Learn French: Les gens se font escroquer à cause de la fraude. - People get scammed because of the fraud.

This uses the reflexive causative structure se faire followed by an infinitive. It is used when an action happens to the subject, often passively or against their will. While English uses "get" plus a past participle ("get scammed"), French uses the verb faire plus the infinitive.

Why is escroquer in the infinitive form here instead of a past participle?

In French, the causative structure requires faire to be followed by an infinitive. Even though we translate it as the passive "scammed" in English, French grammar dictates that after the conjugated verb font, the action verb escroquer must remain in its unconjugated dictionary form.

Why does this sentence use à cause de for "because of" instead of parce que?

À cause de is a preposition used directly before a noun (here, la fraude). You would use parce que if you were introducing a full phrase with a subject and a verb (for example, parce qu'il y a de la fraude). Also, à cause de carries a negative tone, pointing the blame at the fraud.

Can I use the se faire + infinitive structure for positive things, or only negative ones?