Fraud is probably a word that is not uncommon for most of us, you may be one of the many who went through some kind of fraud or scam, and now is even harder for you to trust in any business or company again because you are afraid it may happen again. Most particularly so, in the crypto economy scams are our daily bread, because the characteristics crypto has many are those who have used it to commit fraud and damage the reputation of a very good deal. The good news is that those experiences have also taught us to become more cunning and far-sighted when it comes to measuring a project’s legitimacy and if it’s worth investing in it or not.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, fraud is still on the rise. 2021 is not exempt from people trying to fool us, whether offering us work-from-home easy jobs, promotions and lower prizes, subscriptions, or early investments. But as they get smart we also take our chances to discover them, and here are some pieces of advice on how to know if a project is legitimate.

“MintMe has created a platform to allow projects to have a better commercial and public face for their clients and followers creating digital coins, as well as share their beliefs and talk to the world about who they are and why they deserve support, increasing trust and improving transparency.”

1 Good crypto projects have a public face

          If you want to know if a project is legitimate the first thing to do is try to gather complete contact information, social media accounts, websites, or if they have a physical branch. Research the company before making any moves with it. It can be a red flag if there is no way to communicate with the company or if they don’t show a clean public face.

You can browse the company's website to find some discrepancies and some indicators of lack of professionalism. Typically, copycat business web pages are used in many cities and are just copied templates or they have broken hyperlinks to the images and links, which is a timely warning that this may be a fake computer crime business page. It is a red flag that the business is not coordinated and it may be a scam that was put together in a hurry if the website states something in one place and then contradicts itself somewhere else. The reason why legitimate pages or projects take care of their image with detail is because they are focused on delivering a service instead of getting easy money. Scams that want easy money are less likely to invest a lot of time in fixing bugs or arranging a good commercial and public image. Legitimate projects show greater care in creating it, in contrast to get-rich-quick scam projects.

2 Good crypto projects have clear statements and transparency

          When a project is in the process of being created it is normal to change approaches several times while in development, but the main purpose of the project won’t change as if you were taking off winter clothes. Because the motivations behind it are clear, and the development of it follows through with a purpose in mind. A solid crypto project will tell you who they are and where they want to go. Also, and probably most importantly, whether public or fee-based, the resources to obtain information on companies do exist, and yes, we are talking about sources of financial and behavioral information. For example a legitimate project would be transparent about what they are gonna do with the investments if they need any, will give clear reasons, and will also show proof of important changes and transactions to keep their clients trust.

Any legitimate company knows that transparency is key and will work to keep it that way. For instance, something that increases trust in a company is the ease of contact it offers, the speed with which it provides a response, and the quality of this response, if you can know their working team or if they deny important information to you. Don’t lose patience, some startups may fail in the early processes of marketing to deliver the right answers as fast as you expect, but overall any legitimate project will address your questions the best they can because they are interested in your approval as a client.

3 Good crypto projects won’t offer you fast/easy money

          It may sound cliché, but there’s no such a thing as “easy money” or “you can get rich” promises. Even though they can tell you it’s possible to earn money it’s almost certain that none of them will make you get rich after you invest a little portion and even less in a short period of time. A very common form of a scam is those who offer you to boost your balance “You send me 1 BTC and you will earn 3 BTC back”. Because cryptocurrency transactions are nonrefundable you would be standing in a position where you can’t do anything to get your money back or even know who steals it from you, as bad as it sounds.

Any legitimate project will talk to you about the possibilities they offer and their potential for the future in order to convince you to invest. Hopefully, they can earn your trust and support towards their initiative. This is how it works for any project listed at mintme.com. MintMe has created a platform to allow projects to have a better commercial and public face for their clients and followers creating digital coins or tokens, as well as share their beliefs and talk to the world about who they are and why they deserve support, increasing trust and improving transparency. Also, you have the chance to compare each project and invest in the one that talks the best to you and the one you find with the highest potential.

Mary Schwartz