Many yes, but not all, are scams and in fact the concept of an ICO is just as significant as cryptocurrency itself (though cryptocurrency a required predecessor).
ICOs (tokens) are to IPOs (stocks) what cryptocurrency is to fiat currency.
Just as banks will fight and make a fuss about cryptocurrency, stock exchanges (and banks again) will make a fuss about ICOs.
Why? It's because ICOs, like cryptocurrency - are decentralized & blockchain powered and as such require no regulation or centralized authority to give them legitimacy. The blockchain, an immutable append-only log of transactions gives them legitimacy.
In other words, crypto currency and ICOs 'cut out the middlemen' - and the middlemen don't like it (hence they will try to give ICOs negative press; but of course the pyramid schemers and scam artists don't help the matter either).
Yet banks and exchanges are perhaps the lesser of worries; it is at the end of the day big brother who is most concerned because this entire crypto/blockchain movement has the potential to render their system of control - which is based on controlling and imposing rules on capital (something very difficult to do with the aforementioned crypto tech) - totally ineffective in the future.
So yes, just as in the early days of the internet there were those who used it to share & publish scams or porn - there are some ICOs or users of cryptocurrency engaged in scams or questionable activity. But just because you can share porn on the internet does not mean it isn't going to be a critical business technology one day in the near future.
In the meantime, expect big brother and its friends in media to be-little and all out attack the tech and the people who use it (via more laws & regulation, censorship and ultimately intimidation & force) until it inevitably becomes apart of everyday business.