Source for that? I think the general idea is not whether someone is susceptible to fraud, but rather higher likelihood that you have experience with making investments.
How much you wanna bet a white collar worker making $200k/year has made more investment-based decisions in their life than a a blue collar worker making $20/hr?
I don't necessarily agree with the tenants of the idea of an accredited investor, but it's definitely a way to parse out a large chunk of the population unexperienced with investing.