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The grandparent scam may be a diabolically good scheme.
Someone posing as a grandson or granddaughter calls an older person and claims to be in serious trouble – usually in jail or in a hospital. "Wire money," the caller begs, "and don't tell my parents."
There are many reasons the scam works. Grandparents don't always know the immediate whereabouts of their grandkids and, victims say, they get so worried they can't think straight.
It turns out that when we're drawn into an emotional tale, we may have more trouble critically evaluating information.
Anthony Jack, an assistant professor of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University, is in the midst of studies that look at what happens in people's brains when they're asked to solve problems that involve analytical skills or when they're asked to consider social problems that involve empathy.
Ordinarily, Jack explains, we're constantly checking in with two competing networks in our brains. One of those does critical thinking for us and helps us solve math and other analytical problems. The other network lets us feel empathy for others.
Jack put test subjects in an MRI and looked at their brains as they were asked to switch between solving math and science problems and solving problems presented in short social narratives – Jack called them mini-soap operas.
What he found was that the more people tapped into that empathetic network in their brains, the less they checked in with the network that does critical thinking.
"You're not scanning (between the two networks) as much as you should be," Jack said. "You fail to go back to the other network."
While Jack's research didn't focus specifically on scams, he said the studies may yield insights into why some people can clearly identify red flags in a scammer's story after the fact even though they were unable to do so during the fraudulent pitch.
Victims, Jack speculates, get stuck in the empathetic brain network.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office says that so far this year, 89 seniors have reported losing money – the average loss is about $5,000 -- to a grandparent scam. The office doesn't keep track of the number of people who report receiving calls but who recognize the pitch as a scam.
Although grandparent scams may be a good example of a problem that involves empathy, younger people encounter scams that get them caught up in drama, too.
For example, look at the rash of Facebook scams where scammers hijacked people's accounts, posted tales of woe about being robbed in a foreign hotel and asked friends to wire cash overseas. Many victims wired money without ever checking to see if their friend was indeed out of the country.
You might wonder whether, if you could become more heartless, you also become scam-proof.
Not at all, says Jack.
By staying connected with friends and expanding your compassion through volunteering, he says, you may actually innoculate yourself against certain types of scams.
Jack says that people who are socially cut off are more vulnerable to health problems and depression, which can impede decision-making. It can also make people more vulnerable to dementia, which makes them prime targets for scams.
Besides, if you aren't interacting with people in your daily life, you may be more likely to fall victim to a scam that preys on loneliness. Online dating scams come to mind.
Teaching people how to spot and avoid scams has always been a tricky issue.
Consumer advocates used to warn, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," but they had to jettison that catchphrase after studies showed that scam victims couldn't tell the difference between a legitimate sales pitch and a scam. It all sounded good, but never "too good."
For young and middle-aged people – those victims of Facebook friend scams, for example – losing money to a scam is financially painful and slightly embarrassing. Many younger victims' response to being defrauded is outrage.
For senior citizens, there's a whole bunch of baggage that comes with being scammed.
"Older people become aware that people are dealing with them differently because they're old," says Richard Browdie, president and CEO of the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging. "If grandpa can't make it up the stairs as quickly, it doesn't mean his cognitive ability is gone."
On the other hand, there are times when older people are repeat victims of scams because they mentally cannot protect themselves.
Hubert "Skip" Humphrey III, assistant director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Older Americans, says, "The reality is as we age, a significant number of us lose some level of financial decision-making capacity."
The trick to developing effective programs to educate people about fraud, he said, is to better understand how people make financial decisions and how their ability to do so may change over time.
Browdie has a good rule of thumb for families that want to broach the sometimes emotionally charged topic of scams: "The strongest priority is to secure a person's well being, not to assign blame."
You can find a roundup of common scams and how to spot them at cleveland.com/scamfinder.
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