That was a lot and money is really something that a person will be tempted to do that kind of stuff. As for me, those who were scammed are new in ths business since the old timers knew about this kind of scam and of course, these people just want to earn though they like it in an easy way.
Or maybe some of the old timers turned into scammers. Because of their wide experience, they come up with an idea to scam the new ones. The new ones only came in order to earn money. It is very common that people always learn the hard way. This is why scammers still exist.