I would be really disappointed if the scam was that amateurish. My guess would be some sort of consumable intended to last for a day or so. If I was representing the buyer, I’d tell Rossi, “okay, now don’t touch it, let it run continuously for the next four weeks, and oh, by the way, we’ll have rotating crews watching it 24/7 to ensure there’s no tampering going on.”
I think that once the details are known, all of the scams of this sort seem "amateurish". It's the skill of hiding the details from the "mark" that distinguishes the successful scam artist from the unsuccessful.
Choosing and manipulating the mark is the key to success. It has to be someone who is so eager to gain by the proposed discovery that they will tolerate disappointments and continual denial of critical information.
Now we are evidently to believe that Rossi's purchaser is going to pay money to buy a unit capable of generating 470 kw for six hours but requires a running generator next to it capable of producing 500 kw.
It was entertaining reading about Turner and his involvement in the scam involving the use of dial-up circuits for high-bandwidth. I completely disagree with Turner's politics. But I respect the guy's judgement in having purchased a mountain of entertainment products for a pittance.
As a wise man once said, "A man's got to know his limitations". Turner's limitation was a lack of scientific skills that would keep him out of trouble while pursuing a technical product and a lack of skepticism when a charlatan failed to provide critical information. The combination is a recipe for losing a lot of money.