I can tell you - I've been around since Gopher days on freemium tier and boy it's _never_ been this bad. (predates www .. sorry, web)

My first online scam attempt came via uucp. I think it has always been this bad. There have been waves of effectiveness in combatting it.

A comparatively few bad actors can have a disproportionate impact on the lives of many people. Prior to the internet we had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_von_Braunhut, although that probably pales in comparison to Richard DeVos.