Yes, it's a scam. I don't see a downturn making people more wise about this though. Crypto shills have a plausible reason for a decline in value, and otherwise it's not like anything is happening to get the scammed (often just the greedy) to increase their sophistication so they can understand it's a scam.
This is one of the rare times I'd say it, but I think legislation is needed. Crypto is a so-far-legal outlet for various financial schemes (ponzi, pump-and-dump, securities fraud, etc) that all are covered under existing laws. We just need to extend the law to these new instruments so people can't legally con others just by saying "blockchain"
