Maybe it has always been this way and I am just older and grouchier, but it seems to me there are boat loads of business who basically charge fees for services that have no benefit, or sell products that are useless. Sure scammers always existed but they were a few here and there, now whole businesses with hundreds of employees are built around scams.
One favorite the "help you win government contract people". Since I am an ex small time defense contractor they call me all the time. I never answer, but I Goggle the missed calls I get a few a week from different ones, some leave messages. They make all kinds of phoney claims like they have secret inside information they do not, they have no more access to information than anyone else. Anything they can do for you, you can do it yourself for free. Any money paid to these people might as well be flushed down the toilet. There are probably at least 50 or more USA based business doing this same thing. Going to websites they have different levels of products, going full tilt you would spend $600 a month for stuff you could locate spending a few minutes a day
for free.
What about all these infomercials selling vitamins and miracle cures that no one with common sense would think worked. It must cost a lot of money and take a lot of employees to produce product, sell and ship. The infomercial usually starts like this, we have discovered an African tribe where the average man is 6'6" tall has a foot long penis, and lives to be 100. The only thing these men do that is different from you is they drink elephant urine and eat bat feces. We are now selling powdered bat feces and freeze dried elephant urine for the low introductory price of $50 a pound, that is a $200 value. Ok, rant off.
