We just had a hard luck story, someone who lost his wallet while hiking up here and needed to get back to his home at a distance. He was looking for us to pay for his bus ticket. Why he ended up west by 200+ miles instead of going south a much shorter distance seemed puzzling.
In answer to my questions I learned that there were four Adventist churches in his city, and what the name of his pastor is.
The next morning I called the pastor of a church in that city that I could identify, and he told me he'd never heard of a pastor by the name I was given, and that there weren't four churches in that city after all.
In my original conversation with the guy asking for help, I asked him if I could call his pastor for a reference, and he asked me if I could call his wife instead.
It's a story about a somewhat different subject, but it still comes down to someone wanting a handout and trying to avoid full disclosure. If we're legitimate, we should have nothing to hide.