I dont know if innocent describes people signing a contract. They can be victims of manipulation but maybe people are less stupid than you give them credit for.

Maybe they understood that it was an opportunity to seize, a cheap loan in a bubbling up market, and they decided against carefulness.

I face this with bitcoin for instance, trying to stay careful in an exciting rising market. If I stick to fundamentals and what I think I know of past experiments, this makes no sense. If I look at making money in my lifetime, I feel stupid resisting.