Its not that easy to detect the plight of icos before they are launched. Since there has been a lot of projects splurging, a lot of investors who want to earn a great deal open their investments to these icos. But most of the time, it would be too late to find out if the ico is legit or not.

Here are some pointers that warns us if an ico is a scam:
The website authenticity
The whitepaper clearly states the project details and the time table
The people behind the project