[2] The zine covers punk rock culture and grassroots activism in various locations, including Miami, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and New York City.
[3] In early issues, the zine explored squatting, dumpster diving, train hopping, and volunteering with needle exchange programs and Food Not Bombs.
[7] Early issues of SCAM focused on topics such as freighthopping, generator shows, wheatpasting, selling plasma, and returning stolen merchandise.
In 2016, Lyle produced a twenty-fifth anniversary issue, which included interviews with Barry McGee, Danny Lyon, Rebecca Giordano, and others.
[3] Lyle explained in an interview, "The magazine started as a way to document the life my friends and I were leading as teenagers, which was getting everything for free [through scams, stealing, and resource-sharing].