Scam Crypto Currency Red Flags

[GhoulSlayer 226]

We all want to invest in a legit company in the crypto currency world but like everything money related there are those who wish to take your money and run leaving you with nothing. Here are some red flags to help you determine if a token or ICO is not on the up and up.

 

#1. The Team Members

A real legit company will list the full names of all team members along with their background and experience. I find team members who also have LinkedIn pages with their full work history to be the most credible. Watch the photos posted. I have seen cropped, vacation and even cartoon characters. Unless a professional photo is present, I say avoid.

#2. The White Paper

Most white papers are used as a marketing tool. They will tell you about the service/product being offered. A rule of thumb is 2500 words minimum, it should have key product or service highlights. It is a marketing tool and should read like one. If the white paper seems unprofessional and doesn't leave the reader with a better understanding of the product or service offered as well as the benefits, it's a red flag the person didn't understand what the white papers purpose was.

#3. Blockchain & Source Code

Blockchains are a good thing. It's an open transparency into the dealings of a company who deals in crypto currency. The blockchain records everything that has happened since the company went live. Any alterations to a blockchain, like restarting a blockchain, these companies should be avoided. The source code within the blockchain should always be visible as this is what crypto currency is all about open transparency. If a company is hiding a source code something is not right and this token/coin should be avoided.

#4. Company Public Statements

A public profile and presence by a representative is vital to a companies image and public trust. Image is everything and the smallest public infraction can send even the biggest companies spiraling. How professional is the spokesperson? Does he or she always act with the companies best interest or are they combative? A company representative reflects the company, how the company works, how the company is run. Public statements become public record, and the utmost care for a spokesman must be taken into account, as their future depends on it.

While this is just a short list you may have other points to add and I encourage them all! Hey if you liked this post please give me some love!

[GhoulSlayer 226]

Correct with the empty promises and failure to explain things that are not clear in the coin/token white paper or other pages. The team is so important I put that one first. I kid you not I've seen cartoon characters! Also I've seen no background or professional experience on some with horrible pictures. The team looks like they picked them up from a bus depot! Yikes! How anyone would have confidence in shuch a sham I don't know, but hopefully this short writeup will help.

Reputable coin/tokens will be listed on a quality exchange too. This is not the time to be stingy. Oh and some really good companies I've seen have several developers on their team. These companies mean pure business!

Thanks for your comment!

[bean 515]

This sounds good, I hope it work out these scams ico are causing plenty trouble in the crypto world, if  this guide can safe many for huge loses it will be great thanks.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

9 minutes ago, PrivateEnterprise said:

Someone referred me to your thread. As I said elsewhere I am just getting started and I'm trying to learn this coin and block chain stuff but I really don't know enough to distinguish between legitimate professionals, the amateurs that know just enough to lose their shirts (including the investors) to the out right people committing fraud. 

I've been browsing around looking around the forum and I feel lost.  Thanks for your tips I'll stop back when I know enough to hopefully ask intelligent questions.

Welcome to the forum and glad you found this helpful. Be careful of those who give vague answers to your questions or, as i've found out the hard way, attack you for merely asking questions. Most people are helpful on here and look for the red flags I've listed and beware of those who are not on the up & up.

10 minutes ago, bean said:

This sounds good, I hope it work out these scams ico are causing plenty trouble in the crypto world, if  this guide can safe many for huge loses it will be great thanks.

Yes when a company does not offer transparency to potential investors it ruins the whole crypto game. One example is resetting a blockchain. That was done recently on a token offering and still to this day the source code is not visible, which affects the blockchain. Investors are not able to see what this token owner is doing behind the scene and this is a red flag warning.

The team too should always have both first & last names with their credentials & background.

[Saqib Ali Sadiq 438]

there are too many scam crypto currencies and they are dead, they didnot move or they always go to down trend, they never goes up because they are shit coins, always hold big coins which have good reputation.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

18 hours ago, Basad said:

Those points highlighted above are most of the requirements needed to identify either they are scam or legit, also their social media profile shoukd be included as well as checking their circle of friends

Oh yes if they are NOT keeping up with their social media like Twitter, Facebook etc it makes one think they don't care, are only in it for your money and will probably disappear.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

5 hours ago, ASIC_Loves_nist5 said:

I was reading through somebody's thread I seen you asking some tough questions. It looks like you found one that meets all of the categories of what to watch out for. Amazingly enough that person is trying to get his coin listed on an illegal exchange. There are so many red flags I was expecting flares to be shooting out of than one. Anyway, happy to have you on the forums. 

You mean it's still not listed? I am ignoring him, but yes he fits the red flags. I thought the exchange was supposed to happen days ago! Is his source code still hidden too? I hope people get their eyes opened, something is not right over there.

Hey glad to be here helping!

[duncun007 3577]

Do you really think people would read all this? People no longer even read the date on their food. But to sum it up don't invest in a project before checking the team and read the white paper which is something not a lot of people do.

[bestprofi 372]

All over the world, where there is a lot of desire for quick enrichment, people are willing to get rich on their naivety. An educated man with knowledge of the cryptocurrency market cannot be fooled so easily.

[bestprofi 372]

6 minutes ago, Zeela said:

Not easily but everyone can be fool. Those scammers have already planned how to dismantled and couple you up. They have been watching your movement all this well.

Scammers, like real-world thieves, have different methods. Some you can easily catch others very hard. But in the world of cryptocurrencies 90% of the scammers are addressed to a financially uneducated public who is eager for rapid enrichment.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

4 hours ago, bestprofi said:

Scammers, like real-world thieves, have different methods. Some you can easily catch others very hard. But in the world of cryptocurrencies 90% of the scammers are addressed to a financially uneducated public who is eager for rapid enrichment.

You are correct. They feed off those not educated.  I've seen where they tell potential investors to "not worry, they will do everything for you". This wording is often used in fleecing the elderly or disabled who are not computer savvy and maybe just watch YouTube videos. A good scammer could fleece several watchers by pretending to be above the law.

[Mohs3n71 0]

8 hours ago, anikamishti said:

As cryptocurrency has grown in popularity, the number of bitcoin scams are also increasing. We know that cryptocurrency is decentralized, unregulated and pseudonymous. That why it is vulnerable to fraud/scams.

you're right about increasing the number of scammers but what is it's connection with being decentralized ? it has nothing to do about the number of scams !!!

[setifien 1016]

18 minutes ago, Mohs3n71 said:

you're right about increasing the number of scammers but what is it's connection with being decentralized ? it has nothing to do about the number of scams !!!

Centralisation often gives a kind of official security since it's a central parameter within the traditional economics, so scam possibilities will be lower.

[aika 286]

For me the biggest red flag is that their promoters behave like an Herbalife seller, lol. They have this image that they are successful people, with a great life, that came from rags to riches, that there is NOT a way that you lose money on their wonderful business, that they have only happy customers. They act like a cult, I mean, lol it's ridiculous.

I apply the "to good to be real" phrase to may of them, lol

[GhoulSlayer 226]

On 10/30/2019 at 9:36 AM, aika said:

For me the biggest red flag is that their promoters behave like an Herbalife seller, lol. They have this image that they are successful people, with a great life, that came from rags to riches, that there is NOT a way that you lose money on their wonderful business, that they have only happy customers. They act like a cult, I mean, lol it's ridiculous.

I apply the "to good to be real" phrase to may of them, lol

LOL you hit the nail on the head with: "there is NOT a way to lose money..."

All investing is RISK and beware people, those wolves in sheeps clothing spewing absolute coin values, no risk investing schemes and puffing their site/product/service as guaranteed to go up or make you money. Expose these crooks!

Some are on this forum and despite people trying to show the red flags, this person is getting users slammed with WP or flagging their posts as spam!!

[GhoulSlayer 226]

On 10/27/2019 at 9:33 PM, duncun007 said:

Do you really think people would read all this? People no longer even read the date on their food. But to sum it up don't invest in a project before checking the team and read the white paper which is something not a lot of people do.

Today's young people don't read past headlines let alone a white paper and other must read documents. Unscrupulous individuals will prey on this fact.

[Rg123 318]

On 10/27/2019 at 2:00 AM, bean said:

This sounds good, I hope it work out these scams ico are causing plenty trouble in the crypto world, if  this guide can safe many for huge loses it will be great thanks.

Yes, we can avoid it by searching this kind of ico if this is legit or not, many ico are giving a free token of them just to participated in their airdrop, and when they give the coins, this coins are no value in the market so beware with this airdrop guys.

[I-KUN 422]

On 10/26/2019 at 9:10 PM, GhoulSlayer said:

#1. The Team Members

A real legit company will list the full names of all team members along with their background and experience. I find team members who also have LinkedIn pages with their full work history to be the most credible. Watch the photos posted. I have seen cropped, vacation and even cartoon characters. Unless a professional photo is present, I say avoid.

the important thing is the team member. if the team have a serious intention about their project, it won't turned into a scam and the project and won't be abandoned by them. also most of ICO use a fake team these day. try to find some verified team when you want to join in ICO projects.

[xprince1996 865]

Very well detailed post. This is the detail the investors needed to check before investing in any project. If you see any red flags about it double think if you are still going to invest.

[Masterrex 559]

Too many red flags that quitely exist in these industry, But some of it are already become norms. Let's go backed in the 2017-2018 ICO hype breakout many questionable projects are successfully raising a huge amount of money. even without proper whitepaper info, teams are faked or hiding in the anonymity etc.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

7 hours ago, Masterrex said:

Too many red flags that quitely exist in these industry, But some of it are already become norms. Let's go backed in the 2017-2018 ICO hype breakout many questionable projects are successfully raising a huge amount of money. even without proper whitepaper info, teams are faked or hiding in the anonymity etc.

Not sure how a project could succeed without real team or proper whitepaper. Can you give an example? I think it would be helpful and interesting to see how these formed and see the current success. Also are any under investigation after such flimsy starts?

[duncun007 3577]

11 hours ago, GhoulSlayer said:

Today's young people don't read past headlines let alone a white paper and other must read documents. Unscrupulous individuals will prey on this fact.

Yep a lot of exchanges already doing this because they're very aware we will just hit agree to just hurry up and make an account and later on after depositing funds customers realise they are fooled by exchanges.

[bean 515]

On ‎11‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 1:53 AM, Rg123 said:

Yes, we can avoid it by searching this kind of ico if this is legit or not, many ico are giving a free token of them just to participated in their airdrop, and when they give the coins, this coins are no value in the market so beware with this airdrop guys.

Many Ico are giving out token but from my experience and many others in the crypto world, most of the tokens that are being given by ICOs don't go anywhere, they wouldn't be sold on any exchange, this will just tell your things will get better and ask y'all to invest more.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

On 11/9/2019 at 3:18 PM, meowmeow said:

I actually agree with you. That is why, you always need to check the whitepaper of every coin first before you invest on it since everything is stated on the whitepaper. If their whitepaper is not satisfying, maybe that coin will not last long and might be a scam.

Yes good point to really scrutinize the white paper. If it's not making sense or if the whiter paper is not matching what has happened with the block chain and other key announcements, drop anymore time and move to research another offering.

[GhoulSlayer 226]

On 11/7/2019 at 10:00 PM, I-KUN said:

the important thing is the team member. if the team have a serious intention about their project, it won't turned into a scam and the project and won't be abandoned by them. also most of ICO use a fake team these day. try to find some verified team when you want to join in ICO projects.

I should add another thing, look at those who are not ready for release of their project. If a company is posting things like still working on stuff, making changes, restarting blockchains, reissuing wallets, these are proof a company was started without real thought or knowledge. Words like experimenting...yes I've seen that too.