[8] A well-known example is the Shroud of Turin, a late Medieval fabrication that supposedly was the clothing in which Jesus would have been buried in the 1st century.
The Roman Church sold indulgences to reduce the punishment an individual would face for their sins, leaders of a Florida church were convicted of investment fraud, and more recently the largest collapse of a religious financial institution in U.S. history called the Baptist Foundation of Arizona.
Law enforcement calls this affinity fraud, which means targeting victims through a common bond, religion or ethnic communities.
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, affinity frauds target members of identifiable groups, such as the elderly, religious, or ethnic communities.
For example, "On September 1st, 1999 State securities regulators issued a warning about con artists that were targeting religious communities.