It's human nature to be trusting. And it's the basic instinct that scam artists prey on, especially when targeting the elderly.
AARP Vermont recently conducted a survey of 800 adults of all ages in the state to see how Vermonters are being targeted in scams and how scammers are obtaining personal information.
Greg Marchildon, AARP Vermont's state director, joined Vermont Edition to share the results and explain how prevalent the problem of scamming is.
"We're seeing a lot of scams perpetrating on Vermonters, and we're seeing it across the spectrum," says Marchildon. "When AARP started looking at these issues in the mid 1990s, most fraud was coming to us in our mailboxes and the telephone. But with the advent of the Internet ... it's just coming at people from everywhere. It's important for your listeners to know that these are very, very sophisticated criminals."
