I think affinity fraud is an underexplored explanation for why there tends to be so much of this scamming in certain communities like disability related ones. Affinity fraud involves exploiting others within your own community, usually for financial gain. It's particularly common in some insular communities, like the Mormon community (se…
I think affinity fraud is an underexplored explanation for why there tends to be so much of this scamming in certain communities like disability related ones. Affinity fraud involves exploiting others within your own community, usually for financial gain. It's particularly common in some insular communities, like the Mormon community (see article on Mormons below as well as linked wiki article for an overview of affinity fraud more broadly). The combination people tending to be trusting of others within their own communities and the types of dysfunctional people who seem to be drawn to these disability groups seems to be create an environment that's absolutely ripe for fraud, whether it be for status seeking or for financial gain.
Exactly-- if you're running a con, you always want to do it on people who you can credibly pass yourself off as "one of."
The show White Collar is oddly good at pulling this out, weirdly enough (or maybe I just think that because I like the show)-- the main character is incredibly skilled at portraying a certain kind of upper-class twit, and almost all of his (now government-approved) cons involve some variation on that. They don't randomly ask him to portray a manual laborer for a week; it wouldn't work.
This comment makes me think of my wife's sister and her husband. They are in their mid-late 40's and live as missionaries (kind of?). They "work" for YWAM (which I understand is Youth With A Mission, but they are well past youth). They live in a nice area in San Francisco, seem to go on vacations a lot. They aren't really doing much to help people, but they are always fundraising. They launder their money through YWAM so they can get donations funneled directly to them but also allow their donors to get a tax deduction. They have large, uber-religious families, and no one seems to question why they can't get real jobs that pay them a salary or ask if there is a cheaper place to do God's work. They act like they're poor, but their lifestyle clearly contradicts this. They claim they get really good "deals" so they can spend 2 weeks at Disney world or take a 2-week cruise home from a month in Germany instead of flying. They once sent my wife and me a quarterly newsletter which highlighted their work, and the primary thing they did was take walks in the morning and say hi to people to "brighten their day." I also say hi to people when I'm out for a walk, because that's a nice thing to do. I'm not asking people to pay me for it. I often wonder what schmucks give them money, but you don't become a zealot by asking questions and demanding evidence/results.
I think affinity fraud is an underexplored explanation for why there tends to be so much of this scamming in certain communities like disability related ones. Affinity fraud involves exploiting others within your own community, usually for financial gain. It's particularly common in some insular communities, like the Mormon community (see article on Mormons below as well as linked wiki article for an overview of affinity fraud more broadly). The combination people tending to be trusting of others within their own communities and the types of dysfunctional people who seem to be drawn to these disability groups seems to be create an environment that's absolutely ripe for fraud, whether it be for status seeking or for financial gain.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/02/20/why-so-many-latter-day-saints-fall/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_fraud
Exactly-- if you're running a con, you always want to do it on people who you can credibly pass yourself off as "one of."
The show White Collar is oddly good at pulling this out, weirdly enough (or maybe I just think that because I like the show)-- the main character is incredibly skilled at portraying a certain kind of upper-class twit, and almost all of his (now government-approved) cons involve some variation on that. They don't randomly ask him to portray a manual laborer for a week; it wouldn't work.
This comment makes me think of my wife's sister and her husband. They are in their mid-late 40's and live as missionaries (kind of?). They "work" for YWAM (which I understand is Youth With A Mission, but they are well past youth). They live in a nice area in San Francisco, seem to go on vacations a lot. They aren't really doing much to help people, but they are always fundraising. They launder their money through YWAM so they can get donations funneled directly to them but also allow their donors to get a tax deduction. They have large, uber-religious families, and no one seems to question why they can't get real jobs that pay them a salary or ask if there is a cheaper place to do God's work. They act like they're poor, but their lifestyle clearly contradicts this. They claim they get really good "deals" so they can spend 2 weeks at Disney world or take a 2-week cruise home from a month in Germany instead of flying. They once sent my wife and me a quarterly newsletter which highlighted their work, and the primary thing they did was take walks in the morning and say hi to people to "brighten their day." I also say hi to people when I'm out for a walk, because that's a nice thing to do. I'm not asking people to pay me for it. I often wonder what schmucks give them money, but you don't become a zealot by asking questions and demanding evidence/results.
I’ll just leave this here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_With_A_Mission