Basically i will search about the team whos behind the project and if it anonymous i will stay away as the potential getting scam are very big. Then look their website and if they using a simple template that look made by a kid i will skip that projects also. The most important is check their whitepaper as scam project love to copy paste other whitepaper. Always make your own research and try not to be fooled by scammer.
Now looking at the whitepaper given by the team from those that can be read by the public is a very smart choice because all project progress depends on the concept you want to develop which is implied in the whitepaper, but there are other ways besides that you can use seeing the team at behind the project so you can see the authenticity of the project being formed.