Dozens of families in Delaware were bilked out of money after signing their children up to an afternoon Chess club that never happened. It was a scam set up by a con-artist who took the money and ran.

The story goes into details of how background checks should have been done and so on, but it also mentions that this same guy ran legitimate Chess programs in previous years at other schools. To me, that makes it sound like this year’s scam was more of a sudden decision than a long term scheme.

(source)