They were told they were making up to 15% on their investments, wellllll over the standard rate of return. They believed him because they wanted to believe him. Blinded by greed.

Of course, as Saint W. C. Fields says, “you can’t cheat an honest man,” and it’s still mostly true in this case.

Tempting people with a big unearned payoff is still the best way to rope them into a scam. Not really much difference between Madoff and Nigerian prince’s 419 scam, except the level of returns that Bernie promised were low enough that a lot more people fell for it.