I know some elderly folks who I thought were in pretty good shape mentally and such got pulled into one of those scams. It was the grandchild calling for money from jail type thing.
I never would have thought they would have fallen for a scam like that, they did.
You can never talk too early to older folks about this stuff. Lay down some hard and fast rules such as "Never give out info / anything to someone who calls you first, call them at a number you look up on your bank statement, or call someone directly. Call me / alternate person if someone asks your for information or money, etc."
Scammers have excuses of course but some of those rules will work.
I probed a little bit since I was curious how he perceived it and he effectively said the idea of getting a deal took the best of him.
There's been a few times where I've found out after the fact that the deal really was real, but I'd rather miss out on a good deal than get scammed.
I personally ignore almost any phone call from unknown numbers these days because so many are scammy or robocalls. I figure that if anyone really needs me, they'll leave a message.
I think that's a stereotype, rather than a rule. I've seen articles in the newspaper occasionally where the victim is a person in their 30's or 40's.
I suspect that we don't hear a lot about that because there isn't a lobbying or information group like the AARP for 30-somethings. Also, losing $250 to a scammer is less tragic for a younger victim with a full-time job than it is for a 70-year-old on SNAP, so they don't talk about it as much.
When I worked in a large office with very ordinary, I saw people of all ages falling for scams. They just didn't know they were scams until it was all over, and then they just stopped talking about it.