There are so much scams and different kinds of fraud among altcoins. The most important is to check everything befor investing to evaluate the future potential of the coin. Not all the coins will be able to surve. That is why it is important to check how useful this altcoin is to evaluate its future potential and its demand in the future.
Altcoins are a good example of how easily you can fool an investor when presented with a bitcoin-like concept that is a complete vaporware in reality. We dont see much of the newly launched altcoins make any headlines after a couple of years - if you look deeply in the net you will find that they have been on a ghosting mode or making up shit excuses and delaying stuff, in reality they have gone bankrupt and have abandoned the project.
What matters is the lesson learnt from them. Give at least two years to any altcoin project before making your move on it - remember that your money is hard earned.