Why are the elderly easy targets for fraudsters?

(Baohatinh.vn) - Social network fraud targeting the elderly is increasing with sophisticated tricks. And in Ha Tinh, many elderly people have become "prey" of this type of crime.

On December 3, the Criminal Police Department ( Ha Tinh Police) coordinated with Thanh Sen Ward Police and Thach Xuan Commune Police to successfully prevent a fraud case against a 76-year-old woman. Before that, Ms. LTH (residing in Thach Xuan Commune) received a call from a stranger, informing her that her son had a serious traffic accident and needed a large sum of money for treatment.

Ha Tinh authorities promptly prevented a 76-year-old woman from being scammed out of more than 2 billion VND at the "last minute".

After being psychologically manipulated and constantly threatened, Ms. H. decided to sell all her gold savings worth more than 2 billion VND to transfer to the subjects. When she arrived at BIDV Ha Tinh Bank to make a transaction, noticing unusual signs, the staff explained and analyzed many times, but Ms. H. still continuously requested to transfer money. In the urgent situation, BIDV Ha Tinh representative notified the Criminal Police Department (Ha Tinh Police), Thanh Sen Ward Police and Thach Xuan Commune Police to coordinate the handling. Only when the police officer directly explained did Ms. H. calm down and agree to stop the transfer.

Ms. H.'s story is not the first case of an elderly person becoming a "target" of scammers on the internet. Previously, on October 27, Loc Ha Commune Police received a complaint from Mr. N.D.T (72 years old, residing in Yen Dinh village) about being repeatedly called by a strange phone number claiming to be a commune police officer, saying that Mr. T. participated in a scam ring in Hanoi , asking him to transfer 60 million VND to resolve the case, otherwise he would be prosecuted. Upon receiving the information, the commune police promptly verified, propagated, and explained to Mr. T. that this was a trick to appropriate property online and successfully prevented the case.

Mr. N.D.T was informed by Loc Ha Commune Police about fraud in cyberspace.

Not being as lucky as Ms. H. and Mr. T. to be stopped in time, recently, many elderly people across the country have become victims of scams through common forms such as: impersonating relatives who have had accidents; impersonating police officers; giving away winning codes; customer appreciation; giving away promotional packages of functional foods...

For example, the case of Mr. VML (residing in Trung My Tay ward, Ho Chi Minh City) was scammed out of more than 300 million VND when subjects impersonated medical staff, instructed him to receive goods, pay in advance to receive a prize code to participate in a free health care program. When his money source "exhausted" but he still could not participate in the program, Mr. L. wanted to get his money back but the subjects cut off contact. Or most recently (late November 2025), a large fraud ring led by Tran Quang Dao (residing in Dong Thanh commune, Ho Chi Minh City) who appropriated tens of billions of VND from nearly 7,000 elderly people was dismantled by the Investigation Police Agency (Ministry of Public Security).

Youth Union members accompany the elderly in accessing digital technology and social networking platforms.

It can be seen that the number of fraud cases targeting the elderly is increasing with new and sophisticated tricks. The elderly are often easily targeted by scammers for many reasons such as: loneliness in old age; lack of technology updates; trust in impersonations of authorities such as: police, control, banks...; or psychology of health care, advice on supplements, functional foods...

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Quoc Quang - Deputy Head of Thanh Sen Ward Police (Ha Tinh City) shared: "Many elderly people often have a mentality of being afraid to bother their children and grandchildren, so when receiving bad news, bad news, unusual news via phone, they often fall into a state of psychological disorder, leading to emotional actions. Recently, the local police force in general and Thanh Sen Ward in particular have increased propaganda work about scammers on cyberspace, through many forms such as: village meetings; loudspeakers, Zalo group connecting peace... For the elderly, the police force has deployed "going to every alley, knocking on every door" to propagate to the people. At the same time, businesses, banks... have also been popularized to recognize and promptly prevent fraudulent situations".

Family and social support helps protect the elderly from scams.

In many localities, propaganda work on online fraud against the elderly has also been focused on, thanks to which, no unfortunate incidents have occurred. Mr. Le Dinh Phuc - Chairman of the Association of the Elderly in Duc Minh commune said: "With more than 2,800 elderly members in the area, we have coordinated with the police and organizations to organize thematic activities; integrating fraud warning content into village meetings, health clubs, and regular meetings. For the elderly, we focus on equipping them with skills to recognize fraud in a simple, easy-to-understand, easy-to-remember way, with the supervision and support of children and grandchildren in the family."

Protecting the elderly from scams is not only the responsibility of the police force or social organizations, but also the joint efforts of each family and community. Only with synchronous coordination can the dangers "lurking" for the elderly be effectively repelled. This is also a way for each person to express their concern, responsibility and love for the previous generation, towards a united, compassionate society and proactively preventing all types of crime.

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/vi-sao-nguoi-cao-tuoi-de-tro-thanh-diem-ngam-cua-toi-pham-lua-dao-post300615.html