I'm not actually that surprised. There are lots of people who have decent paying jobs, but want more, and it's not as easy as saying "I earn $100k working at X,

I'm not actually that surprised. There are lots of people who have decent paying jobs, but want more, and it's not as easy as saying "I earn $100k working at X, I can easily earn an extra 30k doing it freelance on the weekend". It is extraordinarily difficult to actually leverage your skills in a way that earns immediate profits - especially since your skills are often specializing in a niche that your company probably dominates. 27k for a stupid stock prediction scam seems like a decent pay off if you think your technical expertise means you have an extremely low chance of getting caught. Maybe you would be more willing to do this if you worked for a guy who repeatedly flouts SEC rules an brags about it....