First they are very exited about a project and they love it so much that they fear not having enough time to get into it.
Second they just don't a minimum of due diligence. last before you invest in an ICO go dig in the block chain if the address you have is real one (i will show how at the end of the article)
It is very common for investors to join the slack community of the ICO (initial coin offering) they want to invest and some how the scammer send a message to every one a little bit before the ICO with more bonus and time restriction or CAP amount that will make the opportunity expired. The main goal of the scammers is to make investors sending there money as soon as possible so they don't do any research before they get trap cause of FOMO (fear of missing out)
today i received 2 of these scam by e-mail for the first time and i was so exited about theses 2 project that i almost fall for it.
In the ICON ICO there will be no bonus and no one will be able to put more than 30 ETH each on the first pre-sale round that will start on September 20 2017.
In the following SCAM exemple, they are offering 3 times more coin per ETH invested with 10000 ETH cap. When i first read that e-mail i was running to my computer to rush my investment but i am also aware that there is a lot of scam the in ICO world so i decided to go see the scam alert on the slack community to realize that it was a trap.
Here is the first example of the scam that i received by e-mail
Hi tankthebank,
You have a new direct message from the ICON Project workspace (helloiconworld.slack.com).
@elizabeth.fricke View in the archives
Elizabeth 11:39 AM, September 17th
Official Announcement from the ICON team
ICON Token Pre-Sale is OPEN NOW!
All registered members can now contribute and buy ICON tokens.
Pre-sale will last 24 hours or until pre-sale hard cap is reached (10000 ETH).
Token Distribution Rate: 7500 per 1 ETH
The minimum contribution is 0.1 ETH and the maximum contribution is 500 ETH.
Contribution Bonuses:
20+ ETH = 5% BONUS
50+ ETH = 12.5% BONUS
100+ ETH = 30% BONUS
200+ ETH = 70% BONUS
300+ ETH = 100% BONUS
CONTRACT ADDRESS - 0xdCcea2e783d873aCb4ccfb7deaD1004d90Ad481D
Please note that you will see your tokens on your ETH address where you sent from.
Recommended - Gas limit: 200,000 | Gas price: 21 Gwei
Our website - https://icon.foundation/en/
Thank you for your continuous support,
Your ICON Team
Official Announcement from the ICON team
ICON Token Pre-Sale is OPEN NOW!
In this second example the scam was sent one hour before the pre-sale ended, there was only 75 ETH needed to reach the hard cap, and they are telling that if you are registered you will be the lucky one that will be able to buy at a better rate (3500 YUP / ETH + bonus instead of 3000 YUP + bonus). In this case i sent an e-mail to one of the ICO member to ask for a confirmation and that is how i find out that it was a scam.
Hi tankthebank,
You have a new direct message from the Crowdholding ICO Presale workspace (crowdholdingico.slack.com).
@nightstalker_89 View in the archives
YUP_Jake 10:15 AM, September 17th
YUP_Jake [8:06 PM]
Official Announcement from the Crowdholding team
YUPIE Pre-Sale continues ONLY for our Slack community!
We are pleased to announce that all the registered members can now buy the last tokens left at a special rate of 3500 YUP per 1 ETH.
Pre-sale ends in 48 hours or when the hard cap is reached (600 ETH).
This is the last change to buy our tokens in the pre-sale at the discounted price!
The minimum contribution is 0.1 ETH and the maximum contribution is 100 ETH.
Contribution Bonuses:
20+ ETH = 5% BONUS
50+ ETH = 12.5% BONUS
100+ ETH = 30% BONUS
200+ ETH = 70% BONUS
300+ ETH = 100% BONUS
CONTRACT ADDRESS - 0x5cd9B40966E743244E5F2436F06D4C668105CC41
Please note that you will see your tokens in the same ETH wallet that you are sending from.
Recommended - Gas limit: 200,000 | Gas price: 21 Gwei
Official Website: https://ico.crowdholding.com
Now before i send money to an ICO i also verifed the address on the block chain. I will use ETH blockchain https://etherscan.io/ for this exemple.
With a real token address we can see the token name when some one send ETH to that address
But when people send there money to a scam, you just send money to a nobody address
If you guys have better idea to protect yourself before investing in ICO please post it in the comment