The more things change, the more they stay the same. The vanity award scam is one such thing. You may have heard of Who's Who. The original Who's Who was published back in 1849 and is still being published. It's currently in its 172nd edition. As it was created, and as the official publication still exists, it chronicled prominent British citizens on a yearly basis.
Unfortunately, the term "who's who" has been in the public domain for years. Because of its availability, numerous other publishers launched their own Who's Who titles. Some of these were even legitimately published bound documents containing listings of presumably prominent individuals in whatever field whichever Who's Who publication was about (i.e., Who's Who in Medicine, Who's Who in Toledo, Who's Who in Low Carb Baking, and Who's Who in ZDNet Readers).
What characterized nearly all of these was the pay-for-play demand. If you wanted to be included in the given Who's Who directory, you had to pay for the privilege. Back before the internet, these scams were promoted via direct mail. Hundreds of thousands of offers were sent out, and some percentage bit. In most cases, the promoters did actually produce a document that the purchaser could show off. It was somewhat self-fulfilling: a buyer gained dubious bragging rights and the publisher made money.
Of course, back then, each offer sent out cost money for printing and postage. The scope of the offer (or scam, depending on how you look at it) was based on how many pieces of correspondence the promoter could afford to ..
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