How are they a scam though? If you can buy ingame things that bring you joy it's not wasted money. You just have to set reasonable limits so you don't end up spending 100s on silly things.
Scam's not the right word but you start to run out of accurate words when you can't get your point across after having entire days ruined arguing with a screaming kid about a R$10,000 Golden Dominus that would cost $100 USD to obtain.
Good time to learn a lesson.