True, scam project makes investors losing their money and time, not only investors but bounty hunters as well, losing time and efforts in vain.
I think the best way to know whether the project is real or fake is by their whitepaper first. Scammers are lazy to make whitepaper from 0, then the plagiarized whitepaper is the important sign of scam project, even the slightest plagiarized content.
I think looking at whitepapers is an ineffective way, because they can pay someone to make whitepapers from 0 so it's will look so beautiful, when they make a fake project, then the Scammer also prepared everything to trap investors, They are capable of making fake whitepapers and Teams.