This happened to my elderly neighbor last week. The scammers claimed to be from Apple, ran a fake script, did the whole jig and dance, and demanded immediate payment. She lost $8,000. These scammers are relentless and abusive. They're still harassing her even 1 week later.

I'm shocked that Target just simply allows people to purchase so much in gift cards all at once. I'm even more shocked that banks and transaction processors don't mark this as suspicious or fraudulent.

But this isn't just a function of irresponsible companies. The elderly are overwhelmed by technology, and it's too difficult to know what's real and what isn't. After the scam, my neighbor had a near panic attack when she received an innocuous Google security checkup email. How was she supposed to know it was authentic or not?