Cindy was one of the sweetest clients I had a chance to work with as a volunteer for VITA — a nonprofit organization that helps people file their income taxes. She showed up wearing a green dress with a pendant she was clearly proud of. She reminded me of my grandmother as she sat down at my desk. I soon found out that this last year she had been scammed out of her entire life savings.
Cindy had fallen victim to a “pig butchering” scam, a type of scam where the criminals spend weeks gaining the victim’s trust before entrapping them with a fake investing scheme. Cindy told me that the scammers had originally reached out to her through the hacked account of her friend in another state. They had chatted back and forth for a while and then her friend’s account messaged her about a cryptocurrency investment platform.
At first, it seemed legitimate and she had felt pressure from her friend to try it out. Trusting what she believed was her friend’s advice, she was eventually scammed out of $80,000, her entire retirement savings. Not only that but she also accrued an $8,000 early withdrawal penalty. These losses led to her being unable to retire.
Cindy wasn’t foolish or gullible. She was targeted by sophisticated criminals with leaked information. As scams get more advanced and AI makes them even harder to detect, our instinct to blame victims is making scammers’ jobs easier.
Nobody, especially not our vulnerable neighbors, can be aware and clear minded all of the time. Often, it is when we are at our most lonely, desperate or simply struggling with mental health that scammers strike with devastating effect. Cindy’s story isn’t unusual. According to the AARP, “Criminals steal an estimated total of $28.3 billion from older adults each year,” and this number is widely considered underreported.
Many people have the mistaken idea that only foolish or gullible people fall for scams. However, this attitude of caveat emptor, buyer beware, is frustratingly irrelevant in a world where AI can fake your friends or families’ voices and where scammers often carefully craft personalized deceptions for their victims. These attitudes often harm victims even more, making them more hesitant to reach out for fear of being labeled “dumb” or “gullible,” and older adults risk a loss of autonomy. According to Rodgers and Associates, “One reason scams remain so effective is shame. Many victims never report what happened, fearing they’ll be judged as careless.”
Modern scams, like the one that targeted Cindy, run on information. The more information a criminal has about their victim, the greater their ability to craft a believable lie. This information often comes through data breaches which in 2025 alone affected 278 million people. Information like birthdays, phone numbers or even private medical records are leaked and then used to deceive us.
So what can we do to beat back the many fraudsters who seem intent on deceiving us and picking our collective pockets? It starts with changing the way we talk about scams. By abandoning the culture of shame and focusing on helping people reach out when they feel they are being scammed, we could stop many of the worst scams in their tracks.
We also need more accountability from the companies and organizations that collect and store our information. Companies that lose our information are legally required to inform us. But often that is where accountability ends. We need stronger penalties for companies that fail to protect our information. Because when this data is lost, there is no going back.
Cindy’s story is just one of the countless stories of real people hurt by scams. These scams are victimizing more people every year. If we are going to fight back against these criminals, we need to stop blaming victims when they reach out for help and we need to protect personal information by holding corporations accountable for data they collect. If we want to protect the next Cindy from becoming victimized, we need to help her feel safe enough to reach out and ask “does this look real?” before it’s too late.