> targeting people in the US
Anyone doing >anything IT related<, will target the US, first. Everyone outside the US with a startup idea does that. People there have the biggest investors, biggest tech scene, biggest chance of success, etc. I don't see how Russian / Eastern European targeting US makes them scammers.
> investors in these schemes have no protections / legal recourse as these entities are outside the US.
And that's related to the entity, not the team. How about a team of Russian / Eastern Europeans with an American entity? Would then be not a SCAM?
Of course I think what is stated in the OP is pure prejudice.
There are multiple scams originated in every nation, so let's not put the guilt on origin of the team behind it.
Vitalik is a Russian-Canadian, as well as lot's of good guys working on Cryptocurrency.