Same happened with the Icelandic banks: in mid-2000, I knew several Americans who rather ill-advisedly created accounts with forex brokers just to get ~8% inter

Same happened with the Icelandic banks: in mid-2000, I knew several Americans who rather ill-advisedly created accounts with forex brokers just to get ~8% interest on ISK, a currency and economy they otherwise knew nothing about. Seems to have been common, because the Icelandic banks had large deposit inflows up until the crisis hit.