My uncle almost drove two states away to give a stranger $10,000 because he was duped into believing his grandson had gotten into an accident and killed a pregnant woman. The only thing that stopped it was that he first needed to borrow the money, which led to my involvement. We made some calls and were quickly able to confirm that the grandson in question was at home and nowhere near the "accident" in question.

My parents have had to cancel their main debit card twice in the past year because they've given out the number to someone they thought was with their bank.

My neighbor (in her 80s) almost gave her SSN to somebody who claimed to be with Social Security.

I knew a guy who lost his entire retirement to scammers and had to give up his dream of retiring to Florida.

I'm sad to say it, but it's more dangerous than ever to be old or naive. In the old days, the scammers had to come to you. The internet has made it trivial to carry out scam operations from the other side of the world, and everyone who COULD do something (especially the FCC and telcos) seems to be indifferent and apathetic.