[teucris]

Does the average person generally understand how the internet works? The economy? Their own muscles?

We understand things enough to know how to use them. Yes, this means the unknown parts can be used to scam people, but that’s true with anything.

[marginalia_nu]

We did see a lot of that scam artistry with regards to the Internet. That was the Dot Com bubble.

The two necessary components seem to be novelty/hype and inscrutable inner workings.