What OP described here does sound like it's a domain privacy measure, rather than a scam. But Godaddy is known to register domains that their customers search for, and then offer it on auction - at least in the past. They also demonstrated some fine-print policy by which they hold hosted data hostage to force a steeper renewal fee. (Not me. I wouldn't host anything other than DNS records with my registrar - even though I trust mine much more than Godaddy). I don't know why they won't count as scams. But they are red flags enough for me to stay well away.