Before you invest in e-money you should find out about the coin you are looking to invest in and moreover you also need to find yourself a reputable trading platform for you to trade safely.
Better to do this first, investigating and studying each project that you are aiming to support before placing your money is the right idea behind crypto, as we are in the new era of system where people are also aiming the same thing, with enough knowledge and good understanding you will be able to succeed,
but before you can do that a lots of considerations that you needed to assess, things that will lead you into a good decision making and keep you in the right track, invest with enough amount that you are willing let go and always have second options and plan well.
Yeah couldn't agree with you more that much research needs to get done before investing into any ICO since a large amount of them arre scams. Most of them are going to be worthless very soon just like most websites/companies during the dot com bubble became worthless after the big crash so will blockchain companies and only a few of them will survive. (like Coinbase)