ICOs - tread carefully!

While currently there is an understandable amount of excitement surrounding ICOs, the below should serve as a warning to keep your FOMO in check and remain rational during the ongoing hype cycle. Always remember that ICOs are happening in an environment equivalent to a financial Wild West, with no regulator or authority protecting your interests. Especially if you are new to this space, read up and inform yourself before investing real money - this is no "get rich quick" scheme.

Yesterday I saw the below conversation going on in the Kik / Kin ICO Slack channel. A few people had apparently been contacted through direct message by "erin.berger", offering them access to a fictional pre-sale of the widely anticipated Kin token sale. The two people below have seemingly been scammed "successfully". They blindly sent some of their hard earned ETH to an anonymous wallet owned by a scammer who only had to write a very short message appealing to their FOMO. As the last commentator points out, that money is gone. And seeing that the "minimum contribution" was 1 ETH (see below), these people lost at least a few hundred dollars, if not a multiple of that.

Here is the conversation:

And here is the offer of "erin.berger":

"erin.berger" has been banned as soon as Kik learned of the scam. However, at least a few people fell for it and lost their ETH, which is unfortunate.

As much value as there is to this new model (and I believe that ICOs and the implied decentralization of business models grants huge excitement), do not get blinded by the flashy numbers and the recent exponential price explosions. Do your research as you would for any type of investment, only be extra diligent with token sales. Otherwise this may turn into your own personal "get poor quick" scheme.