First and foremost us investors should never invest more than we can afford to lose. If what I have invested today were to evaporate tomorrow, I'd be disappointed but it would not devastate me.
EOS could be a scam. Personally I doubt it, but it would be foolish to entirely deny this possibility.
The best way to think about this is to try and imagine what is the safest way to achieve maximum profits. This ultimately guides most people. Ethics be damned.
A) Take all the eth and run.
- easyish
- get crazy rich
- ruin personal reputations
B) Deliver on the promises and hopes for the platform.
- difficult
- get unbelievably rich
- go down in history (in a good way)
C) Try to deliver on B, while being shitty.
- much more difficult
- get unbelievably rich
- go down in history (in a bad way)
If EOS were to do something underhanded or unethical, like deliberately crash the Ethereum network or fail to exchange their current tokens for resources on the EOS blockchain, then public relations would be irreparably damaged. It would be like trying to launch but then shooting themselves in each foot.
Public respect and support is a good tool in the fight for marketshare they are looking to pick. It would be unbelievably stupid for them to throw it away.
In all probability I agree with several of the other comments here talking about much of the scary words in the FAQ as being necessary to navigate old world bullshit.
What other scenario's might there be?
RE: Something strange is happening with EOS - Programmer explains