Here are certain steps you can take to check whether an ICO is a scam -

1. Are the team members on the website and included in the whitepaper? Do they have Linkedin profiles and an online presence? If the team members have funny names and the pictures look too perfect, check and double check on the authenticity of the profiles.

2. Read the whitepaper carefully. Is the writer making far-fetched claims? Is the technical architecture and tokenomics included in the whitepaper? Is the business idea expressed simply enough or is it a buzzword salad?

3. Check for code. Is the code on github during the ICO? If it's not, the dev team probably has no intentions of building the product. If the code is there, has it been audited by a third party?

4. Are the members of the team available on Slack or Telegram to answer your questions?