The AARP, meanwhile, found in a recent survey that those with a four-year college degree or more were actually more likely to be victims of investment fraud. Among general investors, 55.8 percent had at least a bachelor's degree; among those who were victims of investment fraud, that proportion grows to 62.1 percent. Further, the survey found that the most active traders were also the most likely to fall for an investment scam. Of those who make one to four investment decisions a year, 27 percent had fallen victim to investment fraud; among those who make five or more decisions per year, though, 42 percent have been victims. 

(The report itself is full of demographic information of who falls for investment scams; for example, 80.8 percent of fraud victims are men versus 19.2 percent of women. Overall, the AARP said, the ideal fraud victim is an older male conservative who sees wealth as a success measure, prefers unregulated investments, usually invests remotely, and makes frequent trades. He will likely be contacted by phone, email or regular mail). 

Another thing to consider is that scams are rarely an intellectual affair. Some may sound smart, but they are designed to play on emotions. While people who feel they are very smart may then think, "OK, well, I'm smart enough to not let my decisions get clouded by judgment and bias," another recent study found that, in actuality, intelligence and bias (at least tribal bias) have very little relation. Very intelligent people can fall prey to scams just as easily as anyone, and this is assuming that they're actually intelligent and not victims of the Dunning-Kruger effect. 

All this is to say that, regardless of whether people consider themselves smart or even are smart, they can still fall for a scam. And, in fact, the more confident people are that they can spot a scam, the more likely it is they will fall for one (just the way those who don't believe they are affected by advertising are in fact much more likely to be affected by advertising).