit etc.
5. Using the term 'blockchain' for the sake of it, no real need for the project to use it.
6. Coin/token distribution heavily waited towards founders/developers/early investors etc.
7. Lack of (or minimally detailed) whitepaper and roadmap, need to know what progress the team has made so far, and where they plan to take the project.
8. No open source code access available on GitHub or similar.
9. Stock photos used for team members or project details (can always back check them using google image search).
10. Project is too vague with no real information on what they are planning to do and how they are going to do it.
11. Google the project name plus review, and be aware that many of the reviews will be paid reviews.
12. Bottom line is do as much research as possible, it is your money you are going to be investing.

I think these points are very helpful. Though you cant totally run Away from scam projects you can at least minimize your chances of falling into a scam project. Thanks for the information

[IyemRoker]

it is very difficult to differentiate between SCAM and REAL ICOs.
and also the ICO that has been running but does not touch Softcap's continuing value of income, the ICo is returned to the investor and the SCAM can also be said.

[Master107]

Few things I have picked up along the way to spot scam projects.

1. They promise huge returns and state a future price on their coin way above the current selling price.
2. Website has been set up recently and with no real way to find out who registered it.
3. Either no links to team profiles on LinkedIn or other professional sites, or brand new accounts with few endorsements and minimal connections.
4. Lack of (or poorly ran) social media channels, minimum should be at least two or three of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, Telegram, Reddit etc.
5. Using the term 'blockchain' for the sake of it, no real need for the project to use it.
6. Coin/token distribution heavily waited towards founders/developers/early investors etc.
7. Lack of (or minimally detailed) whitepaper and roadmap, need to know what progress the team has made so far, and where they plan to take the project.
8. No open source code access available on GitHub or similar.
9. Stock photos used for team members or project details (can always back check them using google image search).
10. Project is too vague with no real information on what they are planning to do and how they are going to do it.
11. Google the project name plus review, and be aware that many of the reviews will be paid reviews.
12. Bottom line is do as much research as possible, it is your money you are going to be investing.

I recommend his opinion. This is actually right. It is reliable and you can try it.

@cryptothief I give you karma for informative respond.

[CryptoTimex]

In our time it difficult to understand,which project SCAM or Legit! Read whitepaper,see activity in social network and telegram chat,also see that the team is actively participating in blockchain conferences.

[Speaker]

It's complicated.Usually they will know later, when the ICO has raised funds. Then it becomes too late, the investigation begins and people are waiting for their money-if at all waiting.

[Danus]

As for me, it's very easy to identify fraudsters. All these scammers say only good, they promise unrealistic sums