It is the sad story, but there are a lot of scam ICOs now, so if you have doubts then it's better to buy alts on an exchange.
One should always remember the pro's and con's of crypto investment, one should do there home work, do market research, study the market movement, the fundamentals of the crypto coin your are about to invest or already into it, market volatility, a lot of information should consider before you put in your hard earned money into investment, the risk factor into investment is the same with the amount you put in, lear more and learn to be patient.