My "favorite" version of the scam is the one where they claim to be a teacher or professor, with a disabled child, which sounds awful, except they over do their story by claiming they have no electricity, no internet, no phone service, and yet somehow have manifested themselves on the Fedi, on the internet, so they can ask for money.
Now, logically, how do you get online without electricity, without internet, and without any internet device, such as a phone (or computer)? Obviously, you don't.