I live in an area where there is a cult called "Damanhur". Exactly this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Damanhur
When I was a teen I used to go to their villages, because they live in a cool pathway you can ride across with a motorcycle. Living there, people told me about their leader, a man that before starting this weird cult was an insurance policy seller. He was known locally for his smartness, because he was a good liar. In these small cities, everyone knows everything about each other and local celebrities are known personally by a lot of people so I received a lot of info about his life before becoming a cult leader.
In the same area, there are other cults and a huge community focused on black magic. The cultists are always benefiting from isolation, the most common scam is the proximity scam, also common in the mormon community.
I think that it's not so difficult to start a new scam. America must have a lot of places to exploit, because the rural areas are bigger.
The manosphere itself is a great place to start developing scamming skills. You have countless examples of successful scammers.
