They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile.
[1] Some of the cases include the following: On December 11, 2008, Bernard Madoff, an American businessman, was arrested on charges of securities fraud, having been turned in by his sons after allegedly telling them his business was a "giant ponzi scheme".
According to the New York Post, Madoff "worked the so-called 'Jewish circuit' of well-heeled Jews he met at country clubs on Long Island and in Palm Beach.
This allowed him to defraud institutions such as Yeshiva University, Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue, the Maimonides School, Ramaz and the SAR Academy.
A 2012 article in The Economist reports that Utah is believed to have the highest per-capita rate of affinity fraud in the U.S. due to about two-thirds of the state's residents being members of the LDS Church among whom such crimes tend to flourish.