• starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I know it clearly works, and old people do definitely fall for it, but I’ll never understand how. What part of the script makes it sound reasonable that the IRS would want amazon gift cards instead of, you know, a cash transfer or something?

    • Kimjongtooill@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      They make it sound like they are only notifying you that you are about to be arrested. They don’t ask for payment and fake refuse the first offer if the mark offers. Then, when the madk is very worried they are about to go to jail, it is much easier for them to believe whatever because it’s harder to think when you are panicking. So something like “our payment system is down so we cant take payment with cards right now. You need to pay within 30 minutes or I can’t reverse it. I guess I can pay out of pocket, but you need to get me the equal amount of gift cards” or some shit like that.

    • hstde@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Gullible, scared, lack of critical thinking, blindly following authorities, there are many reasons. It’s not only old people, thought.

      • Hardeehar@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Don’t forget pathological problems like forgetfulness, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. Scammers have no qualms with stealing from people with disabilities.

    • DrM@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      It’s the amount of money that makes it worth it. If they are successfull the amount is usually something like $10,000-$30,000. If they are only successful once every 2000 calls thats still worth it. Now you would say 2000 calls with 50 people in a call center means they are only successful once every few days and you are totally correct. But you have to put this into consideration with what they are usually paid. If you work in IT for huge companies like Accenture or McKinsey you will earn around 8-10k if you are in upper management and 6-8k if you are a normal worker. That’s yearly. So every successful scam for these scam companies pays up to 5 peoples yearly salary

    • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      along with other replies generally you become more gullible/less able to think of alternative explanations as you age, so even some “obvious” scams look legit