They look for people who are both desperate and also naive or gullible or unrealistic or something. I spent nearly six years homeless. I was also extremely ill at the time. I absolutely was desperate.
I also refused to be sucked into certain things. No, I was not going to sleep with someone for money and risk getting AIDS, being arrested, etc and having my problems become drastically worse. No, I was not going to accept an offer of temporary housing that came with a huge and obvious downside that well could have left me in much worse straits than I was already in. No, I was not going to make use of homeless services that expected me to leave all my worldly possessions, including my computer that I could not afford to replace, in an unsecured area where anyone could walk off with it.
I looked for options that had clear and obvious benefit without huge fuck you potential.
I wonder if part of the Yellowstone MO was to use fax? Over email, you have to compete with the Nigerians, Russians etc, somehow fax would seem a little more legit.
Sad story this. I hope the victims can achieve some sort of redress.