Some of them are older and their death is not far away. Do thoughts about morality and afterlife (or lack thereof) ever enter their brains? Do they look at themselves in the mirror? Or do they laugh at the suckers? Do they have a conscience?
I wonder how they first got into scamming. Undoubtedly, they tried trading first and failed. Likely got scammed by someone else and then decided that scamming is the name of the game and if they can't beat they should join them?
How are you defining "scam" and "fraud"?
Every legit trading school charging money comes with a written agreement on what expectations should be. The terms of the agreement should be clearly stated as to what you can expect to get from the class or series of courses.
I doubt any of them are putting in guarantees that taking their course will make you a successful trader. The terms usually are that trading is high risk and past performance of instructors or former students is no guarantee of future results.
Based on those terms, you would be hard pressed to call it a scam if you took a course with that agreement expecting anything beyond that.
Now the "scam" companies are the ones who advertise in a way that makes it seem like trading is easy or a quick path to riches, but this type of "sell a dream" advertising is widespread for all industries. Look at commercials for other colleges, lotteries, alcohol, food, homes, phones, credit cards, travel, etc.. and you see them selling transformational joy with the use of their product. In a strict sense of truth, all of them could be taken to court based on misleading advertising.
Look how education in general is sold that having a college degree is the ticket to success only to still find many graduates experiencing unemployment/underemployment and high student loan debt.
This is really about managing one's expectations.
We know the odds of sustained trading success are 90% against at best..some say 95% or more. So for those who take trading courses even from legit schools, the success rate should be expected to be very low.
If your expectations are the course should give you a guaranteed edge that works, unless they put that in writing, you are expecting too much.
The market is an open system where players can change behavior based on new information- so there can be no widespread taught "edge" because the system will absorb it. Outside of teaching you basic trading mechanics and methods that worked in the past, it's up to the student to develop their own insight into what works to make it out of the 90%+ failure zone.
The same applies to all schools: sports, business, acting, cooking, etc.. None of these places likely have written guarantees you'll reach top pro levels no matter what they show in advertising. It's always up to the individual to find that inner special talent that helps them move to the top levels. To expect more than that is being unrealistic.
Trading, like the other jobs listed, doesn't have a fixed framework of steps one can take to guarantee arriving at the top. That means education classes or books can only take you so far.
