Where do they get all that money?

How does this happen? I mean if I had this kind of money lying around I know that I could find some better uses for it. I mean really, how do stupid people get so much money? This was taken from News of the Weird. Read on:

Things People Believe

(1) The sheriff in Tucson, Ariz., warned the public in August of a gang of women who lure horny men via newspaper ads into believing that they can buy a starring role in an adult video, citing the recent case of a man who was enticed to send $1,100 to set up a video shoot, then $7,000 more, then $8,000 more, and then another $8,000; he quit only when he learned that the women had persuaded his parents to pay $20,000 more for their son's "acting" career. (2) Lau Yat-fai, a 5-foot-9, 23-year-old basketball player in Hong Kong, paid the equivalent of about US$1,400 for electrical treatments from two "beauty centers" that had promised to make him tall. (After filing a lawsuit, he got a partial refund in October.) [Tucson Weekly, 8-26-04] [Associated Press, 10-8-04]