You sound like a nice person, which makes you vulnerable to these kinds of stories, because people can play on your good-heartedness. The only time I was stiffed for thousands of dollars in business was by a married couple of Christians who were leading a youth delegation to the White House and needed printed literature prepared by my business to take with them.
You may be 100% right about the individuals you mentioned. But it's clearly a risk to let your guard down outside your immediate circle.
DailyMail often runs stories of middle-class British expats who buy dream cottages near the beach in the British West Indies or Virgin Islands, only to be hacked to death with a machete by the pool boy or gardener who also works the sugar cane. Especially if there is as much poverty and deprivation as you say, there is also going to be great envy, where even a middle-class jobsworth's retirement income is far in excess of what the islanders could ever aspire to.
Letting my guard down how? This man didn’t get anything from us except payment for our tour. He works at the resort, for the resort.
Our first trip to Jamaica we went with a group and we visited the many orphanages and there are so many Christian churches in the parishes that we passed in 1.5 hour drive. I suppose you don’t believe there are Christians and Christian churches in Africa either. The resort we stayed at this time had a Catholic church next door and they posted the information on the bulletin board at resort.
Our driver (who worked at resort) stayed with us wherever we went and was very protective of us. From lunch to shopping to the tour of Fort Charlotte and back to resort. He also talked about the politics of Jamaica, the corruptness of government, etc.
There is a difference in being a sucker vs getting to know the history, culture of a foreign country you are visiting.