Endowment claims are what I used to work on at C&G, and we found that the majority paid out simply because the sellers, despite the small print, were actively telling people to ignore it as it was guaranteed win.
If you have young people (as more were then when you could actually get a mortgage with a small deposit/100% loan) who don't know any better - first time buyers etc, then it's quite easy as a good sales person to convince someone they're onto a sure thing.
But I do agree Col, there are many people also, who would have known better, that are jumping on the bandwagon. But that's just the way things are. There will always be people out there who will try and try and cheat their way out of doing something.
But there are plenty of honest people out there who were swindled. I've seen the evidence (ie all the notes etc from the sales people after the customers left!) as it's what I had to use to base my decision on whether we would pay out on a claim...
