I think people throw out the word scam way too quickly these days. Some coins are in fact scams, and some coins will do nothing and you will lose your money despite them having the best intentions. I have seen a bunch of people on this forum say that any premined ICO is a scam and we know that isn't true (although those people are usually holier than thou jerkwads). What it really boils down to is most people lose money because they don't do their research.