Older people may be surprised to know that there are an estimated 14,000 illegal telemarketing operations bilking thousands of victims every day. They rob with phones instead of guns. And they don't care about the pain they cause when they steal an elderly person's life savings. If they are caught, they can be put in jail - where they belong. Older people are frequent targets of fraudulent telemarketers.
Good salespeople are convincing and so are crooks.
IT IS HARD TO HANG UP . Many people feel that it's impolite to hang up on callers. And swindlers know how to take control of the conversation, either by pretending to be very friendly or by using bullying tactics. Targets of fraud often don't realize that the person on the phone could be a crook. They give people the benefit of the doubt.