At what point do you call something a scam?

My personal view is that someone who checks off any of the following bulletpoints is a scammer 100% of the time:

• Created/endorsed a product with false claims
• Failed to disclose conflicts of interests or critical information in a scheme you created/endorsed
• Failed to hold their end of a bargain on an agreement they held with someone else
• Created a financial scheme that was unsustainable and did harm to investors
• Dumped on investors in private, while they were publicly telling people to buy
• Stole someone's money either by fraud, hacking, or deception

I think the grey area lies within NFT mints, premined blockchains, and proof of stake consensus mechanisms.

Premines and NFTs aren't inherently scams, but they are definitely a signal that the founders/VCs involved are just trying to make a quick buck and leave.

Proof of stake also isn't inherently a scam, but it can be if one entity owns more than 51% of the coins and is able to control consensus. In that scenario, proof of stake would be a scam because the game theory breaks and they can just steal all the money out of all user's wallets.