Its very easy to fall for a fraud in the Crypto-Currency Market. Right now their are more than 2000 Crypto-Currencies in the market. To help me decide what to bet on and what to leave, I have a fixed set of criteria's, which are the following-
1.)Is the crypto-currency Mine-able ?? If yes Then I proceed with my next set of enquiries. The only exception to this rule is Ripple.
2.)Try and understand what the team aims to achieve. If I don't understand what a project is aiming to achieve I wont my money in it.
3.)Once I understand what the objective of a certain project is, I try and find its current competitors. Its better to understand how they plan to be better than the current competition. For Eg if Musing was to launch a coin I would check how its Better than Quora i.e. its current rival, or Zappl or Twetter.
4.)What is the total supply of a particular Crypto-currency ?
5.)Also check the wallet distribution of the Crypto, it shall give you an idea about the number of people who support or have invested in the project.
6.)The team behind a project does matter. However for me that is not a big deal breaker. New talent at times is more innovative than the existing people.
7.)Make sure it does not sound like a pyramid or ponzi scheme. Always make sure its not something similar to BitConnect.