It happened again.
Yet again we have an ICO that successfully raised a lot of money (50 Million) and have made an exit the ICO in question is Savedroid. This time they did not do it silently either, this time the CEO openly admitted it and directly taunted to investors. Sadly, we all know the risks and these instances sadly happen more then what we would like if crypto is ever to be mainstream this kind of publicity is not what we need.
How do we know this was an exit scam?
Well, this time around it is quite clear what had happened. We know this because not only did they update their site with a picture of a south park meme ‘aaaaand it's gone’ but the CEO also made a twitter post that almost mocks the investors saying “Thanks, guys! Over and out”
this is sadly why i almost never invest in any ICO.
But are all ICO's a scam?
of course not. there is plenty of ICO's which are not a scam, Sadly it sometimes happens that a high profile ICO happens to be a scam attempt. there are ways to protect yourself against this ICO scams and here are a few ways.
Do your research. this shouldn't have to be said but i will do it anyways. by reverse google searching images or trying to find out all the information you can about the dev team or the project, in general, you can mostly find out if the ICO you are looking into has any potential at all.
Ask Questions! this is the important part. does the ICO you are interested in have a social media channel? discord? facebook? telegram? then ask questions and see the response! I have been banned from a lot of ICO channels because I asked too many questions about their project or way of advertising. if an ICO is a scam attempt then they more often than do not want people to ask questions.
never invest more then you are willing to lose. sadly this has to be said every time. when dealing with crypto it is generally a high-risk high reward investment. never expect your money to be stable. but this has to be stressed even more when dealing with ICO's your money can and will disappear overnight if you are not careful.
Final Words.
when dealing with crypto I would advise everybody to always ask questions even if you think you know the answer. "how will this update solve this issue" or "where is the use case for this crypto" the more question you ask and answer the easier it gets to be safer in your investments. I hope everybody stays safe!