I would suggest that rather than thinking of it as a "scam", as in some type of fraud or theft in violation of the law or of regulations, it should rather thought of as a fascist psychological operation.

To break that description down, it should first be recognized that the government and corporations clearly know what each other is doing. Here's a guy saying it out loud. Think the DOJ couldn't figure that out themselves? Think corporations know that it isn't secret? Of course not. They're in it together, which is the definition of fascism.

The psyop is that everybody else who has some sort of objection to the situation can just go on with their lives believing that "something is being done". As a general rule of psychological manipulation, They can persist in any activity as long as everyone thinks "something is being done".