Like another person said, the decline of checks in the US is probably much of the reason why these scams are taking off. In the 80s or 90s everyone knew of the possibility of "writing a bad check". My local stores would even have lists of people posted at the checkout who they wouldn't accept checks from due to writing bad checks. Even if didn't use checks back then, you'd be aware of this possibility. But now, younger people are not as familiar with how they work.