How to spot a scam?

Some scams are obvious. If you take a look at an ordinary HYIP (High Yield Investment Program) scam, even a 4-year old would understand that that's not possible and that there must be something wrong. This is an example of an obvious HYIP scam: https://cryptounity.biz/ . As you see, CryptoUnity contains IMPOSSIBLY high profits, namely up to 150% in 1 day. It also contains a referal program, which is another indication that it's a scam. Not all referal-program sites are scams though, it's just something many scams have.

A less obvious scam would be Genesis Mining. No one is really sure if it's a scam or not. Many fans of Genesis Mining say it's not a scam and politely give you their referal links. There is also an amount of people who say it is a scam and either try to keep people from being scammed by Genesis-Mining, or just give up on the people dumb enough to put their money in it. Personally, I really don't know whether it's a scam or not. There is no proof for it being a scam, but no proof for it being legitimate either. That proves just how hard it is to recognize some scams!

Here I will list a couple of ways you can try to distinguish scams from legitimate investing opportunities:

Huge ROI (Return On Investment): Most scams offer a lot of profit and higher percentages of profit for larger investments too. At many scams it's obvious that they are scams. If you see "100% per week!", it's obviously a scam. If you see "25% per year", it's worth looking at it, because it could be a real opportunity, although even those lower amounts of profit are mostly scams.

No risk: Any company offering profit without a risk should have a very clear plan or you should avoid it. No risk is impossible in the trading world. So they should tell you a pretty logical way they make their profits, or you should just stay away from it. If they do not show you a clear way, it's a scam. "Trading bots" or "Volatility software" aren't risk-free ways of earning money... Do not invest in those scams either!

Referal Programs: A referal program doesn't necessarily mean it's a scam. Many websites have referal programs, but if you are already doubting if something is legitimate and it has a referal program too, you should count it as a too high risk to be worth investing in.

Fake Crew Photos: Photos of the crew that founded the project are often fake. They aren't the real people behind it. Sometimes it's possible to find these photos on the web and you could easily see if it's real or fake. Sometimes it's not possible to find them on the internet, but you should still look at the other factors then.

Limited time offers: These could well be legit, which (pre)-ICOs are a good example of, but are often great indicators for scams. If you go to some websites whose owners don't care what ads are shown, you'll see some of the "Buy now or the virus will delete all your files!" and "Download or we shut down your computer" ads... These are great examples of such scams. You are rushed to take a decision... Holy profit forever by trusting some strangers or potentially lose all your files... There are many people who go for the "holy profit forever"... Awfully enough, they will later find out they are robbed...

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As you see, there are multiple indicators for identifying scams. Ofcourse, even if all of these aren't true, please use common sense... "If something seems to good to be true, it probably is".

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