They all want to believe that you can get rich by doing something other than hard work.

In other words they are lazy.

Both mentally and physically lazy.

They believe that the rich got that way because they were born into it, they robbed others for it, or they were just plain lucky...Those damn rich SOB's!!!

So the sucker believes that he is just as good as the rich SOB's he despises, and thus he is certain that any day now his own lucky ship is certain to come in!

A winning lottery ticket. A bet on the big game, or a horse at the track. An investment in the futures market (so complicated that it must be legitimate!) The boiler room operators prey on the greed and laziness of those who are certain to fall for the scheme.

Most of the employees of the boiler room operation are themselves victims of their own belief in get rich scheems: It's almost ironic that both the buyer and seller eventually end up with nothing. Only a few clever immoral theives who organize the scams collect the real profits. Some of them are in organized crime in the tradiational sense. Some are in publicly traded companies that operate the boiler rooms as shell corporations--Again this is a form of organized crime...

People who lust after money are the easiest ones to steal money from. And they have got their number.

By the way, if your investment advisor sells you mutual funds on which he then collects a commission, he is only slightly higher on the foodchain than the boiler room operators, and you unfortunatly are also a victim: In my opinion, selling full-load mutual funds is a legalized investment scam. (People love to part with their money, especially those who are convinced that they are being prudent investors) But then that is a whole other story...