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So I was watching the local news this morning and there were reports of yet another phone scam where people had willingly provided PII and then lost their butts. I can't believe how people believe ANYTHING they encounter.
Why are people so gullible after being warned time and again to avoid some situations?
Many of them are elderly and have difficulty discerning. I have had MANY discussions with my mother, trying to get her to be a bit more savvy about scams. But she still doesn't get it right. She still believes that she got something in the mail last week that says she has won $3,000,000.
Then other things that are perfectly normal, she freaks out about. She recently purchased a car, so she's started receiving those mailings from the third party car warranty companies trying to sell their silly warranty programs. Not really a "scam" per se, but completely unnecessary for her needs. Well she called me a couple days ago saying "I've been hacked! I've been hacked!" It took me a while to figure out that she thought this mailing somehow meant that she's been hacked. I have no idea how she came to that conclusion. I tried to explain that the mailing was normal, everyone gets them, and that she can just ignore it. She didn't believe me, and called the guy at the dealership who sold her the car. He told her the exact same thing. She STILL thinks she's been "hacked."
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Many of them are elderly and have difficulty discerning. I have had MANY discussions with my mother, trying to get her to be a bit more savvy about scams. But she still doesn't get it right. She still believes that she got something in the mail last week that says she has won $3,000,000.
Then other things that are perfectly normal, she freaks out about. She recently purchased a car, so she's started receiving those mailings from the third party car warranty companies trying to sell their silly warranty programs. Not really a "scam" per se, but completely unnecessary for her needs. Well she called me a couple days ago saying "I've been hacked! I've been hacked!" It took me a while to figure out that she thought this mailing somehow meant that she's been hacked. I have no idea how she came to that conclusion. I tried to explain that the mailing was normal, everyone gets them, and that she can just ignore it. She didn't believe me, and called the guy at the dealership who sold her the car. He told her the exact same thing. She STILL thinks she's been "hacked."
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Definitely a decent sector of the scammed are elderly. My great aunt who is in her 80s reminds me of this poster's mother. My mom helped her clean out her basement recently (which should have been done a decade ago) and she made my mom rip ANY paper with even just her name on it into tiny shreds, because she fears identity theft, but she will talk on the phone to anyone that calls, answering questions, and she has probably "made donations" to places she shouldn't have, but thankfully she's never been truly scammed.
Other vulnerable groups might be those for whom English is a second language. They might not fully understand who they are talking to and what they are agreeing to.
Addicts and the mentally impaired are also susceptible. I remember an episode of "Intervention" where a man gave all his life savings away to foreign "investors." He was so involved in their scams, they called him nearly every week.
And then there really are just stupid people who might be in desperate situations thinking they just hit it big **shrug.**
Many of them are elderly and have difficulty discerning. I have had MANY discussions with my mother, trying to get her to be a bit more savvy about scams. But she still doesn't get it right. She still believes that she got something in the mail last week that says she has won $3,000,000.
But why aren't the elderly wiser? They should be the least susceptible targets. After all, they have lived longer and seen more attempted scams than those younger. If you are wise to identity scams now at the age of 30 or 40, are you going to forget all about it and become naive at age 60?
Perhaps these are widows who have depended on someone else their whole life to watch out for them and suddenly they are on their own?
But why aren't the elderly wiser? They should be the least susceptible targets. After all, they have lived longer and seen more attempted scams than those younger. If you are wise to identity scams now at the age of 30 or 40, are you going to forget all about it and become naive at age 60?
Perhaps these are widows who have depended on someone else their whole life to watch out for them and suddenly they are on their own?
Apparently scammers target the elderly because they were raised to be polite, so they don't cut off the conversation and hang up. People also lose cognitive function as they age, so they apparently become less skeptical or suspicious. Some elderly people are lonely and the scammers can be charming and friendly, and the elderly come to view them as friends and therefore trust them. A lot of elderly people are worried about having enough money in the event they need a lot of care as they age and don't want to be a burden to their families, so someone telling them they've won a prize can seem like an answer to all their problems, and they let their guard down. Then the scammers get them to send more and more "fees" so they can get their prize (which never materializes). Many elderly people want to be able to leave something to their families, so again, any scam making them think there is a big prize coming if they just pay the taxes or fees or whatever gets past their guard.
Being elderly doesn't automatically confer wisdom in the sense of understanding human nature and being skeptical of something that sounds too good if the person has never had to deal with anything beyond their own small circle of experience.
I generally agree, but I work in a uiversity where most of the faculty have PhDs and presumably aren't too stupid. But no matter how many times IT sends out information about phishing and scam mail, some professor always responds to one of those things and gives out his password. I don't know, maybe that's just proof that you can be stupid and get a PHD.
I don't know, but what I despise is when people are gullible on Facebook, and re-post those mass hysteria posts, with some stupid story that is obviously not true, but they say, "better safe than sorry!" Uhhh no, better to not post and look like an idiot...
But why aren't the elderly wiser? They should be the least susceptible targets. After all, they have lived longer and seen more attempted scams than those younger. If you are wise to identity scams now at the age of 30 or 40, are you going to forget all about it and become naive at age 60?
Perhaps these are widows who have depended on someone else their whole life to watch out for them and suddenly they are on their own?
Many elderly have Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. That changes them into a completely different person, one who may have no ability to discern a scam. The very lowest of the low criminals will prey on the elderly for that reason.
Why are people so gullible? Because they don't think bad things can happen to them.
Or it didn't happen to them yet. Afterwards it teaches them to be less guillible.
Ask anyone who got hacked why they didn't use a more secure password. the number of times I see people use 12345 as their password ffs. Or ask people who transfer s money to overseas. I'm too ethical to take advantage of guillible people but it is very easy
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