“You and I share the same background and interests, so you can trust me. I’m like you. And I can help you make money.”

These are the words of a scammer who is planting the seed for a type of financial investment scam called affinity fraud.

Affinity fraud occurs when a person who’s promoting fraudulent investments seeks out people in identifiable groups—such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly or other age groups, or professional groups. The scammer is, or pretends to be, a member of that group, in order to create trust, and often convinces respected leaders from within that group—who may eventually become victims as well—that the investment is worthwhile and gets them to spread the word.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says that many affinity scams involve Ponzi or pyramid schemes, where new investor money is used to make payments to earlier investors, giving the illusion that the investment is successful. This ploy is used to trick new investors to sign up and to lull existing investors into believing their money is safe and secure. In reality, the scammer is almost always taking the money for personal use. The schemes depend on an unending supply of new investors, so when the supply dries up, the whole scheme collapses, and existing investors discover that most or all of their money is gone.

Bernard Madoff did it, targeting fellow Jews for investments in his devastating $50 billion Ponzi scheme. But while the numbers weren’t as large, others before him have done the same.