They have a lot of scams that they run. The main money maker for the men right now is selling shoddy made in China Tools they pass off as high end to unsuspecting business owners. They show up at a garage with a pick up load of tools and give the owner a spiel about how they were supposed to deliver them to a well known business in the area but the order was canceled, or too many got sent, so their boss wants them to sell them at "cost" so they don't have to pay to ship them again. Garage owners is shown catalogs describing how good the tools are, and how expensive they usually are, and jumps on the opportunity to get a sweet deal. The next day he realizes that he was snookered, but the travelers are long gone and the number on the receipt is disconnected.

They of course still do the asphalt and roofing scams as well.

The women do lots of shoplifting, and when I say lots I mean thousands of dollars a day. They steal stuff, then return it for a refund, they will switch tags and bar codes, then return the merchandise for full price. They also make a fair bit of money from small time slight of hand stuff. They will order food at a place in the mall, show a fifty, then as they hand it over swap it for a ten, and then if the cashier hasn't been sharp and kept the bill in sight and separate they will demand change for a fifty. They pass a counterfeit bills as well.

The houses? Some are as nice as they look, most aren't. I have actually worked in Murphy Village, it is across the river from Augusta in Clearwater, SC, which is just off I-20. Many of the houses in the camp look very nice and luxurious from the highway, but when you go in you realize that it is an older double wide with a brick facade built all the way around it, I am not shitting. They have other strange customs with the houses, some of the largest most opulent houses have never been lived in, they build them and let them stand empty for a while to make sure there are no spirits, and sometimes they don't believe that the spirits have left, and they won't move in until they are sure it is spirit free, which can take years.

They travel in warm weather, and come back here during the winter. They go as far as the west coast when they are on the road. They don't send their children to public schools, they rarely socialize in any way with us country folk (that is what they call non travelers). They claim to be Catholic, but they have their own churches, which are not affiliated in any way with any recognized Catholic denomination. They do still have arranged marriages, and often the young girls are promised for marriage by the age of ten. They have regular events where the little girls dress up just like the older ones (the ones you see on these shows) and have them walk around the neighborhood so that the eligible men can see them dressed up, this starts when they are seven or eight.

The women do seem to be highly attracted to men with blonde hair and blue eyes, and will sleep with country folk men, but will not have a relationship with anyone outside of their community. They do not socialize with outsiders, they do not accept outsiders into the clan even after years of dealing with them, on the rare occasion that one leaves the community they are not allowed to return, ever.

I know a little about them, I even worked with one of them once (it is a convoluted story, but when dealing with travelers that is the only type of story). They are secretive, they hold multiple identities, the name on their birth certificate is an alias, and will be one of a handful of names, I can't tell you how many Pete Sherlocks there are in Murphy Village, but there are a lot. They have their own language that they speak, it is rare for us to hear it, and when we do it sounds almost like they are mumbling. I have never met a non traveler who spoke their language.

They are capable of doing honest work, and dealing honestly. My uncle ran a sign shop here in Augusta for years (his sons still run it), and he was one of the few businesses that was willing to deal with them, but he only bartered with them, he would trade work, they do something for him and he would paint signs or do signage on their vehicles for them, in return they would paint his house, shop or something like that.  

They do live well, don't doubt that for a second, it looks like a carshow in the camp on a warm winter afternoon. Of course what you see on TV isn't much, they are extremely secretive, and whatever they do on TV is a put on, done strictly for to give the camera crew exactly what they want.

Some insight into Traveller scams:

http://www.weitzlux.com/interest/news/scamartist_1171.html