Last weekend’s LoopX fiasco, where the team behind the fraudulent ICO walked off with almost $5m according to some estimates, was simply the latest entry in a long list of scams that have dogged the ICO space.

For the first time, however, it appears that it might now be possible to place some quantitative estimates on the sheer scale of the phenomenon.

Clearify, an Australian-based cryptocurrency address verification service, has released some initial estimates after conducting a review of the number of scam addresses appearing on social networks in real-time.

Most Scam Attempts End in Failure

“We began building the library of scam and/or suspect addresses that drives our Scam Flagging System one week ago,” stated project representative Dale Drury, “and at the moment we are currently flagging just over one hundred suspect addresses per day, on average.”

Scam contribution addresses appearing on Twitter are thought to have numbered over 150 for the last two days alone. The problem, then, appears to be something more of an epidemic rather than an occasional scourge.

“On the bright side,” states Drury, “most of these addresses currently have no funds in their wallet which is a positive sign of sorts.” A likely sign, perhaps, that most scam attempts are ending in failure and which itself may be indicative of an increasing awareness among ICO investors of the need for due diligence.

However, the relative ease of the LoopX scam – whose project team remained entirely anonymous and who provided a white-paper lacking in any substance – may suggest that many investors are still not asking basic questions.

Some scam addresses in the Clearify Scam Address Library are being flagged by the Clearify team itself, others are being flagged by individuals reporting suspect addresses to them.

Right now most suspect addresses are being flagged by the Clearify team. With increased awareness of the new service, however, the team is hoping that collective community vigilance will eventually allow them to build a near-comprehensive library updated in real-time of all currently ongoing scam operations.

Readers who come across suspect addresses can flag these using the Clearify platform’s submission form. Users can also check to see if a given contribution address has been flagged as suspect or verified as safe on the platform’s home page.

With most ICOs currently thought not to be subscribed to an address verification service, and with an absence of formal regulatory compliance frameworks almost everywhere for ICOs, community collaboration and pressure appear to remain the most promising avenues for combatting the issue.