[ezdays]

It is indeed a numbers game. 

Speaking of, the Federal Trade Commission and to a lesser extent (but impressively up and coming!) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have some interesting metrics.

In 2023 fraud in the US alone ran over $8,000,000,000 dollars. Yes, billions. 

Most victims of fraud are young people! Inexperience I would guess, but! the deepest stings, the most money, was scammed from the elderly. Life's savings. Paid for homes. And so on.

Cultivation of the mark, the scheme is known rather nastily as "pig butchering" can last months or years. Most of it is not done by individuals, but by gangs, with tech support, actors, and as a calculated business. That explains the persistence and long range efforts. 

They do need better script writers. The tales of woe are predictable, but perhaps because they work so well. Americans are gullible, and frankly many are utterly ignorant of the world.  I have the Cold War and the US Air Force to thank for my perspectives which were set before my voice changed, lo that more than a half century ago when I had already been to four different countries, and watched the scams play out.

No one is completely immune. The odds just go down. Criminal law taught me that.

As for numbers, it's estimated that 3.4 billion spam email messages are sent out each day.They really don't need to hook a large percentage of that to make a really nice living. A pity on the younger side that they are not more educated in protecting themselves and on the aged side, that's even worse because they no longer have a chance to make up for what they lost. But victims fall in every category across the board. I've watched a number of Dr. Phil's show where both men and women have been taken. One lady sent all her money, sold her house and furniture and was living in her car because all cash went to a man she never met. Another case where Dr. Phil sent someone to an address in a foreign country to knock on the door of this woman's love interest only to find out they never heard of him there. Some refuse to believe the truth even with hard evidence exposing the scam.

My policy is simple, I do not give money to anyone just because they ask. We raised our kids and supported them financially and otherwise as needed but they are older adults now and should be able to support themselves, so when I say "anyone", I mean anyone. I do not give out personal information to strangers either, especially on the phone or Internet regardless of who they say they are. I'm just waiting for someone to call and tell me I have to pay a fine immediately or they will come and arrest me. "Great, the door is unlocked, come get me, I welcome the break from cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and paying utility bills. Nice to have the government do all that for me"... I wouldn't even ask what I did wrong and I'd be disappointed if they didn't show up.