People lose out in practically every business venture.
The knowledge of the risks involved should make you arm yourself.
Research on any project you plan on investing in.
Pull out once you have any doubts or reservations.
That's true, and if you don't know how to do it, seek expert advice. I've got absolutely no knowledge about ICOs so wouldn't really be getting into them without some form of advice. There's no way that I could be able to tell if someone was scamming or not, other than looking into their LinkedIn, track record, other projects, etc. And nowadays, it's not hard to fabricate those.
This site has some good info:
https://icobench.com/Or you can just hire an ICO hedge manager type professional.