Scam or No Scam — This is the Question
All of you probably know that “scam” literally means con or fraud. However, in the online world, this term has a narrower meaning — raising funds for an allegedly promising project that will then disappear together with the investors’ money.
Pre-Scam
Scam-projects usually spring up in hype industries, i. e. the fastest-growing sectors. Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain are a hype sector now; therefore, a lot of conmen find their investor victims in this area.
A scam project is very hard to identify initially. Since cryptoindustry grows very fast, no developers can be confident their project will be a success.
The difference between a scam and any other project is that scam has no success embedded in it — it’s just about collecting money from the investors.
However, there’s a range of characteristics that might prove a project is a scam.
Scam Characteristics
— Regular technical issues on the project web-site, DDoS attacks and failures may indicated a project is a scam.
– An important scam characteristic is the low activity of the support service. No one answers your questions, no one responds to your comments or replies with trivialities.
– Despite the announced big plans, the project makes no headway and does not grow.
– Problems related to withdrawing or getting back your funds are probably the most obvious characteristic of scam. In the case of cryptocurrencies, it may be an issue related to selling the tokens. Unfortunately, if the investor reaches this stage, it’s hardly possible to get back the invested funds.
– A lot of negative reviews are published online, there’s a strong negative feeling around the project on professional forums — this is what you should look out for. Cryptocurrencies are still an area for the “advanced” investors who understand what they invest in — don’t ignore their opinion.
These are the key characteristics of scam projects. Each characteristic on its own may simply mean that a project is experiencing some growth difficulties. Together, however, these characteristics are a sign it’s not safe and the project is, in all probability, a scam.