If they are not putting money as entry point yea? And they can cash in 35%straight away if they do a successful post I do not see the scamming? You have to understand the nature of steem, rewards if you add value to the Platform, is not a get rich scamm program, or a facebook like thing! has been designed to award great content, with time to get a vote is going to be even harder because your post have to be a quality one, please do not expect to take a picture of your hard earned sandwich and make 50k unless you are Kathy Perry, being famous help, having a previous audience helps, and ultimately working in great post and build an audience is all about!
alsoit steem is in Beta still a Baby (just imagine) once it matures Steem could be more Valuable, also Steem still in experimental phase traying to find market value and funtionality.
I am not sure how long have you been involved in to Blockchain technology experiments, but I can tell by experience that legit projects have huge potential! the last time that the scamming shadows were around me I have lost the opportunity to cash in 70 million dlls just because the oportunity came in a blockchain wrap package, (but it's ok not all is about money but about growing) I do advice to read the whitepaper VERY CAREFULLY and see if Steem is for you, I do not advice people to put any money on Steem but I do advice to my friends who are good Bloggers and great Photographers or tv presenters to join because Steem is so far the best option that they have to earn rewards in the Planet + is for free, as an investor I do put money in Steem Power because I see what could be if it succed ( I am waiting how the price settle to do my next move) + I am a long term investor with Steem at least I am targeting to droop 5 to 10k in SP and give it to my kids in 10 and 17 years, could be a worthles bunch of useless Steem Power or Could be a portion of the most succesful social media Platform.
I can afford to invest what I can afford to lose, I guess Time will tell.
As I always say once I jump in to a new project is
Time is our best friend!