Older people more vulnerable to scams, even when healthy and educated

Online or email-based and phone scams have become ubiquitous in recent years, and appear to be becoming increasingly difficult to prevent or address. — Image by Freepik

WASHINGTON: The elderly are more likely to be scammed by imposters than other age groups going by phone and Internet-based experiments carried out by Chicago-based scientists.

The research team found "a sizable number of older adults engaged without scepticism" when contacted by a fictitious US government agency, with most of the credulous giving up "potentially compromising personal information."