Prior to the 1966 decision of Miranda v. Arizona stings never occured.  Insted government would torture and interrogate to secure confessions and not tell defendants their right to remain silent or to have an attorney present.  Of course, the Fifth Amendment was there prior to the landmark Miranda decision, but schools never taught constitutional rights since they were run by the government in order to keep people subserviant to same.

After suspects started remaining silent after being advised of their rights and demanding to have appointe attorneys, the government started new tacticts of the sting, which is a uniquely American legal invention in order to obtain evidence in an undercover fashion since beatings and interrogation was forbidden.

The first sting was report to have occurred in Washington D.C. involing an undercover agent going by the street name, "Angelo Lasagna" who set up a warehouse to buy stolen property such as stolen typewriters which were in high demand in 1975.

Then came the sting Abscam in the 1980's which involve the FBI making a fake Arab undercover agent to bribe U.S. Congressmen.  

Then in 1991, Arizona engaged in the AZscam sting wherein agents bribed Arizona legislators to vote for gambling legalization in Arizona.  

The government then was tires of being subject to stings and instead starte engaging in stings against hobbyists and sex related stings in order to draw attention away from stings against politicians.

Another famous sting happened in the Arizona matter of DavePhx v. DaveTER.  DavePhx started a sting against DaveTER to have DaveTER to buy a hitman to harm DavePhx.  The old adage if you want something done right, do it yourself rings true and DaveTER was arrested after agreeting to hire a hitman against DavePhx.  Less tha 50% of murders in Phoenix are solved so DaveTER would have been better off playing the odds doing it himself rather than outsourcing which is 100% a sting.