I just don't consider vote farms and Hive abuse a scam, it's more just bad behavior. Things like bellyrub and magic dice are a scam. Just nomenclature. But people love to throw around scam on everything, when most of the time it isn't appropriate.
Not sure what happened with @sherlockholmes, I don't think many really can do this for more than a few minutes before they lose their mind or give up. It's not like there is money in it, unless you are Hive Watchers.