Affinity Fraud: Why the People You Trust Most Could Cost You Everything

The $8 Billion Number Nobody Wants to Talk About

Financial fraud in 2025 is projected to top eight billion dollars. I want to be very clear about something: that number is light. Much of the fraud that takes place never gets reported. I know this firsthand because I help people after they have been defrauded, and many of them do not even want to pursue legal action. They do not want to go through arbitration. They just want to move on. It is that painful.

So when we talk about the scope of financial fraud in this country, we are almost certainly talking about something far larger than any government estimate reflects.

What Is Affinity Fraud and Why Is It So Effective?

Affinity fraud is one of the most insidious forms of financial crime because it does not come from a stranger. It comes from someone who looks like you, thinks like you, and claims to believe what you believe. The pitch is simple: *since I am like you, you can trust what I have to say.*

Con artists use this principle to weasel their way into:

• Church groups and prayer circles
• Ethnic and nationality communities
• Civic organizations and clubs
• Any tight-knit group built on shared identity or belief

I wrote about this twenty years ago. I referenced Dante’s Divine Comedy, specifically the eighth Circle of Hell, where fraudulent advisors were trapped in flames. In the ninth Circle, the traders, those who knowingly and deliberately betrayed others, were frozen in a lake of ice. My argument then and now is that perpetrators of affinity fraud are an evil combination of both. That ditch in Hell is going to be very crowded.

The Greed Button Every Con Artist Looks For

Here is the part that most people do not want to hear. Everyone has a greed button. Do not tell yourself you are immune.

Greed does not always look like wanting a yacht. Sometimes it looks like:

• Wanting to pay for your grandchildren’s college education
• Wanting to give more money to your church
• Wanting to leave a legacy or help the poor

Those are noble goals. But they are still leverage points, and a skilled con artist will find them. Once they are embedded in your community, once they have established that shared bond of identity or belief, they use those goals against you. They reel people in again and again.

The fundamental principle I have repeated for decades applies here more than anywhere: everything in life that has meaning, value, and worth involves work, time, and effort. The moment someone promises you a shortcut to those meaningful goals, your alarm should go off.

How to Protect Yourself and Your Community

Affinity fraud is difficult to detect precisely because it feels different from a cold call or an unsolicited email. The defenses you would normally deploy are lowered because the threat arrives wearing a familiar face. Here is what I recommend:

• Verify credentials independently. Never rely on a referral from within the group as your only due diligence.
• Ask hard questions about how money is actually made. If the explanation is vague or sounds too clean, walk away.
• Understand that belonging to the same community is not a qualification. Shared faith, ethnicity, or values do not make someone a competent or honest financial professional.
• Report fraud when it happens. I understand why victims want to move on. But silence protects the next victim.

These fraudsters are counting on your trust. Your community, your faith group, your shared background: these are the things that make life meaningful. Do not let someone weaponize them against you.