Affinity fraud

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'''Affinity fraud''' is the abuse of the trust of others with the trust stemming from sharing membership in an identifiable group, be it a socio-economic, religious, or ethnic group.

The idea is: "I'm one of you! I definitely wouldn't scam you." Then they scam you.

The term is used in a legal setting, but it was popularized by [[economist]] [[Paul Krugman]] to explain persistent [[groupthink]] among intellectual and financial castes.<ref>http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/goldbugs-greece-and-affinity-fraud/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0</ref>

The result of affinity fraud can be a loss of trust as well as [[money]] — a fate usually reserved for the [[Prayer|praying]] flock — or a [[Cognitive dissonance|reinforcement of false beliefs in the teeth of contradicting evidence]] — mainly found among people with power and wealth.<ref>http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/the-trillion-dollar-zombie/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body</ref><br>

Consultancy firm Marquet International estimates that roughly half of all [[pyramid scheme]]s are rooted in affinity fraud.<ref name="fleecing">[http://www.economist.com/node/21543526 "Fleecing the flock."] ''[[The Economist]]'', 28 January 2012 (recovered 28 January 2016).</ref>

==Examples==
===Religion===
Unsuspecting members of a [[Religion|religious]] organisation are targets of fraudsters, since modern religions put emphasis on the claim that identifying oneself as a believer instills positive values like honesty and goodwill into the minds of the believer, and furthermore, many religions discourage followers from exercising [[critical thinking]] in general, to prevent them from questioning the religion itself. A fraudster can prey on the assumption shared by the believers that all who identify as such would not stoop so low as to cause any sort of harm to a fellow believer. This problem is especially notable among [[Mormonism|Mormons]], due to the in-group mentality of the church. [[Utah]] is a major hive of affinity fraud for this reason, to the point where [[multi-level marketing]] (MLM) scams have been nicknamed "Mormons Losing Money".<ref name="fleecing"></ref><ref>Hines, Alice. [http://talkingpointsmemo.com/theslice/mormon-utah-valley-multilevel-marketing-thrive-doterra "How Utah Became a Bizarre, Blissful Epicenter for Get-Rich-Quick Schemes."] ''Talking Points Memo'', 9 June 2015 (recovered 28 January 2016).</ref> As it turns out, not only is fraud in the name of [[God]] a big business,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUv4dDavC6U "Affinity Fraud: Preying on those who pray"]</ref> but as seen with the [[Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church|Catholic sex abuse scandal]], this trust can be exploited for even more sinister ends.

Sadly, even the [[skeptic]]al community, one of the last places you'd expect affinity fraud to fly, is not immune from it, as the case of Al Seckel demonstrates.<ref>Oppenheimer, Mark. [http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/191806/the-illusionist-al-seckel "The Illusionist."] ''Tablet'', 20 July 2015 (recovered 13 April 2016).</ref><ref>[http://lippard.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/al-seckel-exposed.html "Al Seckel exposed."] ''The Lippard Blog'', 20 July 2015 (recovered 13 April 2016).</ref> Seckel was the head of the Southern California Skeptics and a 'scientific and technical consultant' for the [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]], contributing to the ''Skeptical Inquirer'' magazine as a [[physicist]] despite having no degree in physics. Seckel scammed people by dealing in rare books and papers, then either taking the money without providing the books that had been paid for or vice versa. His [[mark]]s included [[scientists]], other book dealers, a doctoral candidate, and a Silicon Valley consultant, all of them members of the skeptical community who trusted Seckel on account of his position within the community, and when he was called out for his actions, he frequently responded with lawsuits.

===Ethnicity===
[[File:BernardMadoff.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Bernie made off wit' da' money]]
[[African American]] and [[Hispanic]] people are a distressingly common target for affinity fraud. One type, the claim that the US government has earmarked billions of dollars in reparations for [[slavery]] for African Americans and that all they have to do is send their name, address, date of birth, phone number, and [[Social Security]] number to this ''totally reputable'' source, is seen so often that it has {{wpl|Slavery reparations scam|its own separate page}} on [[Wikipedia]] linked from their page on affinity fraud.<ref>[http://www.irs.gov/irb/2004-12_IRB/ar13.html IRS bulletin] about the "slavery tax credit"</ref><ref>Snopes: [http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/blacktax.asp?sfgdata=4 "Black Tax Credit"]</ref> Since they're also highly religious demographics that mostly operate their own churches, they're also susceptible to the religion-based scams detailed above.<ref name="fleecing"></ref>

[[Bernie Madoff]] also used affinity fraud to build his [[pyramid scheme]], ingraining himself in the [[Jewish]] communities of [[New York]] and South [[Florida]] and making himself a trusted figure among many well-heeled, "country club" Jews.<ref>Alpert, Lukas I. [http://nypost.com/2008/12/13/investor-furor-over-50b-scam/ "Investor furor over '$50B' scam."] ''[[New York Post]]'', 13 December 2008 (recovered 28 January 2016).</ref> By the time his scam was exposed, these people had trusted him with tens of billions of dollars.

===Gender===
[[File:US v. Raniere GovtExhibit GX46.JPG|thumb|right|165px|Keith Raniere mugshot, 2019]]
In a truly cynical example of people appropriating [[feminism]] in order to sell stuff, MLM schemes often employ messages of female empowerment in order to recruit women into their glorified pyramid schemes. Typically, this takes the form of promising women that this ''[[Bullshit|"revolutionary business opportunity!"]]'' will allow them to become financially independent business owners, often through a message varnished with contemporary "girl power" mottos, when in truth they get locked into a cycle of debt. Stay-at-home mothers and military wives are especially popular targets for this due to the fact that they often lack steady employment, instead receiving an allowance from their husbands.<ref>Kehayas, Caileen. [https://www.careercontessa.com/advice/multilevel-marketing/ "What is Multi-Level Marketing + Why Women Are Targets."] ''Career Contessa'', 1 April 2019 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref>

On an even more distressing level, the [[NXIVM]] cult used similar messaging to recruit women. Allison Mack, the former ''Smallville'' actress who ran NXIVM's notorious "sorority" (i.e. cult leader Keith Raniere's harem of sex slaves), overtly targeted a number of feminist writers and celebrities, including actress Emma Watson and musician Kelly Clarkson, for recruitment, telling them that the organization was about "empowering women from the inside out". Fortunately, none of them took the bait.<ref>Weaver, Hilary. [https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/04/a-running-list-of-the-women-allison-mack-attempted-to-recruit-to-nxivm "A Running List of the Women Allison Mack Attempted to Recruit to NXIVM."] ''Vanity Fair'', 27 April 2018 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref> Mack also invoked the imagery of Wonder Woman to one aspiring actress she recruited.<ref>Anderson, Jenna. [https://comicbook.com/dc/2019/06/09/allison-mack-nxivm-sex-cult-smallville-wonder-woman/ "Smallville Star Allison Mack Allegedly Told Sex Slave She Could Become Wonder Woman."] ''Comicbook.com'', 9 June 2019 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref>

The [[manosphere]] is also a breeding ground for similar hucksters.<ref>Broomfield, Matt. [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nneygm/roosh-mens-rights-activists-white-men-false-oppression "How Men's Rights Activists Make Money Off White Dudes Who Want to Feel Oppressed."] ''Vice'', 3 February 2016 (recovered 31 December 2019).</ref> [[Pick-up artist]]ry is a vast field catering to the fantasies and anxieties of a particular type of man who puts his masculinity front and center as a core component of his identity, its preachers exploiting that fact in order to hawk their goods to those who feel that they won't be "real men" if they don't get laid.<ref>Amanda the Jedi: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXCemno6970 "Pickup Artists are a PLAGUE."] (YouTube video.)</ref> The consequences can be disastrous, as men who get involved in pick-up artistry in search of self-confidence often wind up even worse off than before once the techniques they learn fail to produce results, fueling resentment as they conclude that everybody they ever trusted has failed them, all while the "gurus" pocket their money — and then cynically exploit the tragedies left in their wake in order to sucker in more men. In 2009, after [[Incel#George Sodini|George Sodini]] shot up a gym outside Pittsburgh, killing three women and then himself, out of a mixture of [[misogyny]] and sexual frustration, one pick-up artist used it to tell men that he can teach them "[[Manosphere glossary#Game|game]]" and help them avoid the fate of [[Incel|"involuntary celibacy"]] that drove Sodini over the edge, despite Sodini's writings indicating that disillusionment with the false promises of pick-up artistry played a major role in his descent into becoming a [[Mass shooting|mass shooter]] in the first place.<ref>Clark-Flory, Tracy. [https://www.salon.com/2009/08/06/hatred_2/ "Pickup artists: Gym shooter is one of us."] ''Salon'', 7 August 2009 (recovered 31 December 2019).</ref> Anybody trying to sell a guide on how to become an [[Manosphere glossary#Alpha|"alpha male"]] can also be assumed to be a huckster preying on male insecurity, owing to the dubious science and [[Pseudopsychology#Psychobabble and you: Pop psychology|pop psychology]] behind the very concept of "[[Manosphere glossary#Alpha|alphas]]" and the resulting grift that accompanies any [[pseudoscience]].<ref>Hill, Mark. [https://www.cracked.com/article_29604_4-things-to-remind-you-that-alpha-males-are-bs.html "Stereotype Shredder: 4 Thing to Remind You that Alpha Males are BS."] ''Cracked.com'', 14 February 2021.</ref>

===Fiscal===
In intellectual and media circles, affinity fraud is often perpetrated by opinion makers, scholars, and ideologues in order to enforce the conformity of political and economic views. Here, the common characteristics like wealth and status are not explicitly mentioned, but are understood as related. An overwhelming chunk of the Washington D.C. [[pundit]]ry and financial elite subscribe to hard money views on monetary policy and to reducing social spending. The effects these views have, when enacted, are measured and will convince the average person to abandon these views as they have a generally detrimental effect on societies. But among financial elites, these effects are not regarded as proof because a greater emphasis is put on what is important to the elite first.<ref>http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/fiscal-affinity-fraud/</ref>

===Right-wing mail order fraud===
[[File:Richard Viguerie photo3.JPG|thumb|right|165px|Richard Viguerie: Would you buy a used mailing list from this man? Yes!]]
This type of affinity fraud was pioneered by {{wpl|Richard Viguerie}} in the [[United States]] following the defeat of [[Barry Goldwater]]'s run for president in 1964. The way right-wing affinity fraud works is:

#Older and more reactionary conservatives will pay ANY amount of money to take a stance in a [[culture war]].
#They will cough up ''repeatedly''.
#The more futile the better. Failure means more money next time you ask.
#The mailing lists of suckers themselves are valuable merchandise in right-wing circles because of #2.

The same conservative mailing list will be useful suckers for scam [[Political action group|PACs]], [[survivalism]], [[apocalyptic literature]], [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]], [[alternative medicine]]…

The left-wing version doesn't happen nearly as often, because left-wingers typically have less money and a higher prevalence of the [[Nirvana fallacy]], causing them to argue amongst themselves too much. For once, the stereotype of leftists being too beset by internecine squabbling to do anything works to their benefit.

Scam PACs were a common manifestation<ref>http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/01/why-are-scam-pacs-so-much-more-common-right-left</ref> when that [[Barack Obama|Muslim Kenyan]] was in power, but the phenomenon dates back decades.<ref>http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con</ref>

===Fandoms and geek culture===
In the modern age, where [[fandom]]s can inspire as much devotion as religious groups, political parties, or cultural identity, there have naturally been hucksters who ingrain themselves into fan communities in order to exploit the love that people may have for a fictional world, especially teenagers with little experience dealing with people trying to take their money. For instance, Andrew Blake, known by various pseudonyms over the years, gained notoriety among fans of ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''[[Harry Potter]]'', ''Supernatural'', and numerous other properties for things like staging fraudulent fan conventions, faking [[suicide]] and terminal illness, and [[Spiritualism|claiming to be in contact with spirits]] from alternate realities, including characters from various franchises.<ref>Fanlore Wiki: [https://fanlore.org/wiki/Thanfiction Thanfiction]</ref> At least three cult-like movements have used [[Harry Potter]] fandom as part of their patter: [[LessWrong]], the Snapewives,<ref>Fanlore Wiki: [https://fanlore.org/wiki/Snapewives Snapewives]</ref> and Blake's Thanfiction. One Tyler Deaton blended Harry Potter and the International House of Prayer evangelical church.<ref>Jeff Tietz, [https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/love-and-death-in-the-house-of-prayer-53866/ "Love and Death In the House of Prayer,"] ''Rolling Stone'', January 21, 2014</ref> The notorious DashCon, a 2014 convention in Illinois for the mostly [[geek]] users of [[Tumblr]] and the fandoms that had coalesced on the site, also faced accusations that its organizers intended to take the money and run, thanks to the slipshod nature of the entire affair and the accusations from various media guests claiming that they got shafted.<ref>Fanlore Wiki: [https://fanlore.org/wiki/DashCon DashCon]</ref>

===Anti-vaccination movement===
It has been noted that the [[propaganda]] of the [[anti-vaccination movement]] often has the greatest immediate impact when it spreads within a tight-knit ethnic or religious group.<ref>[https://khn.org/morning-breakout/tight-knit-communities-pose-unique-challenge-to-public-health-officials-during-outbreaks/ "Tightknit Communities Pose Unique Challenge To Public Health Officials During Outbreaks."] ''Kaiser Health News'', 15 April 2019 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref> Most major outbreaks of [[measles]] in the 2010s in the United States have been concentrated among such groups, including among [[Amish]] in [[Ohio]], Somali-Americans in [[Minnesota]],<ref>Richart, Catherine. [https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/08/24/measles-vaccinated-somali-american-children-up-more-outbreak "A year after severe outbreak, more Somali-American kids are vaccinated against measles."] ''MPRNews'', 24 August 2018 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref> Russian- and Ukrainian-Americans in [[Washington state]],<ref>Belluz, Julia. [https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18263688/measles-outbreak-2019-clark-county "Why the Washington measles outbreak is mostly affecting one specific group."] ''Vox'', 20 March 2019 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref> and Orthodox Jews in New York.<ref>Belluz, Julia. [https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/11/9/18068036/measles-new-york-orthodox-jewish-community-vaccines "New York’s Orthodox Jewish community is battling measles outbreaks. Vaccine deniers are to blame."] ''Vox'', 10 April 2019 (recovered 19 June 2019).</ref> In each case, the problem came back to prominent, trusted figures within that in-group being sold on anti-vaccine propaganda and then supplying it to their friends and family, meaning that, when a member of the community traveled abroad to a country where measles was more prevalent, contracted it, and brought it home, it spread rapidly within a small group of people in close contact with each other whose low vaccination rates left them badly exposed to infection.

===Celebrities===
[[File:Jenny McCarthy at E3 2006.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Jenny McCarthy in 2006]]
{{main|Appeal to celebrity}}
Given the cultural sway held by actors, musicians, athletes, and other celebrities in the modern Western world, they have long been targets for hucksters of all stripes — not just people trying to get ''their'' money, but also those trying to get an in-road to their fans' wallets as well. [[L. Ron Hubbard]] laid down the blueprint for this in the 20<sup>th</sup> century, recognizing that attaching the [[Church of Scientology]] to [[Hollywood]] and targeting actors and musicians for recruitment would not only give him and his movement access to the bank accounts of wealthy Hollywood A-listers — a massive boon for a religious group notorious for fleecing its followers — it would also give Scientology a presence in American culture far in excess of their meager numbers.<ref>Chen, Nick. [https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/32713/1/how-scientology-is-losing-control-in-hollywood "How Scientology is losing control of Hollywood." ''Dazed'', 8 September 2016 (recovered 27 October 2019).</ref> Other hucksters, ranging from [[New Age]] gurus<ref>Merle Ginsberg and Carson Griffith. [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-healers-became-new-gurus-844805 "How Healers Became the New Gurus of Hollywood."] ''The Hollywood Reporter'', 3 December 2015 (recovered 27 October 2019).</ref> to the pastors of the "Hollywood [[megachurch]]" Zoe,<ref>Stieg, Cory. [https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/zoe-church-chris-pratt-religion-lgbt-beliefs "Zoe Church: Hollywood's Latest Religious Obsession."] ''Refinery29'', 26 February 2019 (recovered 27 October 2019).</ref> have followed in Hubbard's footsteps.

Occasionally, the celebrities themselves get in on it too. The [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]-winning actress [[Gwyneth Paltrow]] became an infamous [[Alternative medicine|alt-med]]/[[wellness]] huckster in the 2010s through her website Goop, [[Jenny McCarthy]] used her name recognition as an actress and model to become a leading proponent of anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, and [[Oprah Winfrey]] used her platform as America's most popular talk show host to push everything from ''[[The Secret]]'' to [[Mehmet Oz]] onto a fanbase that hinged upon her every word.<ref group=note>Although some of these cases may very well be the celebrities earnestly believing in what they're promoting and [[Hanlon's razor|having no clue that they're screwing their customers over]].</ref>

On a more benign level, this is why celebrity endorsements are a thing. If you hire a famous figure as a spokesperson for your product, then that person's fanbase is going to perk up its ears and give your product a second look that they might not have otherwise.

===Effective Altruism===
Several people in the longtermist end of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement have said that they see the empirical, shorttermist end of the movement as a place to recruit people to work on their strange, speculative causes.<ref>Mollie Gleiberman, "Effective Altruism and the strategic ambiguity of ‘doing good’," IOB Discussion Paper 2023.01 (April 2023) https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:iob:dpaper:2023.01</ref> Whereas its straightforward to measure whether people in the tropics receive bednets to protect against malaria, its hard to say whether paying people to worry about unfriendly AI does any good except to the people who get paid.

==References==
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==Notes==
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[[Category:Deceit]]

Categories: Deceit