I can sympathize with this position when the scam is obvious, but what about fraud? It sounds like you were deceived into investing in a scam that was not obvio

I can sympathize with this position when the scam is obvious, but what about fraud? It sounds like you were deceived into investing in a scam that was not obvious, at least at first. Ideally regulations and entities like the SEC should prevent that from happening, or at least shut them down before they cause too much damage (better if you get half your money back than none at all). And even in cases where the scam is obvious (at least to you), I do think there's room to protect less knowledgeable people from themselves, just like there's room to protect addicted gamblers from harming themselves and their families too much. And overall, for the greater good, maybe it shouldn't be possible to commoditize the creation of new scams, if only so that people would look for better investments (e.g. some that are not negative-sum).