“The rapid growth of the ‘ICO’ market, and its widespread promotion as a new investment opportunity, has provided fertile ground for bad actors to take advantage of our Main Street investors,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “We embrace new technologies, but we also want investors to see what fraud looks like, so we built this educational site with many of the classic warning signs of fraud. Distributed ledger technology can add efficiency to the capital raising process, but promoters and issuers need to make sure they follow the securities laws. I encourage investors to do their diligence and ask questions.”

The website’s name, HoweyCoins, is a bit of an Easter egg—a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Howey test that’s used to determine whether a transaction is a security: "a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party." That test was derived from a 1946 Supreme Court case, SEC vs. Howey & Co.

Also, don't worry about whether the SEC is actually running an ICO scam: Anyone who clicks the link to buy HoweyCoins is directed to an investor education website.