Why Are Older People More Prone To Scams?

[snooper2]

"CHICAGO, Dec. 3 (Reuters) By Julie Steenhuysen - It's a frequent scenario. Two young con artists walk a retired high school teacher to the bank and fleece him out of $17,000. But why did the man, in his 70s, fall for it?

It may be that older people are less able to identify shady characters than younger ones, according to a study by Shelley Taylor of the University of California, Los Angeles, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

snip--

"In the younger study subjects, the brain scans showed significant activity in a portion of the brain called the anterior insula when they looked at pictures of untrustworthy types. But in the older volunteers, there was very little brain activity in this region.

One of the functions of this area of the brain is that it helps interpret sensations in the body that form "gut feelings," according to lead author Elizabeth Castle"

whole article here---
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/senior-scams_n_2244894.html

[Rambis]

1. Father has given away thousands

to scam churches and the worst scam vet groups. He is a WWII vet and vet groups are right up his street. He was giving to the freedom fund, the group who wants black hawk helicopters to fight the UN. They would send him really poorly done certificates that said patriot of the month. Sadly he was patriot of the year.

[snooper2]

2. that's sad to watch, my MIL has her 80 something year old dad living with her now..

he has started watching fundie religous shows, worried about doors being locked so the "muslims" don't get them at night-

This is a guy that was a university professor for most of his life with multiple PhDs

[Rambis]

3. Feel for you

My dad was convinced all his life that everyone was cheating him now he can't see it when people actually are. Memory diseases are the shits.

[RebelOne]

4. I am 73 years old and definitely

am aware of scams. Even those Nigerian emails that tell me that I am a winner of a lottery or someone left a whole lot of money. I received a phone call a few months back and the caller said that I had won $35,000 in a lottery. The caller had a very heavy accent which sounded like African. I asked him if he was calling from Nigeria and then I hung up.

I may be blonde and getting old, but I was not born yesterday.