It seems like there's a new ICO just about everyday or two. It is very difficult to follow all of them. I usually look for something in a project that I would actually use in real life and if a token or coin is really necessary to keep the platform going. There is no guaranteed way to protect yourself from the fact that ICO will be a Scam. Not every Creator is counting on that. On the contrary most of the coins created with the hope of a long life, but the people decide to trust them or not
In my own opinion,You should make your own choice, because we really have too much icos right now, and almost all of them looks good, but not all will give you the money. Read their white paper, interrogate with them in various social media sources with different user names. Check their website for every small thing and find out a loophole if any
You have to spend much times to research an ICO project if you do these things. Of course, if you have a team to working with you, I think this problem can be solve easily. But, how to find a team really help you find good ICO at now? I recommend you should to use icobench and icodrops to find the best ICO projects, both sites are best site to analyze which things are good from the ICO projects.