This kind of crap has been going on for years, especially the money scams, usually from a deceased estate in Africa, or a MS lottery scam. I had a Yahoo email account that I had to drop after using it for over six years, on account of the spam issues. What the real problem was, the scams were being placed into my mail folder, and not the spam. Or the other way around. The account was totally out of control, although I always (and still do) report spam.
In the past, as recent as last year, I've received bogus scam calls, looking for donations to charities that simply doesn't exist. I've looked them up, and not a trace of the charity can be found. That's why I don't donate money over the phone, they may make it look as though it's for the families of the police or firefighters, but many times, it's not. One dead giveaway that they're bogus, is that they want it now, and not after they send brochures, in fact one said that he was out of them, the donations were so high. I asked him back,"if your donations are so high, then why the hell won't you take no for an answer from me?" He hung up.
The internet is loaded with crooks, and they use the phone, too. It's mainly as simple as this, if it looks (or sounds) too good to be true, that's because it is. Even if it looks or sounds legit, always check out the source first.
Cat