Now.... my question to the community since I'm new... How does a scam like this benefit the people running it? Create a fake altcoin, issue thousands (their free giveaway), and then hope the limited exchanges give it a pump for them to sell? This really brings into question the validation process for their "partner" exchanges.
It is not really a 'scam' , it is just another bitcoin hardfork. If you keep bitcoin and there is a hardfork then you are going to get free coins out of thin air. You can sell those coins while keeping your bitcoin safe.
It is free money out of nothing if there is an exchanger that support them. In 2018 , you can expect that there are going to be alot more bitcoin hardfork. Nothing can stop them as everyone is free to do what they want