How do I check if a cryptocurrency is a scam?

Six things to check before buying any cryptocurrency. This is the same process the isthiscoinascam.com automated scoring uses, condensed into a manual checklist you can run yourself.

1. Contract security. Run the contract through a scanner (GoPlus, Honeypot.is) and check for: honeypot, mintable, hidden owner, excessive buy/sell tax, transferable ownership.
2. Holder distribution. Check top-10 and top-50 holder concentration. More than 50% in the top 10 means a small number of wallets can crash the price.
3. Audit verification. Confirm audit reports exist from named firms (CertiK, OpenZeppelin, Trail of Bits, Quantstamp). Verify the report URL actually loads — many projects fake this.
4. Team transparency. Look for doxxed founders with verifiable LinkedIn profiles and prior project history. Anonymous teams have no accountability.
5. Incident history. Search for past hacks, exploits, regulatory actions or scam allegations against the project or its founders.
6. Exchange quality. Listings on top-tier exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, Kraken) imply some due diligence. Tokens only on obscure DEXes warrant extra scrutiny.