Hi @presteamed9-oh66 I felt the same way before joining NOIA Testnet node
So I read their site, studied their white paper and technical paper.
Once I was convinced they are a good and legit project only then I joined them.
Ponzi schemes want you to buy something or pay in advance but for joining the NOIA Testnet node you do not have to pay anything.
Instead they pay you 200 NOIA tokens per week.
Every week Friday 12 PM.UTC is the time when they the eligibility to get paid.
They credit 200 NOIA tokens to my account dashboard.
You need to be careful that you five the same ETH address in your KYC and software.
Currently the NOIA Testnet node phse is on so they are testing the network and the software and we by running the software are helping in checking if everything is fine.
As I am an IT professional myself I work on my computer every day. The NOIA software runs in the background without bothering me in any way.

Every week that I run the software for 72 hours I get NOIA tokens added to my account.
You can check my main post where I have posted the proof.
Hope this info helps.
Let me know if I could be of any more assistance.