Trust Calibration Mismatch and Systematic Fraud Exploitation in Religious-Collectivist Communities: A Theoretical Framework with Indonesia Case Studies

Indonesia and many other nations present a paradox: high levels of religiosity coexist with systematic patterns of fraud and financial exploitation targeting religious communities. This paper develops a theoretical framework to explain mechanisms of trust exploitation in religious-collectivist communities, with empirical focus on documented fraud cases in Indonesia and the Southeast Asian region. Drawing on synthesis of literature regarding particularized versus generalized trust in social psychology, affinity fraud documentation in fraud prevention research, victimization theory, and empirical case studies, this paper identifies three interacting mechanisms. First, trust calibration mismatch reveals how lived experience in high-trust environments develops trust heuristics optimal for in-group contexts but vulnerable when out-group actors adopt in-group signals. Second, religious rationalization encompasses assumptions about religious deterrence and delegation of justice to God, reducing urgency for verification or formal reporting. Third, temporal familiarity exploitation demonstrates how perpetrators systematically build long-term relationships before large financial extraction. These three mechanisms generate an opportunity structure aligned with Fraud Triangle theory, where detection probability and punishment probability remain low while payoffs are substantial. This paper maintains a critical distinction between religious teachings (which explicitly prohibit deception) and religious identity as social signal (which can be exploited). The vulnerability analyzed is contextual rather than inherent to religiosity itself, emerging from specific configuration of high collectivism, religiosity as dominant identity marker, weak formal institutions, and strong social harmony norms. The framework is exploratory, grounded in existing literature and documented cases, and invites future empirical validation while offering implications for financial literacy education, fraud prevention policy, and institutional strengthening in religious communities.