this fraudulent elements was in Ghana and have carted away all the investors funds on a promise for high returns.
That is the part that gets a lot of people – greed. Once investors are promised a great ROI, they don't want to cross-check how feasible that can be. For me, I get skeptical of any investment that promises more than 2% as ROI. Investments aren't that easy to pluck off money that quickly from them.Having no signup fee isn't a good indication that such platforms aren't a scam [most of the HYIP/Ponzi schemes that I've seen, didn't require anything upon signing up].
I think it goes both ways depending on the modus operandi of the operator(s). Some platforms would want to make the unsuspecting public believe they're genuine by removing every encumbrances but also set up another angle from which they can scam them. While some would set certain sign-up fees to legitimise their operations, so to say. When Binance opened shops in 2017, it allowed for no-commission trading which was almost alien to traders then given that exchanges that were operational at that time took commissions from traders. Like you said that it took you less than a minute to discover that the platform was a sham and that could either be as a result of instinct or because you researched it. Sadly enough, most people don't like researching a site before throwing their money into it. They rather hastily invest first before making any research in a manner that typifies putting the cart before the horse. 
