The belief in a scam was due to their unbelievable claims. Claims that turned out to be untrue.
Claimed:
$500
1.05GH/s
19.8W
That's $0.5 per MH and 50MH/W. Stats that are way beyond what current gen FPGAs can do.
Today we are looking at
$700
~750 to 800MH (simulated performance on static block header)
40 to 50W
That's ~$1 per MH and 15 to 20 MH/W. Which is inline w/ other FPGA designs and much more believable.
Had they been honest about their performance from the start the reaction likely would be different. If they can achieve <$1 per MH and ~20MH/W it makes them competitive with other offerings and likely the market leader but it wasn't what was claimed on day 1.