I cannot stress this more, No.1 is the whitepaper. Always look at the whitepaper. If you can understand what the team wants to do, and like the concept, consider putting money - else no use. No2. is the team. Look at the engagement that they are having with the community, also look at how old are their public profile like linkedin. QUtm CEO changed his name recently before doing qtum, he has been known for doing frauds in past- so do look into the history of people involved. No3 thing that I check is the community around the project.