That goes to show that "time is money" - money was here used as a physical marker for the transfer of an invisible asset, "credit" or "trust". Yes, this is how money works, even cryptocurrency like that: it compensates insufficient "credit" and "trust" - I do something for you but I don't know if I can trust you to compensate me for what I've done. By giving me money you show me a measurable proof of trustworthiness. Money hence comes to compensate distrust.
N. Kiyotaki and John Moore have written a seminal article on this topic, called "Evil is the Root of all Money"

I would say that nobody got scammed, they all got what they wanted.
And having read the beautiful article of Kiyotaki and Moore and many others I have written an article on this topic myself:
Blockchain revolution: Money and Credit