They only NOW assume all ads are scams. Suggests they didn't make that assumption before, doesn't it?

And in your mind NOW always means "since GenAI is a thing"?

Most of the time, when people realize something, it happens NOW. Also, AI isn't even mentioned in the headline at all, and not even in the first part of the article. It's just used as one hint that it might be scam, then followed up with further evidence.