What Is Affinity Fraud – Go Through These Examples To Keep Fraudsters Out

One of the most common things that happen to an unsuspecting individual who has come into a bit of money, is to have a smooth-talking person approach them with a scheme to double or triple what they have. Though most of us are cautious and do not allow any such person to gain our confidence, there are so many ways that they try to get us to lower our guard. This can be a simple breach of trust that leads to heavy losses in terms of money and of course the inordinate amount of time one spends trying to rectify a situation. People ask the question: what is affinity fraud, only after they have felt the pinch of being cheated. So, read on and find out how you can safeguard yourself against fraudsters who are trying to take your hard-earned money away from you.

Targeting A Community

This is probably one of the most common kinds of affinity frauds that one could come across. Many years ago, there was a news item about an Armenian-American community that lost close to nineteen million dollars. One of the ways in which the fraudsters were able to pull off this scam was that they had targeted a group of people who had difficulty understanding English clearly. They used this weakness in their unsuspecting victims, to their own advantage and robbed them of huge sums of money. Though this was found out and corrective action was taken, it was too late for the people who had been duped of their life savings.

The Religious Angle

This is another common angle that one finds in affinity frauds and scams. The people who are targeted are vulnerable and elderly and more often than not, belong to a group that has a common religious belief or practice. This has happened in the past with a group of Baptists who got cheated in a Ponzi scheme that they were not aware of. The sad thing about this is that the person who led them astray was one of them! He was a Baptist minister who tried to convince his fellow members in the congregation that their money would bring in a rich harvest. Though he is now in jail, it was a rude awakening for this group.

These are just two of the many examples of people who were led astray only because of one thing: the trust they had in a person who they knew quite well. Be cautioned against such impostors.