Unless of course the parents have not built good relationship with their children, in which case the kids might not care a hoot what the parents think.
Exactly, which is why it's very possible that the scammer behavior was learned from by the kid from their parents.
I actively engage people around me. I've tried the whole talking to parents way, and if you don't know them it's not uncommon for the response to be to mind your own business or worse, "Fuck you, I know how to raise my kids."
Beyond that, I've found that a number of parents with "good relationships" over estimate that the relationship is based on authority, not respect. This becomes obvious when the parent no longer has any authority over their children.
Allowing the parent to fail might be super negative for the scammer too. For example, parents withdrawal of financial support for his education, kicking them out, reporting them to the police, or worse, the kid commits suicide; if you read the kids responses, it's very clear they're not stable.
Fine with you disagreeing with my experiences of helping people, but please be careful in how you apply your approach in the real world.
Kids do stupid stuff, always. Doesn't mean they want their parent to figure out.
Sure, "call the police" works if there's not another answer or you live a sheltered life, but to me, this is the very reason that communities are failing.
People can become even more concerned to win their parents approval as they grow through adulthood.
When I think of the things I've done as an adult that I'm least proud of then I wouldn't want to tell my parents about them.
As a child with no experience you've got an excuse for your mistakes. As an adult choosing to scam people the only places you've got to hide seem to be anonymity and sociopathy.