> When I say that the consumers are equally complicit, what I really mean is that in many cases they just listened to a sales pitch and accepted it as truth.
If you tell me something that you know or should know to be false, I act on what you told me, and you benefit from my action, then by definition I have been defrauded.
It's hard to speculate in a vacuum and obviously we don't want details in this medium, but here's a sales pitch:
Salesman: "By a MagicSuperAwesomeLotto ticket! There's no chance to win 50 million if you don't buy one. It's definitely a very risky investment. But it's an extremely small loss and the payout could make you generationally rich. We sell them in increments of $1, $5, and $50 if you want 50x chance to win, and we accept wire transfers."
Client: "So do I have to match all the picks in a row to get a payout?"
Salesman: "I'm not sure. It's a new product. We'll have to check."
Client: "Oh don't bother. I'll take $5,000 of them."
If you tell me something that you know or should know to be false, I act on what you told me, and you benefit from my action, then by definition I have been defrauded.