Some friends of mine through a church group put together a booklet of local resources and gave it to the church to use when people come to them for help. Then we put together a summary one page of resources and made copies for all in the group. We tied them around granola bars and gave them out instead of money. If those we gave them to were scammer we were out little, and if they really needed help they may have gotten help from the list.

It's tough to know what to do in these circumstances sometimes.