No it's not a scam. I have been watching and following closely the work progress of the Developers and so far everything seems to align with what they have said with their roadmap and strategic plans.
Always do your due-diligence before making any significant investments/support. Read more info from their site, join their chatrooms, watch their Google Hangouts, question your reasoning as to why you would want to invest this coin instead of the other, etc.
As for me, I have done those and I would say I am comfortable in investing a significant portion of my portfolio into Vericoin and Bitcoin.
You have the only portfolio I would recommend to a family member or close friend. For those a bit riskier a nice heavy weighting in VeriCoin. I see no other coins as exciting as these 2 right now.
I love other coins, and what they do for the crypto community. But this is the only one getting ready to change the world.
As much as its a great thing for the infrastructure of crypto to have technological advancements. Sometimes the ones that make it convenient are overlooked. And convenience is who will bring in the next wave of capital to crypto currencies. Veri-bit is the start, Veri-Fiat comes next. When you add them all together it can really start to make sense for a lot of populations.