In general, what prevents any ICO from “faking” their funding to initiate a FOMO? Can a team get away with this scenario:

1. Come up with an “ok” idea and product to use the blockchain
2. Get 100 wallets that are controlled by the team
3. Do KYC for the members of the team
4. Buy into the ICO from the 100 wallets
5. “Scream” everywhere: OMG people look our ICO is blowing up and we have a 100 backers already…social proof…get on the bandwagon to the moon…FOMO…
6. Hope that others will FOMO the hell and then do the KYC and buy into the ICO…

Worst case scenario is that their only backers are their own wallets and they lose their $$ for the website and gas. But the team can keep the ETH from the 100 wallets that were theirs anyway.

https://algosforcryptos.com/2018/05/12/ico-teams-secretly-buying-coins-exaggerate-funding-progress/