So much for intelligence. I knew a guy like that: pathological liar and con artist. It was in his nature to just be an all-around parasite and take whatever he could from whomever he could. Nothing on this scale, of course, but it amazed me how obvious his intentions were, how he never seemed to change his tactics, and above all, how everyone else seemed oblivious to it. Within the first minute of meeting him I had already figured him out and it made me wonder how he was able to get away with this type of parasitic behavior for this long without anyone catching on. Then it dawned on me: no one ever would catch one. Those are the people he cons. The wolf vs. the sheep.
I was going to say the same thing. CFD scams have been going on in UK for at least 10+ years now. The difference in this case is that they used a legit company that was regulated by the UK FCA as a front to create a sense of legitimacy to lure investors in according to what I read. That is a bit tricky. Usually when you see a company that's not regulated, you become wearier but when a company is regulated, you tend to trust it more and this is how the scammers got their way. So the victims in this case are not as at the fault as in other cases.