Online scam has been and is still big business since the dawn of the internet age.
In the beginning, common scams were coming out of the African continent with lines like: "My late father/uncle/relative was the ex-minister of so-and-so and he left a huge amount of money which I need your help to claim with a commission to you"...or something along that line....when there is a major disaster like an airplane crush, email like "One of the dead passenger has a name similar to yours and we need your help, with commission, to help claim the insurance money"...
When China opened her door to the world, out came a different class of scammers that uses sex & money in their scams. In the beginning, these scams were mostly in the online gambling and dodgy trade deals. Since then, their operations have expanded into online trading of stocks/forex/anything-that-can-be-traded online.
A recent article revealed Chinese entrepreneurs are breaking into and taking over the more traditional money laundering markets in Asia Pacific region, Northern & Southern Americas and Europe, targeting drug & corruption money.
So, scams are nothing new and, as they say, there is a Sucker born every minute and so scams will be around for as long as homo sapiens desire something.