That recent thread inspired me to post, but I’ve been pondering this awhile. I don’t think it is only down to dementia or declining mental faculties, and I don’t think it is only related to new technologies either because I’ve seen cases where older people were scammed ye olden fashioned way and likely 30-40 prior they would have never fallen for it.
I just don’t understand why someone with more life experience becomes easier to scam rather than harder, and to make it stranger they often remain very shrewd in social interactions and other parts of life while becoming almost comically trusting.
Older people believe they can detect whether to trust a person or not, but the huge generation gap has produced a demographic that speaks a language (both verbal and body) that older people cannot comprehend. In short, a trickster that a 30-year-old would immediately spot is a breed that did not exist in the experience of the oldster, so he has no intuitive defense.
I’ve passed over the 70 threshold and can recognize in myself a sort of weariness from being on guard against being conned, swindled, taken advantage of and disliked. And being retired for 14 years means I don’t have the exposure to my peer group that would have probably been keeping me on my toes better. But I think of myself as more bored and unimpressed rather than gullible. I tend to hang up the phone on callers who may be out to sell me weird stuff. I bypass the popups that claim this and that.
And I like to think that I still have the same attitude I did 15 years ago when I told a work buddy this hypothetical situation:
Caller: Hello, Mr. Zeldar! I’m Connie Litmus from the Heart Sunday Campaign and you have been selected to receive a $5,000 gift by random draw.
Me: Cool. What to do I have to do for it?
Caller: Simply drive to our headquarters on Briley Parkway and tell the receptionist who you are. She’'l have the check waiting for you.
I’m not sure age has that much to do with it. How do we know they weren’t gullible when they were 40?
Some people are by nature more trusting than others. I was scammed for a large sum of money by a coworker while in my early 30’s and now I generally don’t trust anybody I don’t know personally. I didn’t report the scam to anyone at the time because I was too embarrassed about falling for it.
I think (hope)that I am less gullible now than then… I was raised in Mayberry,where a person’s word was their bond and deals were sealed by handshake. Now,not so much.
X had a lot to do with that.
All my life my dad has been an engineer’s engineer. A man’s man. Smart, analytical, pragmatic to a fault. But in the years since he retired, he and his friends who are also engineers have gone off the rails with all the crap they read on the interwebs and then send to one another. It’s one lunatic conspiracy theory after another.
I’ve also had to clean his computer several times of all the viruses and spyware that invariably infect his machine because of the sketchy links he clicks on. If it’s in an email and it’s hyperlinked, he is incapable of not clicking on it: he just can’t help himself.
I finally had to tell my dad to stop sending me this crap because I’m frankly embarassed for all of them at this point.
Why is the OP dismissing dementia so quickly? I watched people go through it and it unquestionably is a major factor.
What most people don’t understand is that dementia is a slow, progressive disease that can take years to go from mild through medium to severe. Different aspects of cognition are affected at different rates. People who may function well in some areas can have already lost function in other areas. Those with dementia need more trust in those around them because they are becoming increasingly dependent on others. Some reject that trust and so turn into the bitter, hate-filled folks who drive others away, but many assume that just as their closest friends and family are looking out for them, others, even strangers, are doing the same.
The ability to grasp the new, to respond to any changes whatsoever no matter how seemingly trivial, is broken in dementia. It’s an insidious disease. It’s also extremely widespread. I’d use it as my first answer to this question, as well as my second and third.
Yeah,during chemo I was in such a daze I let a person in the house and she wanted my SS number! I almost gave it to her,but had a coherent thought and asked to see her ID… Oh,she’d left it in the office!! I told her to come back with her ID and I’d give her my info… Later in the month she and some man showed up… This time I asked for ID while they were outside the door… Neither one had any… I shut the door and laid back down.
My mother is only 64, and doesn’t seem to be exhibiting any cognitive impairment, but I noticed that, when she moved back to her hometown a few years ago, she began to share crazier and crazier political/conspiracy theory crap on Facebook. My best notion there? Ma’s social group became much smaller - Grandmother, my crazy uncle, my very right wing aunt and uncle. Suddenly, everyone she interacted with got their news from Fox, they all sincerely believe(d) that the lefties were out to take away the way of life they’d become accustomed to. There was no one to leaven this information with debate and questions. I spent about a year correcting the factually wrong crap she kept posting on Facebook, citing my sources and such. Then I just blocked her updates from my newsfeed, after increasingly hostile reactions and being called a Know-it-All. I sort of thought it was hopeless.
Finally, though, I told my mom that it made me sad that the woman who had taught me to always question, to seek information, to refuse to accept the wisdom of “they” and “everybody,” had forgotten how to question and to seek answers. She’s gotten a lot better since then.
I worry more about my in-laws, though. They’re not very worldly to start with, and they don’t ask for help or input when they ought to, for fear of being burdensome or worrying us. And I can see some minor cognitive changes happening to both, plus some physical changes they aren’t willing to acknowledge (For example, they’re both hard of hearing. They agree to stuff because they didn’t hear half of it and don’t want to admit that. Which results in everything from minor inconveniences - like agreeing to be seated right next to the band at a restaurant the other night, so loud that none of us could enjoy dinner - to major problems, like not hearing doctors’ instructions.) I have a “spy” planted in their midst, a cousin who has instructions to let us know when the in-laws say things like “but I don’t want to tell the kids, because I don’t want them to worry,” but I worry more about what we don’t know and the messes that will result in later. I just know that sooner or later, they’ll fall for some phishing scam or telemarketing garbage that will result in a giant headache.
Another vote for some degree of cognitive impairment, often superimposed on an overly trusting personality. However there are plenty of younger people who get taken in on costly scams and outrageously stupid conspiracy theories, so it’s not just a matter of age.
You will be pleased to know that Dopers will be a major exception to the overall susceptibility of the aging population to being scammed, at least according to a poll I recently posted. Only about 2% of respondents acknowledged that they’d probably turn out to be kindly, trusting and gullible elderly folks, as opposed to the suspicious and cynical sort (or other listed options). Obviously, Dopers know for a fact they won’t wind up gullible at an advanced age. :dubious:
With my grandmother, I think part of the problem was that she was always so good at spotting the real deal, seeing the value in something or the potential. She liked to go to auctions and would buy things she liked, and they would always turn out to be worth a lot. My father remembers one time she bought a little cabinet that had had chickens living in it, it was covered in chicken crap. My father had to keep it secret from my grandfather, who would’ve been quite furious I think, until she had it patched up. It was worth thousands!
But now, that spidey sense she had doesn’t work anymore. Partially because times have changed. She was conned recently into spending some ridiculous amount of money on a sort of hideous glass trinket. I think it’s something that couldn’t really be made like that in days gone by. It would’ve been craftsmanship, but isn’t anymore. She was very nearly conned by a very serious guy playing a long game. He claimed he had a picture painted by her grandfather, who was a famous painter. We stepped in just in time with that one.
And then it’s all compounded by the onset of dementia. Exactly as Exapno Mapcase says, it sets on sneakily. The weird stuff she was buying was the first sign, with nothing else for a really long time. Years, in fact. And of course, she would buy something and we would even doubt our own judgement: after all, she is usually right about these things.
In short, for my grandmother it was the fact that she was so good at spotting the value of things, that when she got worse with dementia and new fangled tricks it was difficult to adjust to. Oh, and also people target old ladies on purpose, and didn’t target her when she was a fierce looking lady with a large husband.
Perhaps it comes from some of the old protective agents and agencies disappearing.
Dietary supplements are essentially exempt from FDA scrutiny since the 1990s.
The Fairness Doctrine was waved bye-bye.
Bank and securities regulation is lessening.
Granny grew up when there were protections, and she probably expects that if it’s on TV, in a library, or on the Internet, it must be true. She can’t imagine that that fine young white clean-cut investment broker could possibly be a crook.
Yeah, I wouldn’t discount the beginnings of dementia or similar diminished mental capability.
On the other hand, I think a lot of seniors are feeling somewhat trapped by their situation. By the time you’re 70, you’ve earned what you’re going to earn and if your investments, pensions, etc. won’t cover all of your future expenses, there are not any pleasant options. So when some charming young man comes by to promise guaranteed 20% dividends with no risk whatsoever, I think a lot of seniors latch onto it because they want it to be true. In that sense, it’s not so different from why poor people are more likely to play the lottery.
I may be getting dementia, but I have one hard rule. Never go to an unknown web site. A friend of mine sent me and a bunch of others a link with a generic message, something like “This is interesting”. I emailed him asking if this had really come from him. It had and then I clicked on it. But yes, I think dementia (or maybe better, cognitive decline) could explain a lot of it.
This is a gross generalization, but I think older people fall into two camps: The gullible and the overly skeptical (aka “stubborn ole mule”).
I can understand how both tendencies happen. As you get older, everything seems so new and hard to comprehend. You can either react to this by assuming it’s all crap and that anyone who tries to convince you it is not crap is totally full of it and needs to be ignored. OR you assume that because you can’t comprehend any of it, you’re not smart enough to evaluate it one way or the other. So you become overly reliant on other people’s opinions and thus vulnerable to their manipulations.
I think this is why so many products targeted to the elderly are sold by celebrity spokespeople. Why is Fonzie selling life insurance? Because the stubborn ole mules trust Fonzie (or what Fonzie represents). And the folks who know they are gullible won’t be scared to trust in Fonzie…like they did with that no-name fellow who sold them the $800 magazine subscription last week.
You joke, but this place keeps me young. I could turn into a mooncalf, falling for every sucker game that comes along (dropmom, PLEASE stop paying any attention to my brother! He’s an idiot.), but you people keep me on my toes, aware of the things I should be aware of, and almost hip. Of course, it helps that I have no money and my credit rating is negative, so identity thieves will be laughed at if they try to be me.
Of course, it helps that I have no money and my credit rating is negative, so identity thieves will be laughed at if they try to be me.