[AnthonyMouse]

> Why didn't the free market step up?

It did. People learned that there were a lot of scams and now the market for suckers is drying up. This is a typical pattern: Problem occurs, market responds to problem and results in improvement, government simultaneously responds to problem and has no effect or makes it worse, people point to improvement and credit new government regulations or lack of improvement and demand even more government regulations. Then we get stuck with a bunch of burdensome new rules because Something Had To Be Done.

Notice also that all of the stuff you're listing is fraudulent and already illegal. If regulations work then why didn't they work?