Yes most are really scams, often also adults that claim for their poor small children with the same sign for decades (maybe that are eternal young children, that also are stable across different parents, because they also share that across different people sometimes) or whole families, that suddenly surround you. I mean these are also poor people, but the money you donate to them, won't go to them.

Once you meet a real poor, it's obvious. You meet them outside of reasonable business hours, they are obviously a native, ashamed to ask for help and actually like to have a conversation.

Sadly, this. There are even networks. I know a person who begs on a specific interval of a subway line, has been for at least a decade, and has been pretty violent towards actual beggars who did not know the rules.

Some are genuine. People who went into debt, with health issue that prevented them from ever repaying it, fleeing from families so as not to burden them...

Smugglers who were found out, left with an unpayable amount of debt while the politicians that used to protect them went without punishment.

Some of those are also human trafficking victims (at least in Europe). There are gangs that illegally bring them over the border, force them to beg on the streets, and take the money they get.

The actual homeless people here have access to government support and shelters, those beggars don't as they're not here legally.

The trick is donate at the park where they camp out, not on the street.

> there are some people who will dress up homeless but are actually just begging for profit.

This always reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes short story - The man with the twisted lip

> They're easy to recognize, because they're very forceful in their begging, relying more on intimidation than compassion.

This is very common in India. These so called beggars harass and target people at their weakest and happiest moments like at funerals or birth of a child, wedding or housewarming parties. I've heard of these people earning enough to own houses in multiple cities.