http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/12/top_ten_scams.html

It boggles my mind that anyone would actually fall for something like this. I suppose if you're that stupid and don't hire someone smart to secure your money, you deserve to lose it.8. Grandparents Scam

This is a particularly vile scam aimed at senior citizens, perhaps the most vulnerable scam victims. An elderly person is targeted by the scammer who calls and says something like, "It's me, grandpa." The elderly person will respond, thinking it's one of their grandchildren.

The scammer then tells a tale of woe, saying they are in trouble and need some money, "and please don't tell mom." The grandparent obligingly sends a few hundred dollars, thinking they're helping a grandchild.

Haven't been around elderly people much? They don't always retain their keen sense of intelligence until they die. My Dad was starting to get to the point where he was getting to be ripe for the plucking for scam artists before he passed away.

They don't always retain their keen sense of intelligence until they die.Ok. But when you find yourself getting to that point, you should have the good sense to have someone else safeguard your money.

That begets the question, who do you trust.

Some money grubbing kid, or grandkid. Or some money grubbin lawyer or accountant?

I've had personal experience with the 'elderly' scam.

A scam artist phoned my elderly uncle in Berlin, Germany claiming to be me. I was apparently in Germany and desperately needed 25,000 Euros (I don't remember the exact amount) to finish off some business deal.

y uncle was suspicious right from the beginning. He strung the guy along saying that he had to go to the bank to get the money. He actually didn't totally rule out that it was me. He phoned my dad in Canada, who then phoned me.

In the end, two police agents sat in my uncle's apartment in an attempt to capture the scamster. The scam artist phoned my uncle back, but someone was obviously watching the apartment. He made some very rude about the cops and hung up.

Actually, something similar happened to my parents too. Someone called out of the blue claiming to be a nephew or something. I think they even came over to their house. They were nice, charming, which to my parents of course means totally trust worthy! Then they started to put the move on for money. Fortunately even though my Dad's capacity was wavering he was suspicious enough to put them off until after he talked to his daughters.

He got scared and he knew he was getting ripe to be scammed so he put our names on the checking account, but he always kept his on too. We didn't want to take that away from him, and my Mom was still doing pretty well. So we figured we were ok.

But a lot of elderly people don't have others looking out for them. Or they don't trust their kids.

One thing was when my Dad got pretty far along one of those scooter people tried to sell him a scooter. It was absolutely not something he should not have but he had this child-like excitement about it. On the day the salesman was supposed to come, we intercepted him and sent him packing. Fortunately his memory was so bad he remembered nothing about it. So it was like it never happened.

I just hope I can keep my wits until the end because I don't have kids to take care of me.

It's not just the elderly, either. A lot of people get easily taken in because they don't know how things work, or have a sheep mentality or blind faith in what they're told.

I had a message on my cell phone one day...so and so from Traveler's insurance with questions regarding claim number blah blah blah.

I don't have Traveler's insurance. I haven't been involved in anything that would involve a claim. I work with someone first the same first name...maybe Traveler's called work, and a coworker gave out the wrong cell number? With a shrug, I deleted the message (it was days old anyway).

Telling a friend about it later she mentioned this was a pretty common scam. I have no idea how but they somehow wrangle your credit card number out of you when you call them back.

As long as the tricks work, scum will keep using them. And apparently blow cell minutes to do so, now, too.