This has become a new scam wherein users join voluntarily to be part of a free airdrop but they get scammed when they have put so much effort in building the community and helping the team financially by contributing on their social media handles.
I share your concern that Scammers often launch seemingly legit projects and promise huge reward for participating in airdrop farming. This involves joining twitter, telegram and other social media channels and refer links to family and friends to grow their community. The project runners make money from social media such as YouTube by generating massive views.
The best way to discourage such scammers is avoid participating in such scammed projects, and only join legitimate ventures those are backed by professional teams with proven track record of successful projects.