I have rarely in over 7 years on MFC had a problem with the private feed, other than a delayed feed. It may well be some sort of scam, but it is not a common one in my experience, there are other ways to burn a members tokens in pvt. Having said this I guess it is likely.
When it comes to MFC leave any bad private experience immediately when you hit a problem, support will never, and I mean never refund you a bad private, whether it be a model's fault or MFC's fault. I gave up asking a long ago.
I don't want others who have ever had some form of good support to challenge me. MFC is the site I use despite my experience of its lack of service, it is actually a good site in my experience other than in that way.
It is a model site not a member site in my view, so I treat it as such. There are good member sites out there, that will refund most bad experiences, but on a model site a member needs to learn to either accept losing some credit, or to be mindful of who they spend on.
Many of the complaints from models and members come from this lack of member support, but should they change it a whole new set of troubles emerge.
For example members take more time to spend first time on an MFC model or spend only on those others spend on, because they take more risk than with a member focussed site where you get your credit back if you mess up and just spend on someone else. For members you get more scammers, but more genuine models on a model based site like MFC.
Just want to say if it feels wrong stop doing it, trust your instinct. If you mess it up, complain if you want, but learn to move on, as a member you will be happier. Can promise you will learn quickly and your choices will be better and better over time.