Or maybe they could get a job and then a place to live.
Get a job? The church where my wife works was approached by a couple claiming they needed money to buy car parts to fix their car so they could take a job in another county. The preacher commenced to get the exact items "supposedly" needed to fix the car from a relative of the couple who was their "mechanic". After getting the list, the preacher went to the auto parts store, bought the parts after the "mechanic" told the parts house owner what he needed, but left the parts there for the couple to pick up. The next day, the couple went to the parts store to claim and pick up the parts, but then stated they didn't need them and wanted the cash for the parts. The parts store owner called the "mechanic", then called the preacher and the police. The couple fled without getting anything, but it took two days and a lot of effort invested to devise a con such as their's that eventually failed. All that time they invested to steal something they could have spent picking peanuts at $6.25/hr for three hours each day for the two of them and made as much as the $75 they'd have gotten from those parts.