Currently anyone can try it out for free for the next 3 days, so you can decide for yourself if it’s a “scam”, if you’re able to deal with the bugs, or if it even works on your hardware:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/play-now

Use a referral code for some extras:
https://gorefer.me/randomizer/STAR

In terms of cost, this game gets a lot of flak for its marketing tactics. You don’t need to buy anything beyond the $40-45 starter pack. Just about everything else can be earned/rented/looted/hijacked/borrowed in-game.

Scam citizen :)