Does this gives a free hand to scammers as they know that they cannot be punished by a court of law 
Unfortunately, yes. There are no checks and balances in place anywhere, so while legitimate users' accounts are being shut down by exchanges who proceed to keep the money, there are also individual scammers (the high-tech thieves) who steal from people for a living, and nobody from the crypto platforms to the social media apps to the countries are doing anything to quash it.