The trust and credibility crucial in our industry are undermined by the volume of scams and the lack of genuine connections on these platforms.

Not super unusual, but anyone who asks for 10% up front is a scam. 

Like all the investors in the multitude of these, in my opinion, scams and frauds, we believed in the private placement memorandums and were, in my opinion, lied to by the manager not being truthful about his checkered history. 

It depends on what you want to do and how much time you have to devote to real estate investing. 

I have not felt scammed, but I don’t trust anyone when it comes to screening.

I personally believe a good sales agent (someone who devotes 100% of their time to the profession) is going to be more effective at selling my properties than I will.

Compare that to being able to easily compare options and know what you are getting into and being able to see what is going on, even if you are inexperienced.Check all the threads here on Bigger Pockets about turn key companies that were/are scams/ not as promised/disappointments. 

Good people do not knowingly scam others out of 25k.4.

Which really does not matter, because he has already scammed you out of thousands of dollars.- Once the money is pay...$10K plus $197.00 per month (software fee).

However most if not all want cash buyersGood luck   I found most of everything for sale in FB market are scams, you would have a field day weeing out the real sellers.