Consumers conned out of millions with affinity fraud  The
concept behind an affinity fraud scheme is simple: Gain the
trust of a group of people with something in common and scam
them out of lots of money. The "groups" are often based on
ethnicity, immigrant status, religious affiliation, college
alumni association, or something along the same lines. These
groups of people are often very trusting of one another, and if
a scammer can get an "in" with the group, it is often easy to
convince them to part with their money.  This week, executives
of WexTrust Capital LLC in Chicago were arrested and charged by
the feds with conspiracy to commit securities fraud. They're
accused of running a Ponzi scheme since at least 2005, which
cost consumers about $255 million.  Most of the 1,200 people
defrauded by this scheme were Orthodox Jews, fitting nicely into
the framework of an affinity fraud. A Ponzi scheme (also called
pyramid scheme) like the one this company is being accused of
running collects money from participan