this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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What is it that happens when you get "old" that makes you think a cop asking for cash is legitimate? What's the hook?
Or perhaps (trying desperately to avoid victim blaming) what can we do to help "oldies" to be less susceptible to scams like this?
I get that it might be common in more corrupt parts of the world, and is arguably a slightly less scammy protection racket.
Not sure about age 56 but by the time you get to 90, many people's brains just aren't what they used to be. If you're a scammer, it doesn't matter if 9/10 people see you coming, you just latch onto the 1/10 that can't tell they are being scammed.
By 90 my grandmother had a Benjamin Button memory. She didn't recognise the youngest grandkids, over time she couldn't remember the oldest ones, and then her kids started fading from her memory starting with the youngest.
Even before that point, in her 80s (like most of these victims), if you walked up to her, said you're a police officer and need her EFTPOS PIN to investigate fraud, she would have told you it.
It's not all natural either. I've recently learned about anticholinergic burden and am annoyed I didn't know sooner because with the health system the way it is now (so many locums, no continuity of care, overworked hospitals) elderly people really need their family looking out for stuff like this.
Interesting, and good to know! I just assumed the cognitive decline of my grandmother's cognition was partly because her diet was 50% butter or thereabouts, but maybe there was more to it 🙂
Diet can do it too, e.g vitamin D deficiency also causes cognitive decline, and if doctors find out someone is eating 50% butter and puts them on statins (anti cholesterol) that causes reversible cognitive decline as well.
Bizarrely, with elderly people you also have to watch out for "silent" UTIs - they don't hurt so the person might not realise they have one and it causes really marked signs of dementia, eg they say really dementia-ish things. Antibiotics clears it up. I saw this one first hand and it was such a relief to actually figure it out and get the person back to normal.
With my grandmother is was gradual over a really long time, but I'm curious about the anti cholesterol medication which she was almost certainly on. I'm learning about this a decade too late though 🫤
Yeah I was kind of mentioning this stuff more because one day your parents will get old.
Statins have benefits that typically outweigh the side effects, and confusingly they seem to protect people from dementia as well as causing issues with memory and cognition. It's nothing to regret, just worth knowing it's a factor.
Oh right, people get old! Well, some people 🫤
It's good to know, so thanks for sharing. I'll try to remember this in the future when the knowledge is useful.
Bunch of factors:
cognitive decline
cognitive issues related to medications eg anticholinergic burden
belief that they no longer "understand" the way things work and have to take younger people's word for things
fear due to physical vulnerability (give in to scammers to avoid getting hurt physically)
loneliness (give in to scammers because they think they are making a human connection)
What we can do to help oldies is to be actively in their lives and looking out for them. Helping them navigate stuff and just letting them know we are there.
Yeah, I read that and thought the same thing.