At a point the team start given excuses to abide by what they promised to do or stop communicating with the community then I can sense the project is scam. How do you determine a project is gone bad and won't fulfil it promise? What criteria do you use ? or you wait for years thinking all will be well ?
You should have known this right from the start, if you do the necessary research. After carrying out the research I should on a project and I am skeptical about it, I will not give it a second thought, but will discard it.